Recap: Notes from August Meeting

Tuesday August 8, 2017

Agenda

• Welcome (Donielle)
• Mindfulness Moment (Barbara)
• Introductions/Icebreaker (Donielle)
• 4CA and building Resilient Sacramento (Donielle)
• • Poll: interest in topics, speakers, dialogue for August and beyond?
• Sarah Duncan (CPS) presented on trauma-informed practices in placement of LGBTQ foster youth
• Strategic Planning Activity: Perceptual Analysis (Carolyn)

Mindful moment in September volunteers

• Moira will lead the mindful moment in September
• Molly is back up

Words to describe Resilient Sacramento

• Supportive
• Inspiring
• Safe
• Dynamic
• Connected
• Networking
• Emerging
• Empowering
• Mindful
• New (3 new members!)
• Informative
• Educational
• Fascinating
• Growing
• Collaborative
• Compassion

4CA Recap (Donielle)

• Children Now, ACES Connection, Nadine Burke Harris' group joined forces to have a day at the capitol
• Brought together over 100 people from across the state to talk with legislators and aides about adverse childhood experiences
• Donielle and Carolyn shared their experiences
• • Thought that they would be elaborating on some basic knowledge of ACEs, but found that most people they met with had little to no knowledge of ACEs
  • Found bi-partisan interest in the topic
• Great materials were shared
• • Materials can be found on www.4cakids.org
  • Materials include, but are not limited to…
  • • District data profiles, which can be accessed via the website
    • Community stories on trauma-informed work in the community
    • How to create your talking points
• Follow-up
• • Assembly Member McCarty will send a staff person in October to hear about the work that is happening in Sacramento
  • There will be another day at the capitol next year

Brainstorm ideas for speakers

• Kelly Young from Warm Line
• Request for overview of what is trauma-informed care
• • Idea from Kristina - not sure how hard it will be to find someone to do this. Perhaps a Resilient Sac member who has applied for a SAMSHA grant that requires addressing their requirements might be able to do this if we can't find someone external.
• Volunteers from within Resilient Sacramento
• • Barbara Stern volunteered to present her work
  • Kristina on dissertation findings
  • Kristina and Niku to partner on work with expectant and parenting foster youth in Sacramento County

Presentation by Sarah Duncan (CPS) - Trauma-informed practices in placement of LGBTQ foster youth

• Handouts were given
• Received funding to get trained by the LGBT RISE Project in LA
• • Recognize that we have LGBTQ youth in our care
  • Intervene during instances of harassment and discrimination
  • Support LGBTQ youth in care
  • Empower ourselves and our colleagues to create affirming environments and provide appropriate care for LGBTQ youth
• 12 CPS staff spent several days with RISE staff and trainers to learn about the curriculum and get trained in facilitating it
• CPS will be rolling out 6-hour training to ~600 staff on the RISE curriculum
• Sacramento County has about 1700 youth in foster care, approximately 80-100 youth are likely LGBTQ
• • Twice as likely to be in foster care and disproportionately represented by race
  • 40% are homeless
  • Twice as likely to be in a group home because foster homes are less likely to take them
  • Are more likely to be entrenched in the juvenile justice system
• Part of RISE training, includes Family Acceptance Project (booklet included in the packet of info shared)
• • http://familyproject.sfsu.edu
  • Available in English, Spanish, and Chinese
  • Simple language targeting families to talk about how families can support their children who are LGBTQ
  • RISE has conducted research that indicates that highly rejecting behavior increases risk of LGBTQ youth committing suicide, and that even just "less" rejecting behaviors is much less likely to commit suicide
  • Sarah shared that she has the pamphlet on her coffee table to start conversations with family and friends when they visit about creating safe and welcoming environments for LGBTQ youth
  • RISE also created two handouts with key laws and policies protecting LGBTQ youth in K-12 public schools and out-of-home care (handouts in packet)
  • Glossary of terms (included packet)
  • • Important to have common language to discuss the needs of LGBTQ youth
    • Language shapes our perspectives and biases, using respectful language contributes to reducing discrimination and biases
    • SOGIE
    • • Sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression
• Sacramento is in need of foster families for LGBTQ youth, as well as other youth
• • At PRIDE they got 30 people interested in attending an orientation on fostering LGBTQ youth
  • The County is looking to train foster parenting interested in fostering LGBTQ youth and holding the beds so that when LGBTQ youth are in need of homes they have open homes with supportive foster parents
  • • Typically any open beds are filled immediately because of the need
  • PLEASE spread the word that foster homes are needed in Sacramento County
• Sacramento County requires social workers to intervene when they hear discriminatory language
• Questions:
• • Are foster parents trained in this curriculum?
  • • Continuum of Care Reform
    • • As of January 1 there were changes to the state legislation related to training of foster families (regardless of kinship, community member, etc.)
      • All training will be the same regardless of whether foster families are trained via the county or foster family agencies
  • Can curriculum be used for school districts?
  • • This curriculum is specific to child welfare, but they have other trainings available
  • How many foster homes are there in Sacramento County?
  • • Not sure
  • How do we compare to other counties in terms of the number of foster youth in care in Sacramento
  • • We have more than SF
    • You can find numbers specific to child welfare in each county at the UC Berkeley California Child Welfare Indicators Project:http://cssr.berkeley.edu/ucb_childwelfare/

Strategic Planning Activity: Perceptual Analysis (Carolyn)

• We are in the process of starting a strategic plan
• • Volunteers are needed
  • Approximately 4 dates in the fall (late afternoon and early evening)
  • Doodle has been sent and will be sent again to establish specific dates
• There are five questions that we'd like to get input on to help drive the strategic plan
• • If you have attended a Resilient Sacramento meeting prior to today, tell us what is the most important thing you get out of the meeting?
  • What are the three most important things Resilient Sacramento should offer?
  • Who else do youth think should be engaged with Resilient Sacramento?
  • Who else do you think should be engaged with Resilient Sacramento?
  • What do you consider to be Resilient Sacramento's greatest strength?
  • What do you consider to be Resilient Sacramento's most important weakness?

*****PEOPLE CAN STILL ADD TO THIS CONVERSATION BY ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS. Please go to

 https://goo.gl/forms/EELyGVGgG2HF2eVI3 to add your input.