COUNCIL PARTNERS WITH THE FAMILY LEAGUE AND OCYF ON PROJECT OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE GRANT

In October it was announced that the Maryland Governor’s Office for Children, Youth, and Families (OCYF), and Baltimore City’s Local Management Board –The Family League – along with the Council and other partners, were awarded a 5-year $1.25 million Projects of National Significance grant from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities to implement a one-stop Family Support Resource Center in Baltimore City. The Council spearheaded the original writing of the original planning grant that resulted in the receipt of funding for this exciting new initiative.

This implementation grant will allow OCYF and its partners to put in to place plans developed by the project partners during an eight month planning period under the original planning grant. Throughout Maryland there are a variety of Federal, State, and local programs and funding streams to assist families. However, as recent statewide studies and reports indicate, families of children with the most intense needs are often unable to access coordinated services in a manner that will preserve families and provide services quickly and efficiently. The grant project builds upon efforts in Maryland to provide an effective and family-centered service delivery system for children with disabilities in need of intensive levels of supports and services administered by multiple agencies and organizations.

The target population of the project was initially identified by the Subcabinet on Children, Youth, and Families and further defined by House Bill 1386, which passed in 2002 and directed Local Management Boards to expand Local Coordinating Councils’ responsibilities related to the support of children with intensive needs and improve access to community based services through funding strategies, communication efforts, and service expansion through cost savings. The 2003 report by the Council On Parental Relinquishment Of Custody To Obtain Health Care Services, a group of stakeholders that worked to identify alternatives to the practice of requiring parents to relinquish the custody of their children with significant and complex mental health needs and/or developmental disabilities in order to access needed services, further defined the issues and barriers faced by children and families. The One-Stop Family Support Resource Center will assist these families of children with intense needs, targeting, as described in Maryland law, children who have “behavioral, educational, developmental, or mental health needs that cannot be met through available public agency resources…” 

The 8-month planning process confirmed earlier findings that parents have difficulty navigating the complex system of care for children with intense needs- the services and supports offered by a myriad of public and private providers, each with its own unique eligibility criteria and application process. The project will now work to develop a “one-stop center” that will: promote family leadership; enhance interagency coordination and collaboration among agencies providing services to these families and children; provide an information and referral phone line for families; and hire “family navigators” to guide and ultimately empower families to obtain what they need for their children and families. By cutting across agency lines, the project will develop a family-centered resource designed to preserve and strengthen families of children with intense needs, and provide a comprehensive infrastructure enabling families to have a seamless, single point of entry with eligibility for and linkage to desired services.