A promising partnership to help Oregon children
Oregon's rate of foster care placement is among the highest in the nation, and that's not acceptable to Erinn Kelley-Siel, the state's top-ranked child welfare administrator. She argues persuasively that kids have better futures if they can be safe at home with their families or safe with other permanent placement options. That's why Kelley-Siel and other key Oregon officials have joined in a unique partnership with Casey Family Programs to "take care for Oregon's children to the next level." Kelley-Siel, director of the Oregon Department of Human Service's Children, Adults and Families Division, visited with The Oregonian's editorial board on Aug. 20 to talk about the undertaking. She was accompanied by Mickey Lansing, executive director of the Oregon Commission on Children & Families, and by Senior Family Court Judge Nan Waller of Multnomah County. They're part of a statewide team working with Casey Family Programs, the nation's leading organization with a primary goal of reducing foster care and increasing the safety of children.
This new partnership has brought together more than 80 community members and leaders in eight Oregon counties to develop community-based action plans and long-term strategies. The project has six ambitious statewide goals to be met by 2011:
1. Safely reduce children in foster care by 20 percent.
2. Increase placements with relatives by 50 percent.
3. Reduce children entering care by 10 percent.
4. Increase foster care exits by 20 percent.
5. Reduce the disproportionality index for Native American and African American families.
6. Maintain or reduce current child abuse/neglect recurrence rate of 7.5 percent.
The eight counties selected are Multnomah, Washington, Marion, Coos, Deschutes, Jackson, Malheur, Tillamook. Kelley-Siel says they were chosen on the basis of their number of children in care, their readiness for change and the likelihood that they can deliver new processes and outcomes that can be duplicated statewide.
Kelley-Siel, a lawyer, won considerable respect in Salem during her stint as Gov. Ted Kulongoski's senior policy adviser on children's health and other human services. Dr. Bruce Goldberg, DHS director, appears to have tapped her to head the Children, Adults and Families Division is part of his ambitious effort to transform the culture of DHS and improve its performance.
Looks so far like a smart move. For the sake of Oregon's most vulnerable children, all of us should hope this project meets all of its goals and then some.
Doug Bates
29 August 2009
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/a_promising_partnership_to_hel.html
