Llano Estacado Alliance for Families

Board Members in attendance:

Ron Trusler, President, CPC
Jere Newton, Vice President, Lamb Co. JPO/Leaf RCI
Cherrie Shackelford, Secretary, Family Partner
Jeffrey Tunnell, Treasurer, CFO Central Plains Center
Reba Moore, 110th JPO
Carrie Barden, Chief, Lamb Co. Juvenile Probation
Kay Harris, Crisis Center of the Plains
Ricardo Garcia, Plainview ISD
Olga Ybarra, Uniting Parents
Brenda Jones, ECI
Sheryl Russell, CPS
Irene Favila, MET Inc.

Ad hoc members:

Ruby Walters, Consumer
Suzanne Wilhelm, Family Partner
Kim Peralez, Administrative Assistant RCI
Ronda Jackson, Whiteaker Youth Center
Jose Serrano, RCI
Michael Cox, RCI
Penny Lockridge, Family Partner
A.J. Bonner, Hale County Sheriff’s Dept.
Dorothy McDowell, RCI
Carmen Laymon, CPC
Kay Brotherton, RCI
Bill Cross, HC Crime Stoppers
Eugene Wang, RCI
Cecilia Masters, CPC
Keith Pirtle, SAMSHA Site Visit Team
Ken Martinez, SAMSHA
Gwen Palmer, SAMSHA
Johanna Bergan, SAMSHA
DeAnn Lechtenberg, TTU, RCI

President, Ron Trusler called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.
Members and visitors introduced themselves along with the SAMSHA TA team.
Ron asked for any corrections or changes to the minutes.  There were no changes so the minutes were approved.

Financial report
Jeff Tunnell presented the LEAF Budget Summary as of April 30, 2009 in written form to all present.  He went over the budget and stated we still have $31,416 left to spend before September 30th.  Ron asked that we have a motion to approve the budget.  Jere made the motion and Kay Harris seconded it.  The motion carried.

Announcements
Texas Health Institute and DSHS will come to Plainview for a site visit on Monday, June 1st from 10:30 – 3 p.m.   There are several things they want to do with integration funds and share with us about.
Ron encouraged as many of us to attend this important meeting.

The Michael Nye, Fine Line Exhibit, date has changed to August 10th through September 29, 2009.  There will be a series of lectures on Mental Health throughout the 6 weeks the exhibit is here.  Michael Nye himself will be here Aug. 13th for the opening night.  Wayland Baptist has paid for his speaking fee.  PISD has approved the exhibit as part of their curriculum for the fall, so students will be attending.

Edge Report
Selenda gave a presentation on Power Point showing how the Ralls program has used the funds that LEAF awarded them.  There are 145 students in their after school program.  Some of the items we helped to support are the snacks and drinks, electricity kits, jewelry class, gardening class, food for the pets.   Also art supplies, flowers, and transportation to work with horses are among the program too.  The middle school had a bowling party while the elementary and high school had a Christmas party with some of the funding.  Thank you to the LEAF board for the support.

Mentoring Update
Jeff and Selenda reported on the mentoring project here in Plainview for the 5th and 6th grade students.  They have now met with the principles and will have 15 students from each grade campus.  This is a starting point and will grow from there.  One of the team members is the YMCA and their director received a $2500 grant from Pepsi and will use these funds to start up this project.  The team will set up an advisory board along with youth to guide this project.

DVD
The DVD made during a board meeting interviewing some of the members and stakeholders was given to Wayland to produce.  There is no update to announce.

The youth DVD that was made in Littlefield is still waiting to get approval for the theme song used on it.
Jere asked for funds to look into finding local talent to sing the song instead.  DeAnn mentioned she would visit with a patent attorney about the legalities of the song also.

Homeless Prevention Grant
Kay Harris from the Crisis Center of the Plains is a applying for a grant to help prevent families from becoming homeless and to help those that are to receive help in finding housing.  They need our support and approval.  LEAF would not be an oversight.  Kay will need statistics from different entities on the board.  Also a letter of support from our board is needed.  Jeff made a motion to approve our letter of support and Irene seconded it.  The motion carried.   The due date for this grant is the end of May.

Violence Prevention and Intervention Grant
Bill Cross with Plainview/Hale County Crime Stoppers would like to apply for a grant to support the implementation of innovative community programs aimed at preventing violence and to look for new ways to broaden their scope of help.   The grant is up to $20,000.  They also would like our support along with a letter.    Brenda made a motion to support this program and Jere seconded it.

RCI Update
Eugene, Kay and DeAnn attended an evaluation training last week in Atlanta.  The evaluation is an impressive tool they have to track the services and supports that our project will provide for our families.  
There will be Primer training in June that Jose, Michael, Dot, and Christiana from Whiteaker will be attending.  Also Michael, Dot, Jere and 3 families will be attending the Portland Strengthening Families Conference in June.
DeAnn is sponsoring free parent academies for parents to get an overview of SOC and how to advocate in a positive non-threatening way for their children and how to partner with agencies.  Lunch and childcare will be provided. There will be 3 academies this summer.   The first academy will be in Littlefield on June 5th and 6th.  The second one will be in Floydada July 10th and 11th.  The Plainview area academy will be June 17 & 18.  The classes will run from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Fridays and 10 to 4 on Saturdays.  So if you know of any families that might want to get involved and get some training please refer them to DeAnn.

Jose reported that he has been talking with Dr. Mora the Spanish professor at Wayland in partnering to recruit students for translation help.  Dot is trying to get family partners together and is recruiting several new family partners.  She is working to begin putting out a newsletter for the families.   
A reminder that board members need to send a short bio to Kim stating what your interest in Leaf is.  We need these to send to family partners so they can pick someone to be mentored by.
Michael reported that they had a youth forum in Littlefield with 30 teens.  They asked the teens what they think of the problems that teens face and to form a youth group.  They will have a follow up meeting.  The Littlefield youth participated in the Bust It Campaign on May 7th.  He is working to gather evaluations, posters for the competition and doing the anti-stigma presentations at the schools.  June 18 they will have a youth forum in Plainview at 6:30 at Whiteaker Youth Center. 
RCI will attend the Jamaica at 1st Assembly of God in Plainview on Sunday from 12 to 7 to set up an informational booth.

Technical Assistant Partnership site visit
Ken Martinez, Gwen Palmer, Johanna Bergen, and Keith Pirtle presented a power point explaining what SOC is about. Ken asked what the needs are for the counties served by this cooperative agreement? Points shared were: lack of services for families in CPS care or for children in foster care that this makes keeping families together or returning children to their families very difficult.  Their staff may not live in the community they work in and with lots of turn over staff is unaware of what is in the community to support kids and families.  Some other concerns were the challenges to involve families due to transportation barriers, more counselors in the frontier towns, limited and restricted office space to avoid showing favoritism.
The team asked what we would like these 11 counties look like in 6 years? The statements were: to look within to address our needs instead of always looking to government to save our needy and overwhelmed families and to see life without JPO/criminal justice being the answer.  Awareness of what services are already available.  The need to not duplicate but learn from our lessons learned. We need to use what we have fiscally and otherwise more effectively and efficiently to meet needs of kids. Parent friendly services, more awareness of what agencies are out there before you kid ends up in the JJ system.  Families need a live person who can help rather than having to call the police as a final resort.  How to refer help for families and not just stop right there and say I can’t help you. Education and awareness for parents, who may be from a different cultural background, stay at home moms.

Ken spoke about having Spanish speaking resources and people to talk with families. In traditionally Hispanic families they will go to family or church, etc. and need to have a person from their culture to talk with.   Our school system is over 65% Hispanic and we also are seeing other languages from families coming in to work in the dairy farms, etc.
Using telehealth and ehealth should be used more frequently.  There are successful telehealth sites in Alaska, New Mexico, and Arizona.   Ron said that Muleshoe, Littlefield and Plainview use telehealth for connections.  Parental support in our school systems is needed so that parents aren’t afraid to visit with you and come together to find out what is best for the child rather than confrontational. Also mentioned was delay in treatment due to lack of insurance. Stigma continues to be the largest barrier; ignorance is another barrier as well.  Families need to understand how to work with their condition, build coping skills, and address stigma.  Education of children and families on various disabilities. Stigma around sexuality is another reason we have such a high rate of teen pregnancy.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 a.m. The next board meeting will be June 16 at the Tommy Lewis Building.