Director's Message

March 10, 2006

To: DHS employees

From: Dr. Bruce Goldberg, DHS Director

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit." Helen Keller

Last week, I promised to devote this message to the Center for Family Success. It's a great example of what can be done when we open a new doorway for the human spirit, collaborate with our partners, and organize services around clients.

The Center for Family Success in Portland is a collaborative effort involving many partners in Multnomah County including DHS, the Children's Justice Alliance, Portland Relief Nursery, Pathfinders, Portland State University, Department of Corrections (DOC) and Multnomah County Parole and Probation, among others. It focuses on helping children whose parents are involved in the criminal justice system.

The center specifically targets women with children who have been released from the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville -- helping them become self-sufficient and increasing their parenting skills. By working intensively with these parents, we may also be preventing their children from becoming part of the child welfare system or from entering the criminal justice system themselves.

This is important work as there is an overlap between DHS and DOC. Between self sufficiency and child welfare, we share many of the same families and it makes sense to bridge our agencies (DHS and DOC) to meet the needs of these children and families.

Data show an increase in re-abuse rates following release from prison. This statistic is especially important to our child welfare staff. It demonstrates the importance of intervening early with these families. The Center for Family Success and the DHS partnership have made this possible by offering parent education classes and intensive community support.

When we began this program, we identified some primary goals. They were:

• To keep children out of the foster care system by keeping them safely at home
• To prevent abuse or re-abuse of children
• To prevent re-entry into the foster care system
• To prevent future criminal behavior of children in the foster care system

The center has been enormously successful. The parenting classes offered are now being conducted at multiple sites in Multnomah County and the completion rate of those moving from the criminal justice system has been high. The center also has been serving as an employer for some of the women, as they learn job skills and begin to transition to more permanent employment.

The center originally focused on families in one neighborhood but has quickly expanded to greater Multnomah County because of the need. They are now looking at how to expand the effort statewide.

But here is the most important piece. The center is a wonderful, supportive place for families and the credit goes to the enthusiastic staff who work across disciplines to meet these families' needs. When I was there I met many of our DHS staff who work there and they told me that this was "the best place they had ever worked." They explained that the reason it was such a great place was that there was an entire array of services available to families under one roof. Furthermore, it was a supportive environment and very efficient. Staff indicated that they could "get more done" there in a much shorter time.

Needless to say, this impressed me and it moved me to ask them why we couldn't make all our offices like this. I know we have some other offices in the state that also collaborate with partners on site. If this is such a productive, supportive, efficient, and nurturing place to work and get services, why shouldn't all our offices be like that? In fact I may have gotten out a bit  ahead of myself (not too unusual), for when making some public remarks at the celebration, I challenged us as an organization to do just that. You'll be hearing more about this in future messages.

So let's do just that. Let us create our own success. As Pablo Picasso once wrote: "Action is the foundational key to all success." Have a great weekend.

To provide feedback email: DHS.Directorsoffice@state.or.us

This message is intended for all department employees. Please read it electronically, if possible. Managers and supervisors are asked to share the message each week with employees who do not have email access.

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