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ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON CHILD ABUSE, RAPE AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
October 17, 2007
Members Present: Ken Ogden, Mary Hartwig, Stasia Burk, Karl Mounger, Karen Worley, Gracie Giles-Gonner, Karen McFarren, Annette Watson, Jerry Jones, Steven Bingham, Eddie Schmechenbecher, Lisa Channell, Avis Lane, Aurian Zoldessy, Melissa Carter, Judge Vicki Cook, Virginia Roberts, Carol Maxwell, George Simon
Guests: Wilma Tatum for Pat Page, Lisa McGhee
Members Absent: Judge Michael Maggio, Carie Breazeal, Steven Oliver, Sharon Schrantz, Dorinda Edmisten and Pam Davidson
Others Present: Max Snowden, Candy Garland, Michelle Cline, Kendra Simpson, Sherry Williamson and Cherry Carruthers (ACCARDV)
CALL TO ORDER – Karen Worley
The meeting was called to order at 1:30 p.m. by Karen Worley. Guests were welcomed and asked to introduce themselves.
Karen Worley extended his sympathy for the loss of Sherman Bell and for those not having access to the obituary for Sherman Bell it is in your packets. Sherman’s support on the Commission will be missed. Max asked for a moment of silence in his memory.
Dr. Worley read the designated proxy: Pam Davidson designated Stasia Burk, Dorinda Edmisten designee will be Karl Mounger, and Pat Page designated Dr. Jerry Jones.
REVIEW OF MINUTES FROM LAST MEETING – Karen Worley
The minutes from the April 11, 2007 meeting are in your packets. We did get these ahead of time but please just take a minute and review them.
Karl Mounger moved that the minutes be accepted as written. Ken Ogden seconded and motion was approved.
RAPE PROJECT/COMMITTEE REPORT – Lori Barksdale
Quarterly Reports for the Rape Prevention Education Program - The quarterly reports for the third quarter were due August 20th. These numbers are for the first three quarters of the grant year.
Total Participants 21,894
Total Trainings/Seminars 1,091
Total Handouts 108,727
Almost all of the programs are right on target right now with the exception of a couple of programs which I will talk about later in my report.
Sexual Violence Prevention and Education RFP 2006/2007- The RFP went out on August 8th and was due to be completed and returned by September 19th. We held a technical assistance workshop for the applicants on August 22nd and there were 12 participants and that was a pretty good turnout we only had 16 applicants. The RFP Review Committee met on September 28th. The Review Committee is actually the same as last year which was Lisa Channell, George Simon, Larry Gantt, Marilyn Dunavant and Michelle Cline. I would like to take this moment to thank those members very much for participating, they were here for about eight hours that day but then with all the reading they have to do before the meeting, I’m sure they put in at least 16 hours and we are very appreciative of that.
We received 16 applications this year for a total of $566,462.88 in requests. The Committee awarded 8 applicants a total of $335,859. This year, since the whole process was delayed, we went ahead and did a fax vote to the Executive Committee so we could get the award letters out as soon as possible. I did attach the summaries of the different programs that were awarded this year and Lori reviewed those. Programs awarded were basically the same programs that were awarded last year minus two. One of the reasons is we had less money this year, we have been steadily receiving a little bit less each year, there were also a couple of programs that just weren’t performing programmatically as well as their financial reports. Centers for Youth and Families for the last several years have a track record of not submitting their reimbursement so they are not needing reimbursement so that became a problem therefore they were not funded again this year. Turning Point program is just programmatically they have been way behind on their goals so just an overview of the other programs was given by Lori. At this time we are going to ask the Board to ratify the decision of the Executive Committee. Dr. Worley asked the Commissioners for a motion
Dr. Jerry Jones moved to ratify the decision of the Executive Committee and Dr. Mary Hartwig seconded the motion. Dr. Worley thanked the Review Committee for their work.
Sexual Violence Comprehensive Planning Process – The 2006-2007 grant application that we had to turn in to CDC, they were requiring that all states that received Rape Prevention Education funds go through a comprehensive planning process. What that includes was that all of the programs and the entire program had to go through an assessment and then develop a strategic plan to address any weaknesses in the program. Since we already have a strategic plan that was developed in 2001, we will not be developing a strategic plan but will be making modifications that are needed to that plan. We had our first meeting in May and again in August, so far we have developed member roles and responsibilities. We have elected a chair, Dorinda Edmisten, and are currently working on a vision statement. In October we held a workgroup meeting and what the workgroup is responsible for is the Needs and Resource Assessment. The Needs and Resource Assessment will include: developing a profile of the state including demographics and resources and assets; examining the magnitude of sexual violence in Arkansas; examining risk and protective factors and identifying how the current system can be strengthened, the bigger planning committee will be overseeing everything. This process is suppose to take about 6-8 months although sometimes it can take a year so it is a long process but hopefully we will be able to find out a lot of good information from the process so we can address some of the problems that we have.
Adult Sex Offender Management – We have good news on this grant, it was going to be over as of September 30, 2007 but we did receive a one year extension on this grant We were just able to start implementation activity on this in January and we are suppose to have a full year of doing that. The new end date is September 30, 2008. We are just basically continuing to implement proposed activities at this point and some of those include a cross-training for all stakeholders to be held in April so everyone will know what everyone else is doing; scholarships are being provided for nurses to take the SANE certification test and then our treatment subcommittee is working on standards for treatment providers and they are currently looking at Colorado’s standards because it just appears to be the most comprehensive set out there.
Meetings/Trainings- Lori reviewed meetings and trainings she has attended or provided.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROJECT/COMMITTEE REPORT - Kendra Simpson
Training Report - Kendra reviewed trainings that have been held since the last meeting. There have been a total of 31 trainings, we have trained 961 individuals and we had 2 exhibit booths. One of the booths was at last weeks DV Symposium which featured retired Lieutenant Mark Wynn, this was covered on the news and really went over well, we had about 75 individuals there and the Commission was one of the sponsors. We also had an exhibit booth at the Developmental Disabilities Conference and I believe that is the 4th year that we have participated in that conference either as a presenter or we have had a booth. As for the trainings, we have done a lot of work since April, we have done several all day presentations at schools, we have also presented at the Prosecutor Coordinator’s Conferences, I’ve also developed a new presentation in conjunction with Maria Touchstone focusing on the effects of DV on the Hispanic/Latino population, we plan on continuing that presentation and doing it several times next year at different conferences. I also conducted several presentations for local hospitals, I got to go to Arkansas Children’s Hospital also Baptist Behavioral Health and at the Arkansas Department of Health, Maternity Nurses Program. So, year to date we have conducted 38 trainings and trained 1080 individuals and from the 2 Exhibit Booths we reached 825 people. I also have listed on my report the trainings I have attended as well as the meetings.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month - is October and I just want you to keep your eyes open to all of the events that are happening in your local communities, I know that Gracie is probably having the clothesline going on right now but these events are to honor survivors and just to promote domestic violence awareness that is going on in your communities and when possible try to go out and participate.
Act 1414 - which was passed this last legislative session, it is an unfunded mandate which asks us to develop brochures and training on safety planning and we are to distribute the Safety Planning brochures throughout the state to law enforcement, health officials and social workers. This is something we are already doing as Commissioners, as the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, as local domestic violence shelters, we are already doing it but they want us to convene a committee of domestic violence experts, of health officials, of law enforcement. They want us convene this committee and come up with a rule about how we are going to do it, write it all down, to develop more brochures to come up with more activities with trainings, write it all down and present it to the General Assembly each year. We will be having a committee on November 14th here at the Commission office at 1p.m. and I am hoping that someone can come and help us out and serve on this committee and help us develop these rules so that we can fulfill what we have been asked to do and present it to the assembly. If anyone would like a copy of Act 1414, I will be happy to email it to you or show you how to get it off the website.
RURAL PROJECT REPORT- Michelle Cline
DV Shelter Program Block Grant – This grant is used to fund 10 shelters throughout the state and comes to us through the Division of Aging and Adult Services. This grant is actually a 2 year contract grant which ends on June 30th so new RFP’s were sent out in April. We received 19 proposals and the selection committee funded 10 of these shelters which are actually 2 in each of the 5 social service block grant regions in the state, there is a printed list of these in my section of your packet. In addition we also provided a technical assistance workshop for the grantees on July 24th and the purpose of this workshop is generally just to let them know how to fill out and turn in their billing invoices, answer any questions that they might have concerning the grant and just in general be sure that they had everything they needed in order to complete their quarterly reports. The first quarterly reports were received last week, they had 222 women and 223 children sheltered and we expect to pay out approximately $69,752 to these shelters this quarter. That is a little more than we normally would pay out with this particular grant in one quarter however some of the shelters do have the capacity to go ahead and fill out their first quarter and they are allowed to do that. Also we are required to have an annual site visit from our compliance officer at the Department of Human Services and this year our visit is scheduled for next week, October 24th.
Domestic Peace Fund – The Request for Qualifications was sent out in April and was due back on June 22nd. These proposals were reviewed by the RFQ committee and I am happy to report that 31 Domestic Violence Shelters met qualification for this funding. Also in addition to the regular Domestic Peace Fund those shelter were also give special appropriations by the Legislature this year and Candy will go into detail about that during his report.
Preventive Health Block Grant – The grant is primarily used to support the activities of the Rape Prevention and Education Grantees, it also used to purchase the sexual assault evidence kits for the Arkansas State Crime Lab. The proposal for the 2007-2008 grant was submitted last week and I will give the oral presentation for that application on this Friday for the selection committee at the Department of Health. Michelle gave a few quick summaries of the activities that were completed under this grant this year.
Zero to Three State Partnerships for Prevention Project – The SPP project utilizes the team of trainers from several different disciplines whose main focus is to educate and increase the capacity of child care providers to help prevent child maltreatment in families with very young children. We have seven community-based multi-disciplinary teams right now and that is regionally throughout the state and they have participated in a train the trainer workshop. Trainings for childcare providers throughout the state are currently being scheduled.
Trainings/Meetings Attended- Michelle briefly reviewed trainings/meeting attended as well as upcoming trainings. There is a Forum on Endangered Children coming up, the Arkansas Head Start State Collaboration Office and the ACCARDV are sponsoring it and it is scheduled to be on Tuesday, October 30th at Carmichael Community Center, 801 South Elm Street, Searcy, AR. The event will begin with registration at 9 a.m., and the forum starting at 9:45 a.m. It is scheduled to adjourn at 2:45 p.m. If you are interested in attending there are registration forms in your packet.
CHILD ABUSE PROJECT/COMMITTEE REPORT – Sherry Williamson
I have provided you with a copy of the fourth quarter report which is April to June of 2007 since we did not meet in July. I did a total of 10 trainings and trained 317 individuals during that period, several of the trainings I had at that point were very small but I think that they were very worth while. I reached some of the population that we really do not get out to a lot, I always say I am willing to drive anywhere in Arkansas to talk about child abuse. The second sheet you have is my first quarter for this state fiscal year, July 1- Sept. 30th, I have done a total of 17 trainings and trained 1,151 individuals around the state, you will notice there are a lot of teachers and I have one that is coming up that was just scheduled in the past few days, Sandy Jordan from the Lake Hamilton High School Parent Resource Center has asked me to come there. So I will get to speak to the school personnel at one of the largest school districts in this state. The third sheet lists the meetings that she has attended and you will notice that several of the ones listed include MDT Teams, I am sure many of you remember during the October Commissioner meeting this time last year there was a request to develop an MDT Workgroup to come up with some changes for the MDT Teams around the state and we have met several times and have another meeting scheduled in December, some of the things that have come out of that meeting are the idea that we want to get the teams involved earlier in the investigation and make it a little more pro-active, allow participation by conference call for folks who cannot make it into the meeting in areas where like a state police person who would have to drive in from a couple of counties away and also, one of the main things, to increase consistency among the teams. The way we are going to do that is by pulling the MDT’s back under the direct supervision of the Commission so that all the coordinators report directly to someone at the Commission. We are currently working on developing new guidelines and they will be approved by the MDT Workgroup before they are put into practice. What we are going to do is once we get the new guidelines completed is pilot that program in a couple of counties and then have feedback from those counties before we run it state wide and start developing anything in the other counties of the state. The last page is a list of meetings and training sessions that I have scheduled for the second quarter of the current state fiscal year, October 1-December 31st, and as it stands there have been 12 requests for training just in Oct. and Nov.
Our next Child Abuse Committee meeting is November 27th at 11 a.m. if anyone would like to be a part of the Committee. December 11th is our next MDT Workgroup Committee and as I said we are having small meetings separately to be sure we are getting input from all the groups. I spoke with Dr. Farst at Children’s Hospital and offered to come over and meet but she said that they have folks on the workgroup and she thought it was okay.
FUNDING UPDATE – Candy Garland
At this time we are going to focus the amount of legislation that has appropriated to UAMS for the Commission’s use:
PERSONAL SERVICES 2007-2009
ACT 1236 (SB 223) for personal services, effective July 1, 2007, awarded us $923,449.32 from DHS to the Commission for special services which will be determined at a later date because we received this at the last minute therefore we have yet to develop a budget for it yet we will have that by the next meeting. $265,000 of that was awarded to the Arkansas State Police.
CHILDREN’S ADVOCACY CENTERS 2007-2008
ACT 1255 (SB 321)it awarded $1,188,750 to the Commission to support the state Children’s Advocacy Centers and also the Multi-disciplinary Teams here in the state.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS 2007-2008
ACT 1349 (HB 2005) this is a one time distribution of $930,000 to the Commission for us to distribute to our statewide Domestic Violence Shelters and we have 31 shelters in the state and you are welcome to review the attachment which I have included. They received a first payment of $6,451.61 in July and the last payment was picked up personally by each Representative from that particular district or city where that particular shelter was located and all of those payments equaled $23,548.39 each. Of the 31 shelters we have in the state only 3 have yet to receive the remainder of those dollars and they will get those this week.
CHILDREN’S ADVOCACY CENTERS 2007-2008
ACT 1713 (SB699) this is a special one time appropriation for $46,429 to the Commission for emergency support to needy state Children’s Advocacy Centers. Again, needy is determined by whether or not they have a real vital need to stay open because some of these centers are struggling more than others so they are going to justify their need to get funds. We should have that money dispensed to them hopefully by the end of the year and no later than the spring of next year.
CHILDREN’S JUSTICE ACT GRANT 2007-2009
We received official notification of a new award in the amount of $184,056 for continued support of Child Abuse Prevention efforts in the state. This is a grant that we have received each year since I have been here and we really appreciate getting it. Sherry said she has to submit an application and a progress report from the previous year every year. We have every three years that we have to do an assessment but we actually have to do an application every year.
COMMISSION ROLE IN NEW CAC LEGISLATION- Max Snowden
Max asked the Commissioners to look at Bill (SB 303) which is now ACT 703, this is a sweeping piece of legislation that was guided through the process by Senator Malone and the funds that Candy referred to earlier well those are the funds that are all tied to that legislation as appropriations to help accomplish the project mentioned in that Bill. The $1,188,750 will fund expanded operations for the Commission as well as monies to the Child Advocacy Centers. The $923,449.32 will fund special services; part of it went to the State Police to upgrade their telephone/computer system, part of it will go to CACs, a
part of it will go to support services as training and peer medical review so there is a lot of money that has become available now and will be available in larger sums the beginning the first of the year. One of the Bills that was passed was the extension of the Beer Tax which allowed 1% of that money to remain as a tax base; that money will go to fund new and existing Child Advocacy Centers that should garner between 3 and 4 million dollars a year so you can see that there is going to be a huge amount of money pushed out to those CACs which is wonderful, they all need to expand their programs and have new programs that are available in areas where we currently don’ t have them. We have already had inquiries from 6 different counties about developing CACs so I think there is going to be significant interest. Anytime you have millions of dollars out there available that generally generates significant interest. The Commission will be responsible for a significant part of the implementation of this Bill. We are going to be responsible for expanding multi-disciplinary teams into every county of the state, in some instances that will have two to three counties with one coordinator but all counties will be able to access a multi-disciplinary team. The Commission is also going to be responsible for staffing a 7 member subcommittee which Dr. Worley will talk to you about later in the agenda. That 7 member subcommittee will establish procedures, protocol, monitoring and service requirements for CACs to be able to receive funding through this Bill. There are just a number of things that will be happening over the course of the next two years related specifically to child abuse issues and particularly to services related to Child Advocacy Centers. We are appreciative for all the money, we just know there are going to be challenges and that is good, I am looking forward to the effort that we have ahead of us and I think that because of our expanded responsibility, which is significant, and I expect in the next session there will be additional funds, I know in the next session there is going to be a huge effort to expand the tax on alcohol which will effect social issues that are within the purpose of the Commission as well as the expansion of the CACs.
This of course will necessitate a more active role of the Child Abuse Committee and a more active role by the Commission as a whole and specifically by the Executive Committee. There will be a number of things that we have to attend to fairly quickly and so in the future we will be using Executive Committee more for those immediate decisions and you can anticipate being asked to vote by fax or phone on issues that arise that we need to get a whole Commissioner vote for. As Dr. Jones mentioned earlier, one of the things that we will do is make sure that the Commissioners are aware of all the activities and decisions being made and we are not going to do anything without getting it before the body as a whole so we get feedback about our proposal. That will create a much more active role for the Commissioners which is good and you are going to be able to be as active as you choose to be. The Executive Committee has not been particularly active in the recent past but our Executive Committee is made up of the Chair and Vice Chair of the Commission and the Chair of each of the established project committees which would be Child Abuse, Rape, and Domestic Violence we can always include adhoc members as that’s necessary. So at this time the Executive Committee is Dr. Worley, Dorinda Edmisten, Gracie Gonner, and Stasia Burk. Dr. Worley said that would be it unless we decided to include someone from the Child Fatality Review but all of that would be in the bylaws. Max mentioned that fairly soon we are going to have to form a bylaw committee to begin taking a look at some structural changes. So if any of you are interested in being on the Bylaws Committee please let me know, I would be happy to have your participation. Realistically because of the efforts of Senator Malone and his colleagues and a number of you who are on this Commission, it really is going to be a new day for Child Services in this state.
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE- Karen Worley
The Executive Committee met today and we have several issues to go over and discuss with you and get your opinion on. The first has to do with the legislation for the CAC where the money is going through the Commission. The Governor’s Task Force on Child Abuse will appoint four people from the committee here that helps decide where the money goes and will help decide the policies and procedures. The Commission has three positions and so we reviewed the list of potential candidates that were likely to be appointed by the Governor’s Task Force and we came up with three nominees that we thought would be good. We recommended Doug Williams a former head of the CACD and a former Commissioner, Judge Vicki Cook is a Circuit Judge and a current Commissioner, and Dr. Karen Farst who is from the ARCH. Any discussion of those nominees, there was no discussion. Dr. Worley asked for a motion,
Karl Mounger made a motion to accept the recommendation and Gracie Gonner seconded the motion. Motion carried.
The next issue we discussed was the emergency funds that we were talking about earlier, the $46,000 that Mr. Garland referred to. We have applications from two starving Children Advocacy Centers; they have submitted a bare bones budget for three months. One is the Children’s Advocacy Center in Pine Bluff submitted a request for $20,495 to carry them over the next three months, when they will get their next round of funding. Max stated that amount actually shows their level of expense over the next three months, their request is somewhat less but we are recommending $15,000; the Wade Knox Children’s Advocacy Center in Lonoke County had made a request and we are recommending $15,000 for them as well. So we are recommending they receive this amount out of the $46,000. Max stated that the $46,000 is an appropriation from Senator Madison and she agreed to allow that to be used for emergency funding for CACs, the Pine Bluff and Lonoke CAC live from month to month and they are not doing a very good job of that, our position was that if we were able to give them enough support to get them through the end of the year until the larger amounts of funding was available, that would be much more prudent than allowing that program to just die and then try to start it back up again some time after the first of the year. They do good work and serve far more people than they get paid for and their areas really have a huge need. Dr. Worley asked for a motion on those rewards to the CACs.
Judge Cook moved that we grant $15,000 to the Pine Bluff CAC and the Wade Knox CAC in Lonoke. Virginia Robertson seconded the motion. The motion carried.
There is a third request for funds and it is for training for SANE nurses for the Carroll County CAC. The request is for $1,500, we are waiting on a piece of information to be sure the SANE training is for Pediatric Exams and with that piece of information we would like to approve that. That would come out of the $46,000 and the $1,500 would just pay for the training. Dr. Worley asked for discussion. Dr. Jones asked about the training and that was discussed. Dr. Jones said we at least need to follow the Arkansas Chapter of National Children’s Alliance which is the umbrella organization and if this money is only for the training then that is the easiest part. Dr. Worley said we do not know about the follow-up, Dr. Jones said he is not objecting to doing it, but they need to understand we are only doing a small piece. Dr. Worley said she understood but what we are asking for is a provisional approval since we have requested more information and it has not been received yet and we want to be sure it is pediatric training. Dr. Jones said that he thinks when we approve this it should be for a total package, not just a piece here and a piece there. To clarify, Dr. Worley asked Dr. Jones if he would recommend funding it as long as they were going to get the whole package which would include preceptor-ship, supervised experience, follow-up review of every exam; a video of every exam 25 to 50, at least quarterly peer review and that is fair. The whole purpose of this is to ensure quality. The question was brought up as to the SANE program in AR having this requirement and how could these guidelines be met if we do not have this in our program here. Dr. Jones said Senator Malone’s intent was that our program would provide what we needed to begin other guidelines; that was the intent, Dr. Jones said, he just does not know where the money is. Max said ultimately, with whatever is finally determined in terms of what will be available, will have to come out of most likely the $193,000 but I have talked with Pat Page and there have been no further decisions yet.
Max asked if there were people in Springfield, MO that could do the same thing and Dr. Jones said he did not think so and Dr. Worley asked about Tulsa, OK but again Dr. Jones said not to the extent that is needed. Dr. Worley asked Dr. Jones what he would recommend at this point. Dr. Jones said he would recommend that if we appropriate any funds that it be withheld until we have confirmation of a total package or that all the training is in place and if that takes very long, they will have forgotten what they initially learned. Max asked that if the money were released in the next six months, how long would it be before these SANE nurses could start practicing whatever it is they’ve learned. Dr. Jones said they could begin this very quickly if there are only two people. Max asked how long before they could begin their preceptor-ship and the quarterly review and all of that. Dr. Jones explained each item and Karl Mounger asked if Arkansas doesn’t provide this type of training, Dr. Jones said we could if we had funding to handle it; Ken Ogden asked if we are talking about just strictly pediatrics training for SANE nurses in general. Dr. Worley said there is SANE training for adults and peds. Dr. Jones explained the two trainings and Ken Ogden said he was just wondering if it was an add on to what the SANE nurses are doing or totally separate. Judge Cook said it might be good for next legislative session if we have the experts who can teach it, all they need is the funding to manage it and with all these CACs coming about, this is going to become an issue, to get everyone trained so they can do proper exams. Dr. Worley said with that information, what needs to be done with this request? Judge Cook suggested we get more information, Karl Mounger mentioned that he is one of the few people at the meeting from NW Arkansas and it might seem that we have some money up there but we also have an influx of more people with uninsured people. Just because you see all this big growth in NW Arkansas and all the money, well we don’t have that and for these people to wait three more months before our next meeting, I cannot see why you can’t give a provisional go ahead go ahead, if these qualifications are met instead of waiting for three months down the way to do this. Max said we can solicit the information you have asked for and then once we get that then we can e-mail or fax it to you and let you know what we know about the proposal and then based on that we can ask for a vote. Dr. Hartwig said the need is great and many places but one of our big concerns is having testimony that can not be impugned and I think that’s the concern and you want to be sure that the person doing the exam is so well trained so well documented that they are well trained that their testimony will be upheld. It is worse than nothing to have testimony that can be declared invalid by a good attorney, you just want to give testimony that is so respected that it will be upheld in court and that is what our concern is. Dr. Worley asked what the Commissioners wanted to do. Judge Cook made a motion to defer this to Mary Hartwig and Dr. Jerry Jones recommendations. Karl Mounger seconded the motion. The motion carried. One more thing that the Executive Committee discussed was that we have been requested by the Legislative Task Force on Substance Abuse and Prevention and they have requested that we appoint a Child Abuse Prevention person to represent the Commission on the Task Force and we recommend Max Snowden based on his background on substance abuse. Ken Ogden made a motion that Max Snowden represents the Commission on the Legislative Task Force on Substance Abuse and Prevention. Karl Mounger seconded the motion. The motion carried.
ACCADV ANNUAL REPORT – Max Snowden
This is the report that we submit annually to UAMS as part of their requirement. I would just asked you to look at the number of peoples that have been impacted or at least have been touched by the services of the committee and that will give you an idea over the course of time how many people really come in contact either directly by the Commission or by those programs that we fund or through activities that we co-sponsor. I think you will be pleased with those numbers and what you see there. Also the funding levels and what those are used for and just gives a brief update and not that you don’t get one every three months because you do but this as much as anything is a reiteration and an annual collection of the information that you get on a quarterly basis.
FORUM ON ENDANGERED CHILDREN- Max Snowden
Max said he was going to asked Michelle to speak to this because she has been working on it and we have touched it. In your packet you will find a registration form and it has all the information as to where and when. It is on October 30th at the Carmichael Community Center and if you are interested in attending we do have the registration in here for you. We can comfortably sit 75 participants but can squeeze in up to 100 folks. We do have 70 folks already registered.
CHILD FATALITY REVIEW – Max Snowden
Max just wants to give a quick update on this but he also has Aurian Zoldessy a fellow Commissioner to talk to you briefly about discussions that we have had in terms of partners potential role in this. We have commitments from Polk County, Lonoke County, Crawford County, Garland County, Faulkner County and Carroll County Commissioners to be involved in Child Death Scene Investigation training and that training hopefully we can garner another three or four coroners. At that training we will have law enforcement from each of those counties, we will have child fatality review teams if they exist in those counties, we will have citizen review panels if they exist in those counties, hopefully we will have the AD from DCFS who is responsible for the citizen review panels. One of the things that we are going to do as part of the training team is to access the staff from the Center for Disease Control Prevention. Our intention is to establish this core group and then hopefully, coroners are a difficult group to deal with in terms of their commitment to being trained and to exhume investigations at the scene and doing much more than they have done in the past. We will have to encourage them and hopefully if we have eight or ten coroners who are well received by their colleagues and peers then they can solicit additional involvement over a course of time. Aurian mentioned that Arkansas is about the third in the nation in child deaths and that is usually from birth to age 19. At the Health Department a number of us felt like we really needed to do something and take a look at that; that is a public health issue so we talked about it and developed a business plan that implements a state-wide child health coordinator, a state registry so we can get in line with all the other states and keep up with out child deaths, and the reasons for the deaths. We have a website on our Health Department Website, we have lots of links but it would make doing child death reviews by communities who wanted to do those for their counties; it would make it much easier. The state-wide coordinators role would be to facilitate that activity and we would partner with the Commission and just simply work together on those goals that we all have; and that goal would be of course to simply reduce child fatality.
RESOURCE INFORMATION-Max Snowden
Max quickly reminded everyone that being appointed to the Commission seems to be a long process and just because your term was up in July doesn’t mean you are done, you may not receive your letter that you have been reappointed until in April of next year. So if your term is up, historically the way that has been handled is that you continue to serve on this Commission until you either resign or are replaced so if you haven’t resigned or if you haven’t heard that you have been replaced by someone else then you are still a Commission member and have all the same benefits/perks.
Also, in the very back of your packet is the dates for the upcoming Commission meetings.
ADJOURN
Dr. Worley asked members to sign the attendance sheet if they had not done so to see Candy if you need reimbursement for travel. Dr. Worley thanked members and guests for their attendance and reminded them that the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday July 18, 2007 at 1:30. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
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