May 2013

Notes from the Field

Page 1

Johnson County were 100 percent. The Healthy Families America standard is 75 percent!

• The Oasis Program has established a new partnership with a local community agency for the specific youth Oasis serves. Chris Bush with Crossing Over Consulting Services provides a weekly youth group for our Oasis clients. The group’s objectives focus on developing each individual’s growth, leadership and self-esteem. Youth who attend this group are learning how to take respon-sibility, how to work under pressure while being under control, making decisions that lead to positive results, being able to speak boldly about who they are and the obstacles they are overcoming and identifying themselves as future leaders.

• KCSL was honored at the Wash-burn University Student Social Work Association's banquet April 26 with a certificate of appreciation for mentoring interns and making the commitment it takes to manage them each year. Interns allow KCSL to serve additional families at no cost since their work is free. The intern in return gets great experience working for a wonderful agency, and they enter the workforce ready to serve clients. It's pretty cool to have an oppor-tunity to help grow and nurture students entering the social work profession. In addition to the certificate of recognition, a 50/50 raffle draw and silent and live auction were held. All money raised will benefit KCSL programs.

• KCSL will participate in Topeka Gives, Topeka Community Foundation’s one-day event celebrating the joy of charitable giving on June 19 inside Fairlawn Plaza Mall. There is a $25 minimum gift. Matching funds will be awarded to the first $1,000 of each donor’s contribution.

SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONSubmitted by Cornelia Stevens, South Central Region Director

• On April 27, the Southeast Kansas “F5” Fatherhood Summit was held in Pittsburg at Lincoln Park. Over 150 family members attended the summit. They were treated to a variety of family activities, which included the Home Depot “building projects” activity, the “F5” t-shirt father and child decorating activity, Tetey the Clown providing balloon art for the children, the “book walk” where the children received books, photo booth for fathers and chil-dren to take pictures, petting zoo and an area youth magician, Jay Temmat, who performed magic tricks.

Nate Bunn, an area children’s musician, performed a series of children’s songs. Each child attending the Summit received a CD of Nate’s children’s music. KCSL 120th Anniversary was celebrated at the “F5” with the attendees being treated to a special 120th Anniversary cake created by a local bakery.

• The Strong and Stable Families Program’s Kansas Adoption Advisory Council held a face-to-face meeting in Topeka April 6 to work on the council policies and procedures and finalize the groups’ mission statement. The council has been receiving several calls statewide in regards to questions and concerns from adoptive parents and soon-to-adopt families.

Kids View Online

EAST REGIONSubmitted by Gail Cozadd, East Region Director

• We were very busy in April mostly with activities related to Child Abuse Prevention Month: Pinwheel Gardens everywhere, Mandated Reporter Training in Southeast Kansas, Easter Egg Hunt and Pinwheel giveaway at the Legends in Kansas City, KS, Kickstands for Kids in Topeka, blue fountains in the Metro KC area including Corporate Woods in Johnson County, radio spots on local stations and a special tailgate party celebrating KCSL’s 120th Anniversary as well as CAP month at Sporting KC.

• Shawnee County Healthy Families program has been reaching out to the central referral resource for some time, and this month they received three new referrals from the primary community partner. They also had a 100 percent rate for children in the program cur-rent with immunizations, 100 percent children with a health insurance pro-vider and 91percent of children in the program were current with Well Baby Visits!

•Weekly Supervision rates for staff in Southeast Kansas, Topeka and

May 2013Page 2 Kids View Online

Notes from the Field, continued from page 1

EDUCATION AND AWARENESSSubmitted by Vicky Roper, Director, Education and Awareness and Prevent Child Abuse Kansas Director

• The Talk of the Town restaurant fundraising night was PACKED and raised $440, which will be matched, benefitting Healthy Families in Johnson County.

• Compass Minerals planted a Pinwheel Garden and sponsored having the Eilert Fountain in Corporate Woods dyed blue for the month of April. They also hosted a Blue Jeans Day on April 19 to raise money!

• Grant Thornton donated the proceeds of four Blue Jeans Days in April to KCSL.

• The ACE study was presented to the Greater KC Community Leadership and Development Council (CLDC) in April. They were very responsive and enthusi-astic about promoting the study.

• KCSL, along with the Bi-State Coalition for Child Abuse Prevention, sold 297 tickets to the Sporting KC game on April 27! Participants had pinwheels and wore Blue to raise awareness at the game.

• We are in the process of launching the 2013 Click for Babies purple hat campaign. For more details contact Anne Auld, aauld@kcsl.org.

• Statewide Wear Blue Day was held on April 19. Schools, communities and businesses participated to raise awareness of child abuse prevention programs.

• The Flying Stove food truck parked at the KCSL office, 1365 N. Custer, to serve lunch. Pinwheels and other materials were available to those who came by for lunch. A pinwheel garden

was planted outside; paper pinwheels were also hung on the windows in honor of children and families of staff and visitors.

• The Sedgwick County CAP Coalition held Family Fun Day at the Sedgwick County Zoo, Saturday, April 6. Games, face painting and other family friendly events were available with regular zoo admission.

• The Bullying Prevention hotline has extended online with a Facebook page (Opportunity Kindness) and Twitter @BullyFreeKs. For more details contact Michelle Pickert, mpickert@kcsl.org.

• Bullying Hotline Magnets and Posters were distributed to all middle schools in February.

• FunTastic Family Day was held April 6 at the Boys & Girls Club in Topeka (550 SE 27th St). Activities included pinwheel planting, story time with a performer from the library, bounce house, fire and police vehicles and face painting as well as field activities such as kickball, bean bag toss and the parachute. This was a collaborative event was made possible through KCSL partnering with United Way, CASA, Lifehouse Advocacy and Boys & Girls Club.

• On April 3, SOS, a local commu-nity partner with KCSL, hosted a Child Abuse Prevention Summit at the Amend Girl Scout building. Dr. Ann Salter spoke on sexual abuse and keeping our children safe.

• The Teddy Bear Clinic was held on Saturday, April 6th at the Flint Hills Mall. Community partners set up booths to help families find and access resources. Children brought their Teddy

Bears for a “check up” by Newman Regional Health Partners.

• Family Fun Night was held at the Emporia Public Library on April 9 focusing on literacy, free and fun children’s programming, and celebrating children.

• A Child Abuse and Neglect Mandated Reporter training was held for the teachers and staff at Pleasant Valley Elementary School, April 23.

• KCSL hosted three Child Abuse & Neglect Mandated Reporter training for staff and community members, April 23 in Wichita, April 25 in Topeka and April 26 in Garden City.

• More than 27,500 bookmarks and nearly 5,000 pinwheels have been distributed.

• Spangles Restaurants (28 across the state) placed table tents in all stores for Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Month. The table tents were designed with the same information as the CAP Month bookmarks plus a QR code that links to the PCAKansas Facebook page.

• Natural Grocers once again asked for donations from customers with proceeds benefitting KCSL Prevention Programs. Natural Grocers designed the materials then asked KCSL to add the pinwheel and contact information.

• Dillons Food Stores provided change banks at check out for donations to KCSL Prevention Programs.

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May 2013Page 3 Kids View Online

• The Wichita Wild Indoor Football team included CAP Month bookmarks in the March and April Game Day Programs. Mini footballs are sold at all Wild home games with proceeds ben-efitting KCSL Prevention Programs.

• The Parent Leadership Conference will be held October 4-5 at the Ramada Hotel & Conference Center in Topeka.

• The 37th Annual Governor’s Confer-ence for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect will be November 6-8 at Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka. Opening keynote speaker will be Dr. Robert Block, immediate past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. We are still working on finalizing additional keynote speaker as well as institute and workshop presenters.

• We raised $1000 from the Silent Art Auction during the Board Reception/Dinner on Thursday, April 18.

• We have raised approximately $550 from football sales during Wichita Wild games.

• We trained Foster Grandparents in Winfield on Bullying Prevention; Michelle Pickert will train Foster Grand-parents in Newton in June.

• We continue to field inquiries about bullying prevention trainings though limited funding for those that require travel outside of Wichita.

• The Bullying Prevention Self-Paced course is now available online.

WEST REGIONSubmitted by Eric Pommier, West Region Director

• The Kansas Early Head Start (KEHS) program recently received funding from

the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to offer the Strong Dads program to many of our KEHS and Early Head Start (EHS) families. The Strong Dads program consisted of several meetings, facilitated by DCF, which focused on healthy interactions between parents and children. We had large turnouts for each event and have received positive feedback about the quality and content of the sessions. Parents who attended the events received meals and incen-tives, including activities that encourage developmentally appropriate play. The KEHS and EHS staff in our program have worked extremely hard to make each event successful, and we are thrilled to see so many parents engaged and excited about their children’s developmental progress.