Type of Service Agreement

Individual county submitting a:

Multi-county partnership submitting a:

X

Combined MFIP/CCSA Agreement

Combined MFIP/CCSA Agreement

MFIP-only agreement

MFIP-only agreement

CCSA-only agreement

CCSA-only agreement

County Name:

County Names:

Redwood

Contact Information:

Contact Person:

Patrick Bruflat

Title:

Director

Address:

302 E Third St, PO Box 510, Redwood Falls MN 56283

Telephone:

(507) 637-4050

Email Address:

Patrick_b@co.redwood.mn.us

Date:

October 15, 2007

Transportation.

Since we have a good relationship with several mechanics in the county, it is easier to get cars repaired. Bus passes are now available in Redwood Falls as well. Still, transportation is our biggest need and uses a large share of our funding.

Mental Health

Redwood County has encountered problems accessing psychiatric services. We continue to work with Community Partners to access resources that will help our participants move towards self-sufficiency so that resources are not duplicated.

Transportation

We continue to spend much of our MFIP support dollars on such things as transportation such as bus passes, gas money, car repair, insurance and car payments. Even though the bus system has improved, we struggle with the lack of public transportation. We are dependent on volunteer drivers.

Housing

We continue to lack housing that is both affordable and offers a family friendly environment. The number of subsidized units in the county is limited.

Child Care

The employment available in and around Redwood County is mostly factory/laborer and shift work. We have a continuing need for evening, sick child and infant child care which is difficult to find in this area.

MFIP support budget should be increased to assist our MFIP/DWP participants with the aforementioned issues.

Needs/Services

Percent of Participants

Education (GED & Post Secondary)

50 %

Transportation

80 %

Child Care

30 %

Employment

75 %

Housing

40 %

Mental Health

50 %

Chemical/Substance

50 %

Support Services

100 %

Language

20 %

In this county we struggle with the limited number of entry level jobs, the difficulty non-English speaking people have finding employment and the low wages and lack of benefits in this part of the state. With all of these challenges, MFIP participants are much more likely to succeed if they are connected to the resources available in the communities and if they are willing to access those resources. We have had success with DWP. Now we find that the participants who do move on to MFIP have multiple challenges and face many difficulties.

Yes – Many of the DPW participants are more employable with fewer requirements for support and; therefore, less case management time is required before they enter employment.

Redwood County has a Job Counselor co-located at the Human Services Office five days a week. This has provided stability and increased coordination between the partners.

Budgets are monitored throughout the fiscal year so that support dollars can be used effectively for families under 200 % FPG for employment related issues.

ABE/ESL and GED programs provide services at the Human Service Office which increases participant's comfort level and has led to better participation.

Services are provided to MFIP participants to help them begin application process for RSDI and SSI. In addition, other resources such as a Social Security Disability Appeals Attorney have been utilized.

In order to help participants avoid sanction, employment plans are coordinated with other plans from agencies within our system.

New Resources:

A grant has been obtained to help non-English speakers with CAN training. This is regular class content at a slower pace. It is held in Lyon County, but could be used for Redwood County residents.

A Financial Literacy program has been designed to help those who are struggling with financial issues. It is supported by the United Way and Bremer Foundation.

Supported Work monies will be used to help those who do not find employment after completing job search activities with the MFIP program. Work Force Center provides a transition center in the county seat. GED and computer classes are also available there.

Name

Address

Phone Number

SW MN Private Industry Council, Inc.

607 West Main

Marshall MN 56258

(507) 537-6236

Analysis/evaluation/new strategies:

Analysis/evaluation:

As we look back at the goals that were written in our last plan they looked very broad, but we we will focus on the things that worked in Redwood County.

*We worked more intensely with participants that had 24 months or more on MFIP, hoping to either move them off assistance through employment or onto other programs such as SSI and RSDI which would provide more stability to the family.

*Having a Job Counselor located in our office 5 days a week has provided stability and improved coordination efforts not only with Financial Workers, but with Social Workers and other community partners too.

*To help retain employment, we used more of our MFIP Support dollars for participants with employment issues who fall under the 200 % and are not on any cash assistance.

*We spent more time on the reports generated by the state (current month, MFIP participation report, Persistently unaccounted for, and Preliminary hours), to assure the coding is correct and accurate.

Strategies:

*We need to continue to work on our old strategies and communication between agencies.

*We will also look to career laddering to address the low wage problem in the area.

*Identify participants working 30+ hours a week and help them increase hours to exit MFIP cash assistance.

*Explain and encourage participants to use “Opting Out” if employed and receiving small grants to save their months.

From the Apr. 06-Mar. 07 annualized data, enter where your county’s performance is (above, within or below your expected range) and the percentage performance:

Within

83 %

Enter annualized targets you hope to achieve for the periods:

Apr. 07 – Mar. 08

85 %

Apr. 08 – Mar. 09

85 %

Analysis/evaluation/new strategies:

Analysis/evaluation:

*Continue with monthly coordination meetings to ensure that coding is done right and tracking hours are complete and timely.

*It is our belief that most people who have exhausted their 6 week job search and have not found employment have many issues. Most of them at that point are in a modified plan with either some physical or mental health issues, CD issues, or are in sanction.

*We work people into volunteer slots to increase their hours. Most of the time this works, because instead of volunteering, the participant usually goes out and gets a job.

*We refer participants to RSDI/SSI sooner and have developed resources to help the participant with this process.

*We continue to use the Employability Measurement as a tool to help identify barriers upfront and earlier perhaps than what was done in the past.

New Strategies:

*We need to develop a way to get people who are in sanction, out of sanction and engaged in their plan.

*We will use Supported Work monies to increase the participation hours for those who have failed the 6 week job search.

*Continue with monthly coordination meetings to ensure that coding is correct and tracking hours are complete and timely.

*Continue to work on community partnership to educate them about the goals of the MFIP/DWP program.

*ES staff are involved with Demand Driven activities within the Work Force Center which allow them the ability to tour various employers and better understand the jobs for which our participants are applying for and it also gives ES a better understanding of each employer's hiring practices.

Enter your county’s annualized Work Participation Rate for Apr. 06 – Mar. 07

46 %

Enter annualized targets you hope to achieve for the periods:

Apr. 07 – Mar. 08

50 %

Apr. 08 – Mar. 09

50 %

Name of subgroup: White

Percentage gap from county’s rate for the Jan.-Mar. 2007 qtr. (e.g. -15.3%):

-7.5%

Anticipated percentage gap you hope to achieve by the end of 2009 (e.g. -10%):

-2.5%

To ensure children remain safely in their homes, we see the following as important social services issues/needs that will be present in the 2008-09 biennium:

• The occurrence of chemical usage in child protection assessments. Redwood County believes that the methamphetamine use has declined but the occurrence of alcohol and other drugs does continue. The Lower Sioux Reservation has began trying to implement necessary cultural specific programming to assist with this and have received special grants to assist as well. However, this area continues to be tracked and examined.

• Getting to the root of the problem is crucial. Not just putting a temporary fix to a problem but dealing with it on a deeper level to reduce recurrence. The Family Assessment Response has really assisted with this and has created some positive outcomes and is the hope that will continue in the year 2008-09.

• Economic security to assist with lack of employment and stabilization. A major employer left the Redwood Falls area creating a lack of job security. However, a new industry moved into the area. It is the hope that stabilization will continue but is always a concern for rural Minnesota. The Lower Sioux Reservation has run into some financial difficulties and their per capita has decreased over the past year. This has caused some instability with that population.

• AR funding has been an excellent resource for assisting families in need but being careful to not enable but empower families to self sufficiency.

• Dealing with the impact of domestic violence and having appropriate services to truly deal with this area of concern.

• Dealing with the lack of supervision care givers provide to their children due to the need for parents to both be working or increase in single family homes.

• To examine and look at implementing Trial Home Visits as an option to ensure permanency long term.

• To have aggressive home study searches be completed on children in placement to ensure permanency in a timely manner if the child is not able to return to the parental home.

To ensure that the child’s well being is addressed, we see the following as the most social services issues/needs:

• Adequately addressing all areas of the child’s needs to ensure child’s well-being. Completing mental health screening, physical health, and developmental delayed testing as needed and required. Redwood County has implemented an excellent process for children to receive these evaluations/services as appropriate. This will continue in the next biennium to ensure child’s well-being.

Our key issue continues to be the funding constraints on these programs and making sure that current recipients have sufficient resources to remain in their current living arrangements. The CAPS do no allow for the major changes that affect some persons on these programs.

It is believed that services issues/needs of children do differ across racial/ethnic groups in Redwood County. There is a Native American reservation located in Redwood County - the Lower Sioux Reservation. This brings in the Indian Child Welfare Act and a whole set of standards and requirements that have to be followed. Redwood County has to ensure that services are culturally competent. That they are in support of traditional methods of treatment, i.e. sweats, sun dances, etc... Service providers need to be trained and be culturally specific. Ensuring that active efforts are provided in all Indian Child Welfare cases. During the past year, the Lower Sioux Reservation has implemented Tribal Court for the child protection/welfare cases. This has been a learning curve for all of us and continues to be a transition. We do have a training the end of October 2007 with Terri Yellowhammer of DHS to assist with this process and best practice. Also, we are developing a Memorandum of Agreement to delineate duties of each agency to ensure required services are carried out and not duplicated.

Redwood County also has a Hmong population that is served. There is strong beliefs with this culture regarding medical treatment and procedures that have to be considered in working the families. We have increased our qualified interpreters in this area to assist with this. They also reside in the community so have been a valuable resource for working with this population. Also, the community where the majority of the Hmong population resides have been extremely supportive which has only been an asset to serving this population and their overall quality of life.

Regarding Adult Services, we have Mental Health, Adult and DD case managers with great experience working with persons needing these services and they are very resourceful in searching for alternative resources.

In regard to Children’s Services in Redwood County, it is believed that we are maximizing our strengths and resources to assist families in need. First of all, the stability of the social workers has been excellent with little or no turn over. They are experienced workers with at least five years experience per worker in Child Protection and Children’s Mental Health. We have also implemented a full-time Case Aide to assist the social worker’s with required duties. This has proven to be extremely beneficial in all areas of carrying out case management duties. It has allowed the worker’s to have additional time for face to face contact with children and families and having the Case Aide deal with more the paperwork and behind the scene job duties. Redwood County continues to utilize Family Group Decision Making in our work with families. We have a very stable local provider for this service that has proven to do an excellent job. Continue to utilize this process for many different types of cases - to complete family searches, to assist teens in moving into adult hood, child protection cases to ensure safety/stability, etc. One huge positive with the Family Group Decision Making process, the Lower Sioux Reservation has really started to utilize the process and have even scheduled conferences without this agency’s assistance and involvement. Training on the use and abuse of methamphetamine has proven to be very beneficial. Even though the occurrence appears to be slightly declining with the use of this drug, the process and protocol that we have in place ensures that these cases are handled properly and children are getting the intervention services they need. Our day treatment program is going extremely well and continues to serve children with SED. They have now implemented an elementary program to serve the younger population. Our Children’s Justice Initiative is not a real active committee and see this as a gap. We are scheduled to have our Child and Family Service Review in October 2007, it is the hope that this can be looked at and enhanced to better serve children and families involved with the court process/system. We continue to try very creative ways in working with parents that are experiencing mental illness and the struggles this can bring with parenting. We have really joined forces with adult mental health services to serve these families and have had some success with this. We continue to try and transition youth with SED to adult services whenever appropriate to ensure that they continue to receive the needed services in adulthood.

Redwood County Human Services continues to see the above as the strengths and resources that will continue to be utilized and available to our county in 2008-09. We are strongly considering Circle Sentencing to assist our youth dealing with the criminal justice system. This will be examined and possibly implemented within the next two years. Again, our Child and Family Service Review is scheduled this October, it is very possible that other services/resources will need to be examined to assist any areas that we are not meeting required standards on.

CCSA Measures (abbreviated)

County

Fed/State

Standards

CY 2006

3-Year

Average

Anticipated

Targets

2008

2009

1: Children who showed improved mental health

2: Recurrence of child abuse/neglect

within 6 months

6.1 %

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

4.0%

within 12 months

7.5 %

0.0%

8.6%

8.0%

7.5%

3: Child maltreatment by foster parent

.57 %

1.59%

1.05%

.57%

.57%

4: Re-entered placement within 12 months

8.6 %

20.7%

15.4%

10.0%

8.6%

5: Reunified within 12 months of placement

76.2 %

93.8%

87.8%

80.0%

80.0%

6: Adopted within 24 months

32.0 %

100%

100%

100%

100%

7: Transfer of legal custody to a relative within 12 months

64.0 %

100%

66.7%

64.0%

60.0%

8: Two or fewer placement settings

86.7 %

95.0%

97.2%

95.0%

95.0%

9: Received a health exam within one year

10: Received mental health screening

Measure #: 2

Steps to improve performance: Of all children who were victims of substantiated child abuse and/or neglect during the reporting period, what was the percentage of recurrence of child maltreatment within a twelve month period? Redwood County did not meet this standard on the three year overall average. The standard is 6.1% and our three year average was 8.6%, just slightly above the required standard. In reviewing our statistics in this area using Charting and Analysis, there were three cases in 2004. One was a sibling of two – which is now only two cases that need to be examined. It is clear that these cases involve chemical use. Since 2004 we are utilizing a standard TWEAK assessment in all FAR assessments as well as formal investigations. This has proven to be helpful in determining if chemical use is a factor and needs to be addressed. We also have been fairly aggressive that even if the care giver minimizes usage but the gathering of information during the assessment phase reveals likewise, services in this area will also be requested. We have been utilizing Rule 25 assessments and services as needed and appropriate. We have implemented random tests to determine ongoing usage. We have a process in place with our local clinic to obtain these as well as have saliva tests in the agency that can be used by the workers. We have even utilized hair follicle testing to determine usage. Therefore, in looking at our 2005 and 2006 statistics, we are definitely improving in this area so will continue with these strategies.

Measure #: 3

Steps to improve performance: Of all children who were in foster care during the reporting period, what percentage were the subject of substantiated or indicated maltreatment by a foster parent or facility staff. Redwood County was above the Federal/State Standard in this area. The standard is set at .57% and our 2006 percentage was at 1.59%. This was one case involving sexual abuse to a foster child by the foster father. To put it bluntly this was a huge blow to our agency. A very difficult time. This is something that we just did not see coming nor did the child disclose until transitioning to adulthood. Perpetrator was charged accordingly and necessary action was taken immediately to safeguard the safety of other children placed in the home at the time the report came out. The license is in process of being revoked. This agency took this incident extremely serious and have learned a great deal from it. It is the hope that with this experience and awareness of possible signs that may have gone unnoticed this will not reoccur. We continue to screen our prospective foster parents very thoroughly and provide ongoing support and education to them. On the bright side we have some excellent foster parents that have even been awarded the state award in providing above quality care to children in need.

Measure #: 4

Steps to improve performance: Of all children who entered foster care during the specified time frame, what percentage re-entered care within 12 months of a prior foster care episode? The standard is set at 8.6%. Redwood County's rates were not good in this area as the 2006 rate was 20.7% and the three year overall average was at 15.4%. This is an area that seems to really be unpredictable as we have been for many months at meeting the standard. Re-entry is examined every quarter. Report is ran and reviewed by the supervisor and then in turn is discussed with staff to determine strategies that can assist with keeping this within the required standard. In looking at the statistics for this time period and ongoing throughout the years, there are two reasons that continue to come up with the cases that re-enter care. They are probation cases with youth and mental health cases. Very few, if any, are child protection cases or child safety issues. It is a result of the child's behavior or parents unable to provide the necessary care/supervision of this population. It is the hope that if Circle Sentencing is implemented that will assist with the probation re-entries. Children's Mental Health cases will continue to be looked at individually to determine the reasons for the child's regression/break down in mental health symptoms.

Measure #: 7

Steps to improve performance: Of all children who were in placement what was the percentage of transfer of legal custody to a relative within 12 months? Redwood County did not meet the standard on this measure. We were at 100% in 2006 as well as 2005; however, our overall three year average is at 66.7%. The standard is 64.0%; however, this area is shaded stating that we were not in compliance. Therefore, we will treat this area that we are slightly out of compliance. It was in 2004 that we were not in compliance with this standard. It was one family with three children. It was an ICWA case that we were working toward reunification with mother and the tribe was not in favor of any other plan. Reunification did occur with the mother evidentially but just took many months for that to occur. Since 2004, tribal court has been implemented and the Lower Sioux Social Services is taking a much more an active role with their cases. Therefore, it felt and shows in our current statistical information that we are moving in the right direction in this area.

Our agency believes our county does a good job at integrating services for families who are receiving both MFIP and CCSA services. We have implemented Family Group Decision Making where appropriate and definitely have financial workers part of that process. It has assisted greatly with SSIS now having the eligibility available to the social workers so that they are able to see if the family is receiving any MFIP services. Coordination of services and communication are essential and in place with families receiving both MFIP and CCSA services. Access to funding for these families is maximized through both of the programs with no duplication and most cost effective manner is utilized. This coordination of services has resulted in families receiving assistance where needed and getting needs met.

N/A for Redwood County

2008 MFIP

Budgeted Amount

Percent

2008 CCSA

Budgeted Amount

Percent

Employment Services (DWP)

$30,000.00

18 %

Children’s Mental Health

$204,922.00

45 %

Employment Services (MFIP)

$80,000.00

49 %

Child and Family Services

$204,922.00

45 %

Emergency Services ¹

$15,250.00

9 %

Adult Services

$45,538.00

10 %

Administration

$ 8,250.00

5 %

Other 1:

$

%

Income Maintenance Administration

$30,383.00

19 %

Other 2:

$

%

Other 1:

$

%

Other 3:

$

%

Other 2:

$

%

Other 4:

$

%

2008 MFIP Budget

$163,883.00

100 %

2008 CCSA Budget

$455,382.00

100 %

A portion of 2009 allocations to counties will depend on legislative actions in 2008. Use your county’s 2008 allocation or its anticipated allocation for CY 2009. When 2009 final allocations are published, use the criteria set forth in the instructions bulletin to determine if your county should submit an amended budget page.

2009 MFIP

Budgeted Amount

Percent

2009 CCSA

Budgeted Amount

Percent

Employment Services (DWP)

$30,000.00

18 %

Children’s Mental Health

$204,922.00

45 %

Employment Services (MFIP)

$80,000.00

49 %

Child and Family Services

$204,922.00

45 %

Emergency Services ¹

$15,250.00

9 %

Adult Services

$45,538.00

10 %

Administration

$ 8,250.00

5 %

Other 1:

$

%

Income Maintenance Administration

$30,383.00

19 %

Other 2:

$

%

Other 1:

$

%

Other 3:

$

%

Other 2:

$

%

Other 4:

$

%

2009 MFIP Budget

$163,883.00

100 %

2009 CCSA Budget

$455,382.00

100%

Yes

If yes, provide a concise response to the following three questions.

X

No

If no, skip this section.