Council Chair Sara Scott
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
The discussion continues on how best to award the Los Alamos County’s contract for family resource, support and parent education services.
County Council provided some direction to staff during its working session Tuesday night.
The discussion originally kicked off when Family Strengths Network and Las Cumbres applied for the contract in June and the County initially recommended the contract be awarded to Las Cumbres.
County staff presented a modified proposal Tuesday night. The modifications were made in response to the deluge of public support for Family Strengths Network as well as the council’s decision to wait on awarding the contract and hear the findings of the recent gap analysis on the County’s health services.
Interim Community Services Department Director Linda Matteson presented the modified proposal.
In her report, Matteson noted that one priority identified in the gap analysis was mental health. The analysis showed there is high stress and anxiety in new residents and in the whole population.
Matteson also noted in her report that the original RFP called for evidence-based programs that promote cognitive, language and socio-emotional development in children.
As a result of analysis and discussions to date, two-tiers of services were presented for council’s consideration.
Matteson said this could potentially allow for more than one contract to be awarded.
Some of the items included in tier one or promotional/prevention community-based family resource center are:
Provide family resource and support via Peer to Peer programming to both men and women to include bilingual programs
Provide family support programs
Assist families in meeting a range of needs as defined by each family, based on the general premise that a healthy, functioning, stable family is essential for a child’s long-term emotional, social, and academic success
Connect families with other service providers to promote a community-wide network, and serve as a provider agency
Programmatic methods designed to help parents through peer-to-peer support and activities involving parents and children together
Some of the items included in tier two or intervention/treatment) family/parent education and family Resource programs are:
Provide parent and/or caregiver support through evidence-based education/programming to both men and women to include bilingual programs
Primarily evidence-based programs that are available community-wide, and encourage child development while reinforcing family competence and strengths through regularly offered classes, workshops, seminars and talks
Ability to evaluate school aged children for developmental delays and work with the school district to develop individualized education programs (IEPs)
Offer one on one case management to families to help identify needs and develop a plan of action specific to meet their individual needs to include referrals to outside agencies
Ability to offer direct services to children and families that may not qualify for any other state funded programs
As far as the fiscal impact, Matteson reported that the Fiscal Year budget includes $124,000 for these services.
If both tiers are desired, then Council would approve additional funds.
Council offered its thoughts on the proposal.
“I personally would like to assure that we are addressing the most critical needs in our community, and that we have clearly articulated these needs for the community, ourselves, and for potential providers,” Council Chair Sara Scott said. “This will not only help us make sure that we have a clear and objective basis for reviewing proposals and getting needed support, it will also facilitate future assessments of how these investments are impacting County support for children and families.”
Regarding a point in tier two that the provider evaluates school age children for developmental delays and develop individualized education programs with the school district, Councilor Katrina Martin wondered if that was necessary.
She said the schools already have that service covered. Maybe what is needed more is evaluation prior to entering school, Martin said, to address the gap between First Born and when children enter school.
“I absolutely feel as much support we can give to our families as possible is always extremely valuable,” she said.
Councilor Pete Sheehey said he would recommend funding up to $124,000 for each tier.
Council Vice Chair Randall Ryti also said funding these tiers is important.
“I think it is a worthwhile investment to invest in our families,” he said.
However, he wondered what kind of flexibility could be built in to modify services as necessary to these multi-year contracts.
County Manager Harry Burgess said the County could offer a one-year contract with potential renewals. Or include language with the provision to change the types of classes offered is another possibility, he said.
Councilor David Izraelevitz encouraged really studying this issue. This is the time, he said, to think of the programs in the long-term.
Izraelevitz also supported Scott’s idea of taking the time needed to look more deeply into specifically which services are really needed, and clearly communicate that and suggested that to proceed with developing a matrix “so we can fit programs into it and I would like to invite a range of providers …. from First Born to JJAB and everything in between and ask them: what are your services, where do your services fit in this matrix and see where there are gaps ….”
He added that opportunities to collaborate and conduct joint programs should also be sought.
“This is a very crucial resource that we are fortunate to provide and a lot of other communities aren’t able to provide,” Izraelevitz said.