Agency managers share expertise at state conference

Oct. 2, 2008 -- Several members of Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services management team gave presentations at the Public Children's Services Association of Ohio's 22nd Annual Conference in Columbus in September.

The conference was a time for attendees to share their expertise and to increase their knowledge while attending 35 workshops; all workshops were related to the conference's theme of "Creative Collaborations for Safe Children, Stable Families and Supportive Communities."

HCJFS staff presented the following workshops:

• Elevating Safety and Quality in Substitute Care Settings: The workshop provided an overview of the county's strategic initiative to improve safety and quality in foster care following the tragic death of Marcus Fiesel in 2006. Four core areas were targeted for systemic improvement subsequent to a critical examination of organizational practices -- criminal checks, quality of care, assessment and recruitment. Margie Weaver, section chief over Children's Services Care Management; Kathy Schellinger, section chief over ACQI; and Gaja Karyala, quality review manager in ACQI, led the presentation.
• Facilitated Visitation to Support Permanency Planning: The workshop described the public/private partnership between HCJFS and the Family Nurturing Center to provide facilitated visitation services. The presentation looked at the differences between facilitated visitation and traditional supervised visitation, strategies for implementation in a community and lessons learned from the unique program. Attendees also learned the pros and cons of utilizing professional staff versus paraprofessional staff in facilitated visitation services; learned successful strategies for implementation and identified barriers to success and how to overcome them. Amy Fritsch, supervisor in Ongoing 1; Sandra Costa, transportation coordinator in Program Support, led the presentation, along with Stephanie Brock, visitation coordinator of the Family Nurturing Center Facilitated Visitation Program.