Project Information
Project Name: South County Wraparound Project for Latino Children and Youth
Project Number: 1 KDI SM54383-01
Project Director: Jerry Endres, Institute for Community Collaborative Studies (ICCS)
California State University, Monterey Bay
Date of Report: January 31, 2003
Municipality: Monterey CA
Staff-hired and on-job: Jerry Endres, Project Director; Brad Richardson, Evaluator; Patty Mora, Consumer Facilitator, Michele Roberts, student assistant, Jon Sagen, Expert Consultant / Design Wraparound continuum.
Funds expended to-date: Performance objectives and expenditures are on target. CSUMB Foundation accounting is processing fund expenditures and making online reporting.

South County Wraparound Project for Latino Children and Youth

Progress Report to-date

The Institute for Community Collaborative Studies at California State University Monterey Bay, in collaboration the Gilroy Family Resource Center (GFRC), Resources for Families and Communities (RFC), and a growing number of Santa Clara County agencies and community programs is a Phase I Community Action Grant Program site in the Southern area (aka: South County) of Santa Clara County, California. The one-year Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant was developed through discussions and meetings with consumers, providers and other key stakeholders in the South County. It is intended to engage the community in a consensus building and planning process to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an exemplary, culturally-appropriate Wraparound practice for predominantly Latino children and adolescents with co-occurring severe mental disorders and substance abuse disorders while protecting and including the target population in the planning process.

Wraparound has been initially identified as a nationally recognized program that has earned recognition as an exemplary practice as evidenced by research that has demonstrated the program's effectiveness. The South County community of Gilroy and surrounding communities wish to build consensus for Wraparound as an exemplary practice model for as many as possible of the programs serving South County.

Beginning in May 2002, the consensus building process in Phase I facilitated by the Institute for Community Collaborative Studies at CSUMB (ICCS) was begun. A representative group of consumers and stakeholders has since developed Wraparound model standards for culturally-appropriate family and community support. The predominantly Latino community members and county agency representatives began building a foundation that Wraparound is an exemplary practice that could benefit at-risk families and that funding this program should become a reality to ensure sustainability. They will also ensure that the program implementation (phase 2) will be consistent with the community, cultural and professional standards they developed in the consensus building process.

Key Stakeholders: Collaboration among stakeholders and target population for an exemplary practice
The following agencies: Gilroy Family Resource Center, Resources for Families and Communities, Assemblyman Simon Salinas, Mexican American Community Services Association, Santa Clara County Public Health Department, Santa Clara County Department of Social Services Family and Children Services and Family Conferencing, Rebeckah’s Children Services, Economic Services Organization (OEO), Santa Clara County Department Alcohol and Drug Abuse,and Santa Clara County Department of Mental Health are current members of a stakeholder group who provide guidance and input to this project. They along with consumer participation (17 predominantly -Latino family members, clients, and youth members) and agencies belonging to the South County Collaborative are building consensus for implementing the expansion of the Wraparound model for the South County area.

ICCS continues to facilitate the consensus building and design process providing monetary support for costs to ensure participation by clients, ex-clients, family members and youth. Stipends and childcare for consumers have been activated ensuring their involvement. We’ve conducted meetings with consumers and stakeholders on August 8th, September 25th, and October 23rd. The next meeting will be scheduled for February 25, 2003. Simon Salinas, state assemblyman, will chair the meeting at the Gilroy Family Resource Center. The purpose is to present and discuss the work to-date (see below) and to achieve consensus on the implementation objectives for extending wraparound practices to community and agency programs in the south county.

We adapted the Rebekah wraparound model (Rebekah’s Children Services a member of stakeholder committee) and presented it to consumers and stakeholders for their input. This systems- mapping process is being employed by ICCS to graphically display how the Wraparound practices will address the community and agency needs identified, and the integration of existing services into a continuum model for service providers, and how the exemplary practice will be deployed in both a family and community context (see map in binder).

ICCS has facilitated the process with consumer and stakeholder group members and the University of Iowa completed a content analysis of project meeting minutes that provides the foundation for planning. The content analysis established the goals and standards of the South County Wraparound model. Additionally, we organized an array of these standards across a case management format for easier adoption by agencies (see binder)

ICCS has interviewed 17 community representatives and completed a survey for 18 agencies serving the South County see binder) . W e are tabulating the responses with our evaluation partner, the National Resource Center for Family-centered Practice, University of Iowa. This needs assessment uses the community-based standards developed by the consumers and agencies to establish the range of value to the community and agencies for each set of wraparound standards.

ICCS has begun discussions with the agencies in the South County Collaborative to develop an adoption protocol for the wraparound continuum and standards. ICCS staff are interviewing the agencies a second time during the month of February to determine needs and readiness for the training of agencies and community organizations for the implementation stage.

Fortunately, we have a Community Wraparound Team located in Santa Clara County. ICCS is meeting with these agency representatives to connect their training capability to this project. We have asked for their assistance to help implement a training plan. ICCS has also contacted the Family Partnership Institute in Santa Clara County to assist with the training plan. This organization has extensive experience providing a wraparound curriculum for county agencies across California.

ICCS along with partnering agencies will look for funding to implement a full scale Wraparound practices training model for the south county. With some additional funding we hope to begin offering training to agencies and community organizations serving South County in 2003-2004.

Through coordination between the Gilroy Family Resource Center, ICCS, and the University of Iowa (project evaluation) we have accomplished a baseline assessment of collaboration across key agencies in the south county area. Brad Richardson, Project Evaluator, has presented results from the collaboration survey and lessons learned from the Iowa Wraparound Plan for Latino Families. At the February meeting Brad Richardson will begin the second assessment of collaboration.

Systems Issues
No issues at this time.

Instrumentation
A binder with all the aforementioned items is included in this report.

Lessons Learned
There is very strong support across the county to expand wraparound practices to children and families who are not currently in the in-crisis system of care. We have a growing consensus with a large group of programs that the culturally appropriate, community-based standards developed in this project be adopted by numerous agencies to enable predominantly Latino families to gain the support needed to obtain services needed to maintain family cohesion. There is strong support for expanding wraparound practices toward a prevention and early intervention model…exactly what this project has achieved to-date.