Director's Notes

June Letter from D'Anna

School’s out for the Summer!

I hope June finds you with plans for outdoor activities and time to soak up nature and rest from busy school, testing and homework schedules! June is also a time when we set aside 1 day to focus on our Flag and what it means and should mean to our family and our country ~ I hope you will reflect on its significance this Sunday, June 14 on Flag Day. If you are looking for activities to get your child interested in the American Flag, visit this website for a listing of activities:

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/flag-day/

In May, we have mourned the loss of one of our wonderful foster parents, Wendy Snodgrass. As I listened to the words spoken about her life, almost every word focused on her love of her husband, Kevin, and her birth and foster children. I found it amazing that someone has that much love and was able to give so much more to others and devotion to her family. What a lesson for all of us. She will be missed.

In May, we took custody of 19 children; 6 girls and 13 boys. 7 of these children were ages 0-5; 6 were ages 6-12; and 6 were 13 and over. 13 were white; 3 were black; and 3 were Hispanic. There were no re-entries of children coming back into foster care. 13 of these children were placed in Cherokee DFCS foster homes; 1 was placed in a group home; 4 were placed with relatives; and 1 was in RYDC. There were 5 sibling groups of 2 children and 1 sibling group of three children. 16 children came from CPS; specifically 11 from investigation petitioning the court and we gained custody of 5 children directly from the bench by the Judge. 3 children came from Family Preservation active cases. 2 children were returned to parents or relatives at the 72-hour hearing and 3 children were returned at the 10-day hearing. There was 1 case dismissal.

We currently have 82 approved family foster homes in Cherokee County. We had 1 home close in May for the following reasons:

·         Family was opened for a specific child and the family decided they could not meet the special needs of the child.

We approved 1 new home in May, congratulations to full approval status to:

·         Drew & Cheryl Marley (Relative Foster Home)

Don’t forget about going to Dixie Speedway on Saturday, June 13.Thanks to Amy’s work with Embrace,Dixie Speedway is giving foster families and DFCS staff another free night of fun! The date is this Saturday, June 13. The kid’s zone starts at 5:00pm and races at 7:00pm.RSVP is to Amy Blanton at info@embracecherokee.com

I want to thank and celebrate all of the fathers this month. You are providing such a positive and influential role in the lives of the children you care for. Happy Father’s Day!

Please let me know your issues and concerns. I appreciate the feedback as this information helps create a stronger partnership between us.   You can email me at: dkliber@dhr.state.ga.us

I continue to look forward to many great things to happen for you and for the children and families in Cherokee County. Thank you again for your valuable service to the children and families.

D’Anna

March Letter from D'Anna

It seems like spring might really be around the corner with warmer days and time to thaw from recent cold and icy days. I hope you and your families have had a good start to the year thus far!

We had a great turnout at the recent Roundtable held March 3 with special guest, Asst. DHR Commissioner Mark Washington. Hopefully, you got some answers to your issues and concerns.

As mentioned at the Roundtable last week, we took custody of 18 children (6 males and 12 females) in February--6 of these children were directly from the bench. In other words, we did not seek custody of these children, but were given custody directly the Judge under Shelter Care orders, primarily older youth with some delinquency issues. 13 of these children came from CPS Investigations and 5 came from Family Preservation. 8 of these children were 13 years or older. 6 of these children were between the ages of 6 and 12, and 4 of these children were from 0-5. The racial breakdown was as follows: 10--white, 4--black, 2--Hispanic, and 2--bi-racial. There were 5 sibling groups of 2 children.

11 of these children were placed in Cherokee foster homes. 4 were placed in a group home (one out of county). 2 children were placed with relatives, and one child was placed in a hospital. 2 of these children went home at the 72-hour hearing. These are the only children in this February group who have left custody so far.

Just last week, we took in six children, due to a sibling group of 4 children. There were 5 males and 1 female. The sibling group of 4 children ranged in age from 7, 5, 4, and 1 years old. The ages of other 2 children were 19 months and 16 months. The large sibling group was placed in a Cherokee FH and placed together. This is a great partnership! The other two children were placed with relatives.

We have grown from 70 family foster homes in January 2008 to 84 homes at the end of February. We are focusing our efforts more on targeted recruitment of older children and homes willing to take sibling groups.

We had 2 homes close in February – one home moved out of state, and one home closed because they wanted a specific child who was no longer in custody.

We have begun to place children from Cobb County when Cobb has no available family foster homes as a resource within our region. Cobb and Douglas Counties are also adopting a similar strategy to use family foster homes as opposed to private agency or group homes as resources.

We approved 7 new homes in February and are beginning to offer “office tours” to help newly approved foster parents understand the flow of the office more.

We learned at the Roundtable that there had been a positive adjustment to Child Care for Foster Parents. I have been trying to get more clarification on this as I was unaware of this change. Since last week, I learned that the policy that limited the reimbursement of childcare providers up to the maximum DFCS weekly rate was changed for Supplemental Supervision and Children in DFCS Custody cases effective January 2, 2009 with the release of CAPS Manual Transmittal 2008-02 (which we are not in receipt of). We are still waiting on the hard copy of the actual Manual 2008-02 from the State Caps unit, which should be forthcoming; it was to be "in the field" by 2/26/09.

For example, if a provider charges a foster parent or person caring for a child in DFCS custody $199 per week (provider's published rate) but the DFCS maximum rate is $139 per week, the provider's published rate of $199 per week can be paid, resulting in no additional out of pocket expense. The Regional CAPS Field Program Specialist must forward requests that exceed $199 per week to the State CAPS Unit for approval.

There is no requirement for CAPS Staff to conduct a desk review to change existing certificates. Certificates should be changed when the case is touched, upon request, at recertification, but no later than June 30, 2009.

Hopefully this answers your questions regarding this policy change. As we get more information, I will certainly share it as I know this was anticipated and welcome news.

Thank you for all of your love, support and time to our children.

D’Anna

February Letter from D'Anna Liber

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Thank you for the feedback I received from the questions posed to you in December and January newsletters on ways to strengthen and improve our partnership. Some of the responses I received included your support and appreciation of the Embrace initiatives and the Foster Parent Liaison assisting with communication and in sponsoring events around the county. Many of you requested more data regarding the number of children we take into legal custody each month and their ages, some of you posed legal questions regarding the length of time in adoptions or why CASA are able to review case file information and foster parents aren’t provided the same level of information. Some of your responses dealt with staff performance issues as well. All of these comments have been researched and we are trying to meet your needs in our communication and better partnership with you. I know you have recently received information from Margaret Dawe, Foster Care Administrator, regarding our restructuring of units in an effort to secure permanency for children sooner. Hopefully, this information on our organizational structure was helpful to you.

Regarding current data, in January, we took custody of 8 children; 6 girls, 2 boys. This group of children was diverse this month and included 3 white, 1 African American, 2 Hispanic, and 2 Native American children. Age ranges were as follows: 0-5, 3 children; 6-12, 1 child; and 13 and over, 4 children. There were 2 siblings groups of 2 children. 2 of these children were placed with relatives. The other 6 children were placed in Cherokee DFCS foster homes. 1 child was returned at the 72-hour hearing. The case stage was 6 children from CPS Investigations and 2 from Family Preservation. This is one less child entering care than in December.

We currently have 77 approved family foster homes in Cherokee County. 2 homes closed in January and we added no new homes. We have maintained a 76.1% retention rate of our foster homes since January 1, 2008 (as of Dec. 31, 2008). When adoption closures are removed from the data, our retention rate is at 85.0% for this time period. In the last six months, since July 1, 2008, our retention rate is 89.7% and when adoption closures are removed from the data, our retention rate is at 92.4% for this time period. We currently have approximately 13 studies to be reviewed with the potential for 13 new homes to be approved in March. We delayed the beginning of our next scheduled Impact class due to staffing needs but this class is scheduled to begin March 19.

I hope those of you who will be attending the upcoming Conference in Jekyll Island Feb 26, 27, 28 and March 1st will enjoy and benefit from this training and networking opportunity. I trust you will find the workshops and training helpful and beneficial to you and will return restored and renewed in your abilities to care for foster children. Enjoy the Conference! As an additional reminder, we still have some families who have not achieved their required training hours for 2008. Please work toward gaining all of your required hours so your home will remain in full approval status.

The next Foster Parent Roundtable will be held on March 3rd at Canton United Methodist Church starting at 6:30 PM. Please RSVP to Amy Blanton at 770-356-5102 or info@embracecherokee.com by 2-24. Dinner and babysitting will be provided. Mark Washington, DHR Assistant Commissioner, will be at the meeting. I hope you will be able to attend this event. We have gotten some encouraging news on some revisions to the Natural Helper guidelines which will better streamline the approval process. As these revisions are finalized and approved by State DFCS Leadership, I will share these with you.

Given these challenging times we are in, I want to end this note with a quote that I hope is meaningful to you, as it is to me.

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.

If we treat people as they ought to be,

we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

~ Goethe

I continue to look forward to many great things to happen for you and for the children and families in Cherokee County. Thank you again for your valuable service to the children and families.

D’Anna

January Letter from D'Anna Liber

Welcome to 2009!

We are at the beginning of a New Year and I'm very excited by new goals, challenges that await us and our partnership in the coming year. Our agency theme this year is: Cherokee Will Shine On Time in 2009. Our goals surround permanency for children and focusing on reducing the median number of days children are in foster care. In an article written December 17, 2008, our Commissioner, B.J. Walker stated: As part of an effort to help Georgia’s foster children make a “lifelong connection,” the Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Family and Children Services (DHR DFCS) is partnering with a nationally-renowned private foundation that specializes in helping child welfare agencies find permanent homes for more children. Our new Division Director, Mark Washington, is also quoted in the article stating: “Different solutions work for different children,” Washington said. “But our goal is a lifelong connection for every child.” With that being stated, we will focus more heavily focus our efforts as we work toward a new goal” No Child will be without a permanent home in GA”

Other agency goals are more timely reimbursements for perdiem and other payments, improved customer service, continued retention of staff and implementation of an agency website.

We're going to inaugurate the first African American President in the history of our country. This is a testament to how what was once thought of as impossible is now possible. For me a New Year brings new inspiration, new life and new vigor. I want to face the challenges of this year and thrive personally, professionally and as an agency stronger connected to this community.

As they say, to build a house, first we need good bricks. If the formative units are great, the structure has no options but to turn out the way we want it to be. This year we must all contribute to make this agency better. As a community, we must all contribute to make this county a better place for us to live in. I think that should be a shared New Year resolution. If we make our little effort count, I'm sure we'll be covering a lot of ground within the agency and the community.

As we begin the New Year, I would like your input on the following areas as we strive toward improvement in our support of you.

What is it that is working for you as a means of our support toward you and what would you like to see more of?
What is not working which demonstrates a lack of support toward you?
What data matters to you in your relationship to us? Would you like to receive more statistical information on a monthly basis? (i.e. # of children in care, age range, # of approved foster homes each month)

Each month, I’ll be sharing the number of children we took legal custody of, so you will be more familiar with the current population we are serving. We took custody of 9 children in December; 6 boys, 3 girls; all white; 2 sibling groups of 2; 2 children from 0-5, 3 children from 6-12, and 4 children 13 and over. We placed 2 of these children with relatives. Also 3 of these children went home at the 72-hour hearing and 2 went home at the 10-day hearing---an unusually high number.

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” Stacia Tauscher

Thanks again for your valuable service to the children and families of Cherokee County.

I hope 2009 Blesses you and your family and you have a very Happy New Year! Please let me know your thoughts on this by phone call or email.

D’Anna

770-720-3629

dkliber@dhr.state.ga.us

December Letter from D'Anna Liber

This is the season of light, a time when hearts are aglow with the anticipation and hope for a joyous Holiday season. This is also a time to look back and review the events of 2008 to ascertain if we have made a difference in the lives of those around us. As the Director for Cherokee County DFCS, I am most proud of the many accomplishments we have achieved this year. In regard to our retention of foster parents, we began this year with an initiative, Embrace, which was one of the First Lady’s Children’s Cabinet goals for Georgia this year. In the 6-month period, before we introduced the concept and strategies of Embrace, Region 17 (Cobb, Cherokee and Douglas Counties) had an 86.3% retention rate among its foster parents. In the data from January 2008-June 2008, our Region retention rate increased to 90% and when we removed the homes that closed due to for “good cause”, such as in finalized adoptions, the 6-month rate rose to 95%. In Cherokee County, we approved 25 new homes and saw a new gain of 13 homes from the 67 active homes in January 2008 to 80 active homes in October, 2008 despite 12 closures. This is a county specific retention rate of 95.5%, the highest in our Region.

We have also seen an increased community awareness and support demonstrated this year through several area churches, community groups and businesses resulting in our ability to meet children’s needs in foster care at Christmas as well as through the year in celebrating events such as birthdays, high school graduations and college plans.

We have seen the number of children in care fluctuate from month to month ranging from a record high number in January 2008 of 29 children to a low number of only 8 children this past October. We feel we are able to locate and secure more relatives than in previous months and work within the family unit to the safest extent possible as we work under a family centered social work practice. In November, we placed 17 children in foster placements.

We continue to grow as a foster parent population and currently have 80 approved homes. As we begin the New Year, I would like your input on the following areas as we strive toward improvement in our support of you.

What is it that is working for you as a means of our support toward you and what would you like to see more of?
What is not working which demonstrates a lack of support toward you?
What data matters to you in your relationship to us? Would you like to receive more statistical information on a monthly basis? (i.e. # of children in care, age range, # of approved foster homes each month)

As you reflect on whether you feel you have made a difference in someone’s life this year, please know you have in the lives of the children and families you have cared for. This is a time of insight, radiance, and joy. I thank you for your love, sharing, and guidance to our children. You are able to let your own inner light shine brightly in the lives of children. With wisdom and kindness, you make a difference in the lives of many each day.

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. –John Wesley

Thanks again for your valuable service to the children and families of Cherokee County.

Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas!

D’Anna

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Director's Notes June Letter from D'Anna School’s out for the Summer! I hope June finds you with plans for outdoor activities and time to soak up nature and rest from busy school, testing and homework schedules! June is also a time when we set aside 1 day to focus on our Flag and what it means and should mean to our family and our country ~ I hope you will reflect on its significance this Sunday, June 14 on Flag Day. If you are looking for activities to get your child interested in the American Flag, visit this website for a listing of activities: http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/flag-day/ In May, we have mourned the loss of one of our wonderful foster parents, Wendy Snodgrass. As I listened to the words spoken about her life, almost every word focused on her love of her husband, Kevin, and her birth and foster children. I found it amazing that someone has that much love and was able to give so much more to others and devotion to her family. What a lesson for all of us. She will be missed. In May, we took custody of 19 children; 6 girls and 13 boys. 7 of these children were ages 0-5; 6 were ages 6-12; and 6 were 13 and over. 13 were white; 3 were black; and 3 were Hispanic. There were no re-entries of children coming back into foster care. 13 of these children were placed in Cherokee DFCS foster homes; 1 was placed in a group home; 4 were placed with relatives; and 1 was in RYDC. There were 5 sibling groups of 2 children and 1 sibling group of three children. 16 children came from CPS; specifically 11 from investigation petitioning the court and we gained custody of 5 children directly from the bench by the Judge. 3 children came from Family Preservation active cases. 2 children were returned to parents or relatives at the 72-hour hearing and 3 children were returned at the 10-day hearing. There was 1 case dismissal. We currently have 82 approved family foster homes in Cherokee County. We had 1 home close in May for the following reasons: · Family was opened for a specific child and the family decided they could not meet the special needs of the child. We approved 1 new home in May, congratulations to full approval status to: · Drew & Cheryl Marley (Relative Foster Home) Don’t forget about going to Dixie Speedway on Saturday, June 13.Thanks to Amy’s work with Embrace,Dixie Speedway is giving foster families and DFCS staff another free night of fun! The date is this Saturday, June 13. The kid’s zone starts at 5:00pm and races at 7:00pm.RSVP is to Amy Blanton at info@embracecherokee.com I want to thank and celebrate all of the fathers this month. You are providing such a positive and influential role in the lives of the children you care for. Happy Father’s Day! Please let me know your issues and concerns. I appreciate the feedback as this information helps create a stronger partnership between us. You can email me at: dkliber@dhr.state.ga.us I continue to look forward to many great things to happen for you and for the children and families in Cherokee County. Thank you again for your valuable service to the children and families. D’Anna March Letter from D'Anna It seems like spring might really be around the corner with warmer days and time to thaw from recent cold and icy days. I hope you and your families have had a good start to the year thus far! We had a great turnout at the recent Roundtable held March 3 with special guest, Asst. DHR Commissioner Mark Washington. Hopefully, you got some answers to your issues and concerns. As mentioned at the Roundtable last week, we took custody of 18 children (6 males and 12 females) in February--6 of these children were directly from the bench. In other words, we did not seek custody of these children, but were given custody directly the Judge under Shelter Care orders, primarily older youth with some delinquency issues. 13 of these children came from CPS Investigations and 5 came from Family Preservation. 8 of these children were 13 years or older. 6 of these children were between the ages of 6 and 12, and 4 of these children were from 0-5. The racial breakdown was as follows: 10--white, 4--black, 2--Hispanic, and 2--bi-racial. There were 5 sibling groups of 2 children. 11 of these children were placed in Cherokee foster homes. 4 were placed in a group home (one out of county). 2 children were placed with relatives, and one child was placed in a hospital. 2 of these children went home at the 72-hour hearing. These are the only children in this February group who have left custody so far. Just last week, we took in six children, due to a sibling group of 4 children. There were 5 males and 1 female. The sibling group of 4 children ranged in age from 7, 5, 4, and 1 years old. The ages of other 2 children were 19 months and 16 months. The large sibling group was placed in a Cherokee FH and placed together. This is a great partnership! The other two children were placed with relatives. We have grown from 70 family foster homes in January 2008 to 84 homes at the end of February. We are focusing our efforts more on targeted recruitment of older children and homes willing to take sibling groups. We had 2 homes close in February – one home moved out of state, and one home closed because they wanted a specific child who was no longer in custody. We have begun to place children from Cobb County when Cobb has no available family foster homes as a resource within our region. Cobb and Douglas Counties are also adopting a similar strategy to use family foster homes as opposed to private agency or group homes as resources. We approved 7 new homes in February and are beginning to offer “office tours” to help newly approved foster parents understand the flow of the office more. We learned at the Roundtable that there had been a positive adjustment to Child Care for Foster Parents. I have been trying to get more clarification on this as I was unaware of this change. Since last week, I learned that the policy that limited the reimbursement of childcare providers up to the maximum DFCS weekly rate was changed for Supplemental Supervision and Children in DFCS Custody cases effective January 2, 2009 with the release of CAPS Manual Transmittal 2008-02 (which we are not in receipt of). We are still waiting on the hard copy of the actual Manual 2008-02 from the State Caps unit, which should be forthcoming; it was to be "in the field" by 2/26/09. For example, if a provider charges a foster parent or person caring for a child in DFCS custody $199 per week (provider's published rate) but the DFCS maximum rate is $139 per week, the provider's published rate of $199 per week can be paid, resulting in no additional out of pocket expense. The Regional CAPS Field Program Specialist must forward requests that exceed $199 per week to the State CAPS Unit for approval. There is no requirement for CAPS Staff to conduct a desk review to change existing certificates. Certificates should be changed when the case is touched, upon request, at recertification, but no later than June 30, 2009. Hopefully this answers your questions regarding this policy change. As we get more information, I will certainly share it as I know this was anticipated and welcome news. Thank you for all of your love, support and time to our children. D’Anna February Letter from D'Anna Liber Happy Valentine’s Day! Thank you for the feedback I received from the questions posed to you in December and January newsletters on ways to strengthen and improve our partnership. Some of the responses I received included your support and appreciation of the Embrace initiatives and the Foster Parent Liaison assisting with communication and in sponsoring events around the county. Many of you requested more data regarding the number of children we take into legal custody each month and their ages, some of you posed legal questions regarding the length of time in adoptions or why CASA are able to review case file information and foster parents aren’t provided the same level of information. Some of your responses dealt with staff performance issues as well. All of these comments have been researched and we are trying to meet your needs in our communication and better partnership with you. I know you have recently received information from Margaret Dawe, Foster Care Administrator, regarding our restructuring of units in an effort to secure permanency for children sooner. Hopefully, this information on our organizational structure was helpful to you. Regarding current data, in January, we took custody of 8 children; 6 girls, 2 boys. This group of children was diverse this month and included 3 white, 1 African American, 2 Hispanic, and 2 Native American children. Age ranges were as follows: 0-5, 3 children; 6-12, 1 child; and 13 and over, 4 children. There were 2 siblings groups of 2 children. 2 of these children were placed with relatives. The other 6 children were placed in Cherokee DFCS foster homes. 1 child was returned at the 72-hour hearing. The case stage was 6 children from CPS Investigations and 2 from Family Preservation. This is one less child entering care than in December. We currently have 77 approved family foster homes in Cherokee County. 2 homes closed in January and we added no new homes. We have maintained a 76.1% retention rate of our foster homes since January 1, 2008 (as of Dec. 31, 2008). When adoption closures are removed from the data, our retention rate is at 85.0% for this time period. In the last six months, since July 1, 2008, our retention rate is 89.7% and when adoption closures are removed from the data, our retention rate is at 92.4% for this time period. We currently have approximately 13 studies to be reviewed with the potential for 13 new homes to be approved in March. We delayed the beginning of our next scheduled Impact class due to staffing needs but this class is scheduled to begin March 19. I hope those of you who will be attending the upcoming Conference in Jekyll Island Feb 26, 27, 28 and March 1st will enjoy and benefit from this training and networking opportunity. I trust you will find the workshops and training helpful and beneficial to you and will return restored and renewed in your abilities to care for foster children. Enjoy the Conference! As an additional reminder, we still have some families who have not achieved their required training hours for 2008. Please work toward gaining all of your required hours so your home will remain in full approval status. The next Foster Parent Roundtable will be held on March 3rd at Canton United Methodist Church starting at 6:30 PM. Please RSVP to Amy Blanton at 770-356-5102 or info@embracecherokee.com by 2-24. Dinner and babysitting will be provided. Mark Washington, DHR Assistant Commissioner, will be at the meeting. I hope you will be able to attend this event. We have gotten some encouraging news on some revisions to the Natural Helper guidelines which will better streamline the approval process. As these revisions are finalized and approved by State DFCS Leadership, I will share these with you. Given these challenging times we are in, I want to end this note with a quote that I hope is meaningful to you, as it is to me. “I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.” ~ Goethe I continue to look forward to many great things to happen for you and for the children and families in Cherokee County. Thank you again for your valuable service to the children and families. D’Anna January Letter from D'Anna Liber Welcome to 2009! We are at the beginning of a New Year and I'm very excited by new goals, challenges that await us and our partnership in the coming year. Our agency theme this year is: Cherokee Will Shine On Time in 2009. Our goals surround permanency for children and focusing on reducing the median number of days children are in foster care. In an article written December 17, 2008, our Commissioner, B.J. Walker stated: As part of an effort to help Georgia’s foster children make a “lifelong connection,” the Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Family and Children Services (DHR DFCS) is partnering with a nationally-renowned private foundation that specializes in helping child welfare agencies find permanent homes for more children. Our new Division Director, Mark Washington, is also quoted in the article stating: “Different solutions work for different children,” Washington said. “But our goal is a lifelong connection for every child.” With that being stated, we will focus more heavily focus our efforts as we work toward a new goal” No Child will be without a permanent home in GA” Other agency goals are more timely reimbursements for perdiem and other payments, improved customer service, continued retention of staff and implementation of an agency website. We're going to inaugurate the first African American President in the history of our country. This is a testament to how what was once thought of as impossible is now possible. For me a New Year brings new inspiration, new life and new vigor. I want to face the challenges of this year and thrive personally, professionally and as an agency stronger connected to this community. As they say, to build a house, first we need good bricks. If the formative units are great, the structure has no options but to turn out the way we want it to be. This year we must all contribute to make this agency better. As a community, we must all contribute to make this county a better place for us to live in. I think that should be a shared New Year resolution. If we make our little effort count, I'm sure we'll be covering a lot of ground within the agency and the community. As we begin the New Year, I would like your input on the following areas as we strive toward improvement in our support of you. What is it that is working for you as a means of our support toward you and what would you like to see more of? What is not working which demonstrates a lack of support toward you? What data matters to you in your relationship to us? Would you like to receive more statistical information on a monthly basis? (i.e. # of children in care, age range, # of approved foster homes each month) Each month, I’ll be sharing the number of children we took legal custody of, so you will be more familiar with the current population we are serving. We took custody of 9 children in December; 6 boys, 3 girls; all white; 2 sibling groups of 2; 2 children from 0-5, 3 children from 6-12, and 4 children 13 and over. We placed 2 of these children with relatives. Also 3 of these children went home at the 72-hour hearing and 2 went home at the 10-day hearing---an unusually high number. “We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” Stacia Tauscher Thanks again for your valuable service to the children and families of Cherokee County. I hope 2009 Blesses you and your family and you have a very Happy New Year! Please let me know your thoughts on this by phone call or email. D’Anna 770-720-3629 dkliber@dhr.state.ga.us December Letter from D'Anna Liber This is the season of light, a time when hearts are aglow with the anticipation and hope for a joyous Holiday season. This is also a time to look back and review the events of 2008 to ascertain if we have made a difference in the lives of those around us. As the Director for Cherokee County DFCS, I am most proud of the many accomplishments we have achieved this year. In regard to our retention of foster parents, we began this year with an initiative, Embrace, which was one of the First Lady’s Children’s Cabinet goals for Georgia this year. In the 6-month period, before we introduced the concept and strategies of Embrace, Region 17 (Cobb, Cherokee and Douglas Counties) had an 86.3% retention rate among its foster parents. In the data from January 2008-June 2008, our Region retention rate increased to 90% and when we removed the homes that closed due to for “good cause”, such as in finalized adoptions, the 6-month rate rose to 95%. In Cherokee County, we approved 25 new homes and saw a new gain of 13 homes from the 67 active homes in January 2008 to 80 active homes in October, 2008 despite 12 closures. This is a county specific retention rate of 95.5%, the highest in our Region. We have also seen an increased community awareness and support demonstrated this year through several area churches, community groups and businesses resulting in our ability to meet children’s needs in foster care at Christmas as well as through the year in celebrating events such as birthdays, high school graduations and college plans. We have seen the number of children in care fluctuate from month to month ranging from a record high number in January 2008 of 29 children to a low number of only 8 children this past October. We feel we are able to locate and secure more relatives than in previous months and work within the family unit to the safest extent possible as we work under a family centered social work practice. In November, we placed 17 children in foster placements. We continue to grow as a foster parent population and currently have 80 approved homes. As we begin the New Year, I would like your input on the following areas as we strive toward improvement in our support of you. What is it that is working for you as a means of our support toward you and what would you like to see more of? What is not working which demonstrates a lack of support toward you? What data matters to you in your relationship to us? Would you like to receive more statistical information on a monthly basis? (i.e. # of children in care, age range, # of approved foster homes each month) As you reflect on whether you feel you have made a difference in someone’s life this year, please know you have in the lives of the children and families you have cared for. This is a time of insight, radiance, and joy. I thank you for your love, sharing, and guidance to our children. You are able to let your own inner light shine brightly in the lives of children. With wisdom and kindness, you make a difference in the lives of many each day. Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. –John Wesley Thanks again for your valuable service to the children and families of Cherokee County. Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas! D’Anna [Printer Friendly]
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