Should we call this thing to order here?

All right, calling meeting of the first five Sacramento Commission on April 7th to order

at 1234.

Yes, do I tell you roll, yes roll call please.

Chair Serna is not here today.

Commissioner Wesley.

Here.

Commissioner Fernandez Igircia.

Here.

Commissioner Gordon is not here.

Commissioner Casillia.

Here.

Commissioner Gutari here.

Commissioner Mouk.

Here.

Commissioner Kennedy is not here.

Commissioner Haset.

Here.

Commissioner Williams.

Here.

Commissioner Evans.

Here.

Commissioner Lloyd.

Here.

And Commissioner Kravitz-Swerce is not here today.

Thank you, we have Gorham.

Thank you.

Oh yes, Pledge of Allegiance, thank you.

Let's see, Commissioner Mouk, please lead us.

All to a stand, salute, pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the republic for which it stands,

one nation under God, indivisible,

with liberty and justice for all.

Remember doing it though.

Thank you.

This meeting of the first five Sacramento commission is live

and recorded with closed captioning.

It is cable cast on Metro Cable Channel 14,

the local government affairs channel on the Comcast

and Direct TV U-verse cable systems.

It is also live stream at Metro 14 live.saccounty.gov.

Today's meeting replaced Saturday, April 12th at 2 p.m.

on Metro Cable Channel 14.

Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed

on demand at youtube.com slash Metro Cable 14.

Just to let everyone know that there's only six voting members

for each item today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Item number one.

Item number one, approval of February 3rd,

2025, Trap Action Summary.

All right.

Anybody move to approve?

We have to vote.

I'll move to approve.

Oh, sorry.

All right.

And second.

All in roll call vote.

We do it.

Yep.

Commissioner Wesley.

Aye.

Commissioner Fernandez-Garcia.

Aye.

Commissioner Evans.

Aye.

Commissioner Cacirie.

Aye.

Commissioner Cattari.

And Commissioner Mouk.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Item number two, public comments on off agenda items.

Do we have any public commenting?

Hello.

Hello.

My name is Shanayla Sal.

And I am here to bring greetings from Black California United

for Early Education, Early Care and Education.

Black ECE is the only organization in California dedicated

to advocating for safe, nurturing,

and loving early care and education for Black children.

Excuse me.

I'm sorry.

I'm messing up.

Families and Early Education.

Black ECE is a leading voice for the needs and experience

of California, nearly 500,000 Black children,

their families and communities.

We are building a strong, proud coalition of Black advocates

to shape California's policies, systems,

and services to care for Black children

and firm Black culture.

For two years, I have been a proud advocate

with the Black ECE Lift Every Voice Campaign,

coalition of a dozen of Black early care

and education providers who demand to be heard.

I have been an early education for over 30 years,

providing a brand of loving care that is unique

to Black early care education, strengthened by my ancestors

who were our nation's first child care providers

during the Chateau's slavery.

I am continuing the legacy of nurturing, raising,

and educating all children.

But as a Black educator, we are paid the average nearly $1

less than our hour than our counterparts.

And up to $3 less than when we are a director

or lead teacher in a center-based care.

Radical Wage Justice is Black ECE's first strategic plan priority.

As Lift Every Voice advocate, I stand with dozens of other

Black early educators and advocates from across the state,

demanding that rate reform that pays for their true care

and cost.

I'm saying that wrong, sorry.

Pay for the true cost and care.

Black ECE's second strategic plan is one you all are familiar with,

culture affirmation.

Black ECE is excited to be partnered with Sacramento

first five, or first five Sacramento,

to distribute Black families, culture, kids to 100 families

in our community.

And we are grateful for the first five Sacramento for supporting

several early educators and participating in the institution

of culture.

Affirming practices for Black children.

Thank you.

We are also like to invite you to everyone to the second

Black ECE symposium, Dismantling Linguistics Oppression.

The path towards language justice for Black children

in early childhood education will be held in Los Angeles

August 14th and 15th, and registration is open to all in

our website at Black ECE.

Our final strategic planning is priority is reparation.

As steering committee members of the Alliance for Reparation,

Reconciliation and Truth, Black ECE ensures early care and

education is not forgotten in California.

Movement forward, reparation.

Again, we thank you for the partner and look forward to

deepening our collaboration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other members of the public?

All right.

Item number three, Executive Director's Report.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

Always so nice to see you.

A couple highlights from the Director's Report.

I'm going to start with our regional home visiting summit.

So this has been so far the year for putting on summits in

large conferences.

As part of our regional home visiting contract with First

California, our 10-county region is going to be hosting a

home visiting summit for about 300 home visitors on May 22nd

here in Sacramento.

The summit is dedicated to celebrating the hard work of

home visitors and is really a day of wellness and peer

support.

There's a flyer that's in your packet, and it's really a

culmination of the two years of our contract with First 5

California.

Other activities that we've done under this contract included

a home visitor recruitment campaign to help build our home

visitor workforce across the 10-county region.

You'll get to see a lot of media coming out about that over

the next month or two.

And then we've also done a lot of parent engagement

activities to bring parents to the table to talk about models

being used in their county and to share their voice about what's

working around home visiting and where there are gaps from

home visiting services.

So it's been an amazing opportunity to have this grant over

the last two years.

It is culminating, and with it, that was approximately, oh my

gosh, I want to say like a couple million dollars.

And First 5 California is not going to be renewing those

contracts.

So we're going to go out with a bang, but these sorts of, this

particular program will be ending on June 30th.

In other news, our parent leadership training institute, we

with assistance, financial assistance from DCFAS.

Thank you, Melissa.

We were able to start a second, launch a second cohort of 20

parents in English, and they are working double time to try to

catch up to the Spanish language cohort so that everybody

graduates in June.

So both cohorts are being held at the new facility, the new

FRC in South Sacramento.

And everything is going well.

You'll get a chance to meet some of the graduates here at the

June meeting when they will come and talk to you about their

projects.

We, on to another topic, we continue planning for our

participatory grant making process, which we have renamed

the Equity in Action funding stream.

Along with the name change, we've moved to more of a place

based framework to identify populations of focus that will

be eligible for the funding in very specific communities

across the county.

So staff created a data tracking form, sort of like a form.

It compares community risks and barriers to services by

county, by zip codes.

There are, I think a total of 53 zip codes.

We narrowed it down to 47 zip codes pretty quickly.

And then with the help of our advisory committee, we are

narrowing it even further to get to those communities that are

most at risk and need funding based on a whole set of criteria.

So we'll be bringing that to the SOS committee as well at their

meeting later this month.

So you get to see it.

So those neighborhoods will also be the neighborhoods in which

we recruit our 15 member panel that will make those funding

recommendations that come to the commission later this year.

So lots of good stuff happening there.

I did want to mention several commissioners and advisory

committee members have been asking about our racial equity

priority area, given our current federal administration.

And I just wanted to just reiterate publicly that the

majority of our strategic plan, including all of our equity and

action dollars, are funded by Proposition 10, which is not

federal funding.

So we are pretty safe in continuing on with our equity and

action priority area.

We do receive about $7 million a year in federal funds.

And those are more specifically related to, the majority of

those are for home visiting through our partnership with the

Department of Human Assistance CalWorks home visiting program and

Birth and Beyond.

So those dollars are separate and apart from any of our equity and

action dollars and will remain so.

But I'm happy to answer any questions if people have any further

concerns about that, but we are absolutely keeping those dollars

separate.

Okay.

If no questions, I'll move on.

For some equally exciting news, Commissioner Moke has extended an

invitation to commissioners, staff and advisory committee members to

join Sacramento Republic Noche Latina game on October 1.

So it's at Heart Health Park.

If you're interested, please let either Maria or I know and we will

make sure everybody gets tickets working with Commissioner Moke.

And some of our staff just attended the King's Game that was the

family, the zero to five where they had little like babies and

diapers, relay racing and stuff.

So really, really cute.

So I hope we can line something up like that, Commissioner Moke.

Anyway, it'll be fun.

So just let us know if you guys want to share.

Then at the last commission meeting in February, Chair Serna asked me to

add a section to the executive director's report to talk about some

of those federal administration threats to children and family

services.

So I did include a small blurb in the executive director's report.

I think the thing we're most worried about right now has been around

any changes to Medicaid and therefore Medi-Cal and the services for

families that are associated with that very large chunk of money.

And then just last week, the Trump administration closed five regional

offices that support Head Start, including Region 9, which is the

office that serves California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii, serving more than

100,000 children in Head Start.

And so that news just sort of feeds into this broader concern about those

federal programs that are going to impact locally.

Our association is definitely tracking all of these policy and budget

changes at the federal level and keeping track of what is going to

have impact locally.

And I'll of course share that out with you all.

As of right now, the Head Start closures don't have a direct

financial impact on first five because that's not necessarily our lane,

but there could definitely be ripple effects if there are reductions in

that we would lose childcare providers and that it would make it even more

difficult for parents to access childcare in our already very strained

childcare environment here in Sacramento.

So we're just keeping an eye on that and basically everything else too.

And we'll let you know.

And I'd like to close out my Executive Director's report today with a

heartfelt appreciation for Commissioner Rebecca Gross.

She did resign after the last Commission meeting to spend more time with her

large and beautiful family.

I think you may remember she brought her newest baby to our meeting last time.

She started her first five journey with us as an advisory committee member.

She was only one year on advisory and then moved up to fill an alternate

seat on the Commission.

And she's been a true driving force in our parent leadership training

institute, which is a very successful program that she helped launch.

She's left her imprint here on the Commission and we're just really so

grateful to all that she has done with us and partnership with us.

And she's let me know that she was available for advocacy work and small

projects.

So I don't think, I think she'll be around for a while just in a different

capacity.

So thank you.

Thank you, Julie.

Yep.

Item number four, advisory committee update, February 14 in March 21,

2025.

Okay.

Well, it's me again because our chair couldn't make it today.

So I'll make it quick.

On February 14th, we received a presentation from the child abuse

prevention center on the child death review teams, fetal and infant

mortality report.

It was the five year report that came to the board of supervisors and we

thought it would be of interest to the advisory committee as well.

They really learned about the overall causes of death and especially those

preventable causes of death and looked at the 10 year trends and just noted

again the disparities for African American children.

And then we held a special meeting of the advisory committee on March 21.

We reviewed data on risks and barriers to service in zip codes identified

across Sacramento County.

So this was the beginning of the work that will shape the communities that

we focus on for equity in action.

And they meet this Friday to finalize those communities, those zip codes.

And once they do that, we will be launching our equity in action

recruitment process to get our panel on board so we can start getting money

out the door.

And that concludes the advisory committee report.

Thank you.

Item number five, evaluation committee update, February 7, 2025.

That's me.

The evaluation committee met on February 7th and received the first five

Sacramento evaluation report for fiscal year 2324.

The commission will receive the report last in this agenda today.

Evaluation committee will meet again on May 19th to receive the report on

reducing African American child deaths.

And that concludes my report.

Thank you.

Item number six, financial planning committee update, March 27, 2025.

That would be me.

The financial planning committee met on March 27th and established a quorum.

Staff provided an update about current staffing vacancies.

On March 11th, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved first

fives SRA proposal to reclassify two program planner positions into a

human services manager position and a human services program specialist

position.

Staff are actively working to fill these vacant roles.

Our current vacancy rate stands at 14.3%.

Staff provided an update regarding new fees from Metro Cable 14.

Believe it or not, for years Metro Cable 14 has graciously recorded

and broadcast our commission meetings and offered technical support

before and during the meetings all at no cost.

Thanks, you guys.

However, starting July 1st, a fee will be implemented and the

estimated average cost per meeting is about $500.

So that's approximately $3,500 annually, which will be in our next

year's budget.

Staff presented the fiscal year 2526 recommended budget and the

10-year financial plan for the committee's consideration and approval.

And the proposed budget requests a total of $21.84 million in

appropriations.

The committee approved both the budget and the 10-year plan and the

recommended budget and plan our item number eight on today's agenda.

And lastly, commission financial statements for the third quarter

were reviewed and we're all in line with budget expectations.

This concludes my report.

Thank you.

Item number seven, systems optimization and sustainability

committee update.

Our update is that the systems optimization committee did not

meet and we will be meeting next April 16th.

Thank you.

Item number eight, approval of recommended budget and 10-year

financial plan for fiscal year 2526.

Good afternoon commissioners.

I'm Kristen Scheiber, chief of admin for the first five Sacramento

commission.

So Sacramento county code requires that the first five Sacramento

commission's budget be submitted to the county execs office prior to

its presentation for approval.

It was submitted to the county execs office on February 18th.

We did not receive any comments and as a result, it is now ready to be

presented for your consideration today.

Director, attention to attachment one on page 18 of your packet.

It should also be up on your screen.

This is the budget highlights document.

We are requesting an operating budget of $21.84 million allocated

across three key areas, administration, evaluation and

program.

Specifically 1.29 million for administration representing 5.9%

of the total budget, 600,000 for evaluation or 2.7%.

And lastly, 19.95 million for our largest category program

expenditures representing 91.4% of the overall budget.

Additionally, on the budget highlights document, you will find the

section titled program appropriations by priority area.

This section outlines the five priority areas of the 2024

strategic plan, health and well-being, parent partnerships,

child care quality support, racial equity and systems improvement.

Together, these priority areas make up a total base strategic plan

budget of $15.94 million from our Prop 10 funding.

Next, I would like to direct your attention to the leverage grant

section.

Leverage funding for fiscal year 2526 includes CalWORKS, along with

two ARPA funded programs, Building Strong Families and Safe Sleep

Baby 3.0.

Leverage funding for the next fiscal year totals 5.9 million,

which when combined with the 15.94 million in base funding brings

the total appropriations for next year's budget to 21.84 million.

Next, at the bottom of the page, you'll find a call-out box

highlighting our reserves.

The fiscal year will begin with an opening reserve balance of

$14.8 million and an estimated carry forward fund balance of

$1.95 million.

To balance the budget, approximately $3 million will need to be

released from our reserves, leaving an ending reserve balance

of $11.8 million.

To the left of this call-out box, you'll see a summary of our

revenue for fiscal year 2526, outlining the anticipated income

for the upcoming fiscal year.

We expect Prop 10 revenue and other income sources to total

approximately $16.8 million.

When combined with the carry forward fund balance of $1.95

million and the reserve release of $3 million, the total financing

for the budget will reach $21.84 million, resulting in a balanced

budget.

Now, if you take a look at the next page in your packet,

attachment two, it should also be up on our screens in a moment.

You'll see the 10-year financial plan.

It reflects the funding levels established by the 2024

implementation plan.

I'd like to first direct your attention to the column highlighted

in green.

This includes the budget amounts outlined to you today.

And then to the right of this column, you'll see the projected

financing available for future strategic plans.

The columns include the latest Prop 10 projections provided by the

California Department of Finance in September.

The revenue and birth rate projections have remained relatively

steady.

However, Prop 10 projections do show a slight decrease of

approximately half percent.

Conservatively, this plan does not account for any leveraged

funding beyond the next fiscal year, as this has not been confirmed.

However, we anticipate leveraging additional funding in the future

and for the 2027 strategic plan, we're currently estimating a 22.4

percent rejection, which is down from the 28.4 percent reported last

year.

So overall, a 6 percent improvement, which is good news.

And this is due in part to consistent Prop 10 revenue projections,

as well as the estimated $2 million in carry forward fund balance.

It is important to note that the projections and estimates do not

factor in any leveraged dollars or carry forward funding from prior

fiscal years.

And we do typically have some of that due to contracts not being

fully expended, which further helps reduce the resilience on

reserves to balance the budget.

And with that, that includes my presentation for the fiscal year

2526 recommended budget and 10-year financial plan.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

I do not have anybody requesting to speak.

Oh, OK.

Commissioner Moak.

Thank you.

Thank you for this.

I know so much work goes into a three-minute presentation.

So the reason it can be three minutes is because you do a ton of work on

it.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I think that there is some great news embedded within that,

that the cliff continues to get less steep.

Right?

That's the cliff we've referred to for the last 10 or 12 years here.

The one question is, do we, within that estimated 22.4% reduction in the

27 frame, does that, we include, we include, we include, we include

staffing related reductions and everything like, is that an all in

number?

Right.

So, yes.

So one of the first things that we'll be bringing to you and Lindsay will be

sharing the next agenda item soon is sort of the process for looking at the

2027 strategic plan.

And one of the first things that you all do is approve a spending plan.

That tells us how much we're going to allocate to administration, evaluation

and program, knowing that within that there's staffing allocations within

the evaluation line item and the admin line item and the program line item.

Okay.

So you all kind of give us the direction on that.

And then especially within the program line item, you know, the

program line item, that's where we even break it down further to say this is

external program funding that's going out to community.

This is internal program funding that stays within the commission to run

those programs.

So, yeah, we do get into more of the nitty-gritty as we start that

planning.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yep.

All right.

This is a vote voting item.

Yes.

Do I have somebody who would like to?

I'm happy to move accepting this as presented.

I'll second.

Thank you.

Roll call vote.

Hang on real quick.

We just need to open up for public comment if there's anybody public hearing.

No, it's public comment on this one since it's a voting item.

Do we have any public comment on this?

No.

Thank you.

No, chair.

Thank you.

Okay.

Sorry.

Can we have those motions again?

Sure.

Happy to move with the budget as presented today.

Any seconds?

I'll second.

Thank you.

Commissioner Wesley.

Aye.

Commissioner Fernandez Garcia.

Aye.

Commissioner Evans.

Aye.

Commissioner Casirie.

Aye.

Commissioner Katari.

Aye.

And Commissioner Moke.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

All right.

We have a budget.

Item number nine, public hearing first five, California annual report for fiscal year 2324.

We're joined by Carmen Garcia Gomez who takes the, who handles this one for us each year.

Do I need to open the public meeting now or after?

I think we give the presentation and then you open it for any comments.

Yep.

Thank you.

Good afternoon commissioners.

I'm Carmen Garcia Gomez and I will be presenting this item today, the public hearing for first

five California's fiscal year 2324 annual report.

This fulfills the requirement of the Children and Families Act of 1998, which states that

every year we need to submit our report to the first five California commissioned by November

first.

We submit a annual audit by January 31st and last we need to do a public hearing on the

report, which is what we are doing today.

In preparation for this public hearing, we found some inconsistencies in the report.

We brought it to the attention of first five California.

They are going to be looking into the report and taking it back to their commission.

And then at that time we will come back with any changes to present to you.

We did want to make sure that we met the statutory requirements and so that's why we are here today.

This current report is for the period of July 1st, 2023 through June 30th, 2024.

The report includes data from all 58 commissions on the four result areas, which are improved

family functioning, improved child development, improved child health and systems of care.

The report includes information on specific advocacy efforts and those could be found on

page 12 of the report.

According to the report, first five California received $67.5 million and county commissions

received $270.3 million through Prop 10, Proposition 56 and the California electronic

cigarette excise tax revenues in fiscal year 2223.

Between the 58 county commissions, they provided services to just over 628,000 children and just

over 555,000 adults, parents, caregivers.

The total expenditure in the three primary result areas was $288 million.

In addition to the direct services listed above in your commission letter, the county

commissions were engaged in a range of activities focused on improvement systems of care for

children and their families and that expenditure totaled $94 million.

The four result areas combined have a total expenditure of $382 million.

In addition, the community report highlights county efforts.

Our efforts could be found on page 59 of the report with a focus on the refugee family support

program.

And this concludes my report.

Any questions for Carmen?

All right.

Thank you very much.

I'll open the public hearing.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak?

No chair.

We will close the public hearing.

Thank you.

Item number 10, public hearing and we'll review for the first five Sacramento 2024-27 strategic

plan.

Great.

Lindsey Dunkel will be taking this one.

It's a day for public hearings.

So every year as you just heard, the commission is required to review and hold the public

hearing on the strategic plan per the statutes of the Children and Families Act of 1998.

This is the second hearing for the 24-27 strategic plan which was implemented just on July 1,

2024 after being approved in February of 2023.

So staff are not recommending any changes to the 24-27 strategic plan at this time.

We believe that the spending plan, the strategic framework, the five priorities, and the underlying

outcomes and goals should all remain the same.

Current contracts that are designed to fulfill the goals of this plan are in place and run

through June 30th, 2027.

Happy to entertain any questions.

All right.

Let's open the public hearing.

Anybody from the public signed up?

No, Chair.

Closing the public hearing.

Thank you.

Item number 11, discussion item 2027 strategic plan updates.

Lindsey's going to take this one too.

Thank you.

So we're not changing the 24-27 strategic plan, but believe it or not, we're already beginning

planning for the 27 and forward plan.

So, oh, I need the clicker.

It's right there.

Just as a review, the 24-27 plan, when we were creating this together, the commission used a whole group

process.

The whole commission was engaged in the planning.

We focused on community input, and we set long-range priorities that run through 2034.

And here are those priorities.

We have children and families at the center of the framework informed and informing and

touched by all that First Five does.

The five priorities encircle that center and they're interlocking as an illustration of

their interdependence.

And around the outside are First Five's core functions to invest, advocate, convene, collaborate,

and build capacity.

And those five priorities are racial equity, health and well-being, quality childcare, parent

partnership, and systems improvement.

So, at your last meeting, we talked about elongating the strategic plan to include all the years

for which you set those long-range priorities, which means through 2034.

So, given that, and given that our new funding is just now rolling out in its first year, staff is proposing

that we maintain the current vision, mission, and priorities, and that we maintain the outcomes.

There are nine of them under those five priorities.

And the goals, there are 14 of those under those outcomes.

Because we've only just begun the work.

As you heard earlier from Julie, the participatory grant-making program is working right at this

moment on identifying those zip code priorities.

And we have not allocated the more than $4 million under that initiative yet.

So, we proposed shifting the 2427 strategic plan to a 2024-34 strategic plan and looking at it as an

overarching plan made up of discrete funding periods.

So, this 2427 is the first funding period under there.

And we'll move specific fiscal information about each funding period into an addendum,

and we'll continue to create an implementation plan that lays out specific allocations to specific strategies

for each funding period stretching all the way to 2034.

And the commission wisely allocated funding for creating ongoing opportunities for community feedback,

as well as building community feedback into every direct service contract.

So, we're going to continue to include that community voice in the addendum each time.

All right.

As an example of what a spending plan looks like, this is the current one,

which you were just hearing about on the more micro level,

but you allocate money for administration, evaluation, and total program,

which includes internal and external, which in the current 2024-27 plan is about $14.9 million a year.

And as a reminder that this is tobacco tax only in this, in the spending plan.

And as Commissioner Moak was alluding to, the ever-declining funds of first five.

So, we know tobacco tax is a declining fund.

It was designed to be that way.

We celebrate that tobacco tax is going down.

This chart shows that the average annual budget under the current and last three strategic plans

and what would be available in the next strategic plan if it were to be a three-year plan.

It's a reduction, as Kristen was saying, of 22.4% from the current plan.

In 2021, the drop was 25.7%.

In 2018, it was 21.6%.

And we were lucky enough to hold steady between the current strategic plan and the last one.

And that was in large part because under COVID, many of our grantees were unable to provide services that expended their allocated funding.

So, that bolstered our reserves and enabled us to hold steady.

So, to give you a sense of the big picture timeline, if you look at the blue arrow on the far right,

we are looking at rolling out the next round of funding on July 1, 2027.

So, as we work our way backward from there, that means that the Commission needs to make funding decisions early spring of 27

to give staff time to draft the contracts and get them in place for July 1.

And that in turn means that funding processes will need to be released the prior fall, 2026.

And in order for staff to have time to craft the funding processes,

that means that the final strategic plan will need to be approved by the Commission just 14 months from now, in June 2026.

So, this will be after the Board of Supervisors reviews it in May 2026,

and that means it will come to you in its draft form just about a year from today.

And then the next slide gives an overview of what will happen in the rest of 2025 to queue up that decision on the strategic plan draft in April next year.

So, the first decision that will bring to you at your next meeting will be a decision about the racial equity, diversity, inclusion, and cultural responsiveness funding,

which is now, that process is now called equity in action project.

So, as we were saying, it's not expected to start rolling out until this coming fall at the earliest.

Like we were saying, we've been moving at the speed of trust with the participatory grant making project,

most recently working with our advisory committee and they'll make their final decisions about zip code priorities on Friday.

And then we can start recruiting for the community members to serve on that decision making panel.

So, we're simultaneously working on gathering community input with help from our strategic plan consultant.

Lead for Tomorrow holds a contract with us to gather community input,

and we've decided to use a work group of the advisory committee members and Lead for Tomorrow's parent leadership group

to act as a kind of steering committee for this work,

helping to craft the focus group and survey questions,

helping to facilitate the focus groups and helping analyze the findings and draw conclusions.

So, the midpoint commission decisions this year will be on how long the next iteration of the implementation plan will be.

As you know, the current one is three years.

At a future meeting, you'll hold a guided discussion about the pros and cons of different timelines.

You'll also approve a spending plan like the example that you saw earlier laying out the allocations for admin evaluation program

and both internal and external program.

And then in the fall, you'll have presentations on an updated community trend report that ASR puts together for us,

as well as the information that we gather from the community input process.

And then at your December meeting, you'll make decisions on which priorities, which strategies will be prioritized.

And that concludes my report.

Any questions from commissioners?

All right, thank you very much.

Oh, I have a sorry.

Okay.

I have a question if and hopefully there's no hiccup, but is there any wiggle room if anything goes astray in the timeline?

Like if hopefully there isn't.

So things like we don't have a quorum or I don't know, there's a natural disaster.

Can we hope none of these things happen?

But do we have any wiggle room or is there another like a protocol or process that we would take up if needed?

Good question.

We we have a little more space this time around since we aren't convening you all with special retreats and that kind of thing since we're doing it slightly

differently.

So I do think that there's some wiggle room.

I think we're all just waiting to see what happens with a federal budget.

That's like the biggest unknown thing right now.

And so that might be influencing what strategies come up as the most needed.

And so if we had to change anything, if we had to suddenly come to you and say we really need to change our current strategic plan because of A, B and C, we would come forward as a recommendation and say this is this is our reasoning for why we should do that.

And if we hear from community between now and December that they are leaning in very different ways for the next strategic plan, you'll hear about that too.

So I guess there's a little flexibility and it is really it's your strategic plan.

So there's as much as you all need us to have is what you will get.

Yeah, I didn't want to say the big elephant.

I just came up with some other stuff.

Yeah, just call it out for what it is.

Any other questions?

All right, thank you.

Item number 12 presentation first five Sacramento fiscal year 2023-24 annual evaluation report.

Great.

And for this one we are joined by Alyssa Mullins from ASR.

She's definitely come the farthest any presenter has ever to make it here today.

Alyssa lives in Florida and is out.

Thanks for joining.

I'm happy to be here to represent applied survey researcher ASR and first five Sacramento to share some of our high level and overview highlights of the evaluation report for fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

First, I just want to kind of ground us in that this is the final year of the 2021 to 2024 strategic plan or strategic hierarchy focused on the three main priority areas of health, early care and learning and empowered families before we transition to the beautiful graphic that you saw in the last presentation.

And each of our priority areas has a primary goal and one or more result area that our direct services and systems work falls within.

So we're going to be reviewing each of these result areas today with the exception of result area one, which includes the reduction of African American child deaths or RWCD work, which will be presenting at a future meeting more thoroughly.

And also I just want to also highlight that the evaluation goals for first five Sacramento also include a focus on a results based accountability or RBA framework.

Each of these direct services programs has specific indicators unique to their programs activities, each of which would fall within one of the three buckets.

How much did we do?

How well did we do it?

And is anyone better off?

And this allows us to highlight key successes of each of the initiatives as well as recognize areas for improvement. And of course, each strategy and evaluation is rooted in first five Sacramento's commitment to equity.

So first we'll take a look at the overall reach. So this includes all strategies in which we're able to measure counts. So primarily our direct services. So in total, first five funded programs reached nearly 6000 children and 11000 caregivers for direct services, as well as over 300 providers.

So that's going to include things like program staff, school teachers and administrators who are participating in trainings. I also want to kind of mention that our adults or caregivers and providers may have some overlap as someone may come in for a staff training, learn about resources and then come back to first five with their own family for ongoing activities.

The total number of individuals reach does represent a 5% increase compared to fiscal year 2022 to 2023. So we are continuing to see that post COVID rebound.

And when we look at first five's goal of offering families a well rounded network of resources for all families with young children, we see that 14% of families engaged in two or more distinct service program areas.

So this would not represent the people who might engage in home visiting and crisis intervention from birth and beyond, but would tell us something like a family or a caregiver who receives pregnancy peer support with her health first black mother is united and then gets connected and goes on to receive breastfeeding support through WIC.

So that allows us to kind of measure and start exploring that wraparound and an ongoing network of support that our families are receiving.

Continuing on with our overall participant characteristics, we saw that nearly one third of our participants who received direct services spoke a language, a primary language other than English.

So first five reaches a more diverse community than the overall county wide proportions. So 60% of the children served were either Hispanic, Latino or black or African American, which compares to 38% county wide.

Also in our overall characteristics, most of our programs who provide direct services have families or invite families to complete what's called the family information form.

And this measures key areas in alignment with first five's focal areas. So we're able to look at our community characteristics as well as allow programs to initiate conversations as they see fit for the items measured.

So we can see here that most of our participants agreed that they were able to handle the stresses of daily parenting. They played one on one with their child five or more times per week, and most told stories or saying songs with their children five or more times a week as well.

We also see about two thirds used food or nutrition services within the six months prior to intake and about three out of five as well agreed that they knew which program to contact for support with basic needs at that time of intake or start of services.

However, we see that less than half were reporting that they read together with their child five or more times per week.

We also have a an opportunity for families to complete a follow up family information form. So this is a subset of our overall intake as this requires a little bit more of that outreach following services.

But we can see from our families who did complete that follow up form at so they completed a family information form at the start of services. And then at the end of the fiscal year we saw significant improvements across several measures.

More significantly more we're attending community events with their child from intake to the end of the fiscal year. And we did see also a significant increase in children, parents and caregivers reporting that their children stay calm and in control when faced with a challenge.

Now we did have other improvements as well but what we're showing here are the statistically significant improvements. So the full report does highlight additional measures as well.

As promised we're going to move on through our specific priority areas and direct service and systems work program. So first is our priority area of health, which includes the goal that all children are born healthy and access preventative services to maintain optimal health.

This includes the RWA CD initiatives as promised coming in an upcoming commission meeting the WIC breastfeeding support programs and health related system strategies. So first jumping into WIC programs.

The first five WIC funded services reached more than 2200 participants to promote breastfeeding. This includes about 1700 brief helpline services, more than 1000 moderate drop in services and a little over 1300 of the more in depth consultations with an international board certified lactation consultant.

More than half of the participants reached when their child was at six months of age reported that they were exclusively breastfeeding which exceeds our statewide estimates as well as the healthy people 2030 target. However, from feedback from WIC and an ongoing process with the strategic plan and shifting goals and ongoing continuous improvement with evaluation.

We have begun the process of transitioning this measure to exploring the WIC food package data. So the follow up calls are a little bit harder for them to reach families at or after six months of age since most of those contexts are usually within the first few months.

So the WIC food package data will give us a more robust and representative sample of breastfeeding habits. So what we can see from this preliminary look using fiscal year 2324 is that 29% of the families were exclusively breastfeeding. So this is lower than our follow up call tiny sample.

But again, it is more representative and still exceeds statewide estimates as well.

And I just want to highlight this quote from one of our participants who shared that she would have given up on breastfeeding if it weren't for her lactation consultant who she considered quote someone I could trust to advocate for me and encourage me. This really shows how the personalized support provided by WIC can really be a benefit to increasing breastfeeding rates.

Some highlights from first five's health related systems efforts includes WIC's partnerships with local hospitals and healthcare providers with a focus on accessing breast pumps and early lactation care.

They also partnered with perinatal home visiting programs to train home health nurses in breastfeeding support.

The Be MamaWare campaign is part of the Sacramento Mental Mental Health Collaborative. It focuses on Latina and African American communities to decrease stigma and provide a space for families to learn about mental health.

This collaborative continued implementing efforts working on sustainability and providing advocacy for systems and policy change and our community members can learn more about how to get involved at BeMamaWare.com.

Just a little plug for BeMamaWare.

First five also continued engaging with health plans and health systems to leverage resources and opportunities for sustainability and an improved system of care.

And the Safe Sleep Baby 3.0 efforts continued with a focus on shifting policies and practices in the child welfare system and to increase the reach of the Safe Sleep Baby education particularly at risk families.

Moving on to our next priority area.

This is our early care and learning which has the goal that all children have access to quality early learning experiences and are ready for kindergarten.

So this includes the early learning partnerships building mindful early care and education or PBM strategy focused on providers and early care settings.

The activities at nine school districts for kindergarten readiness developmental support through Help Me Grow and of course early learning system strategies as well.

First let's take a look at PBM.

PBM supported provided short and long term consultation support to 205 early educators which benefited approximately more than 1000 children who were enrolled in their early learning settings.

Short term providers averaged about 13 and a half contacts with their coach and the long term participants had about 15 coaching sessions throughout the fiscal year.

Long term coaching participants are also trained to provide technical assistance and materials for them to be able to provide the ages and stages questionnaire developmental screenings to children.

Among those providers trained they were able to provide 156 ages and stages questionnaires and 115 ages and stages social emotional screenings during the fiscal year.

They also facilitated a handful of referrals when additional supports were identified through these screenings.

Additionally 75% of the long term consultation participants improved their assessment scores based on their unique focus area.

And of course I just love the quote here where that really kind of creates that imagery where PBM impacted their program as if lightning struck it.

I also just want to highlight another participant quote not shown here that is an early learning provider who said I felt that I finally got support mentorship and understanding on all areas I was lacking.

Being a new in home childcare provider the PBM ECE specialist gave me a lot of insight on different areas.

Being in the program has given me a sense of confidence that I can continue to be a great educator childcare provider and teacher.

Next the result area six includes activities to increase the readiness for schools children's and families for to be ready for kindergarten.

We won't go through every data point that you see here however I will just highlight that the nine first five funded school districts served 3100 caregivers and a little over 3700 children through activities such as play groups ASQ screenings parent education workshops

text based parenting education family events literacy support kindergarten transition orientations and parent advisory groups.

Additionally 126 school staff received social emotional support trainings to better support their students in their early learning settings.

And among the children who received an ASQ screening nearly one in 10 received a referral for additional support services either internally within the district or externally.

And lastly from our school districts we like to highlight the transition summer camp we had nearly 250 children who attended the transition summer camp.

Our photo shown here is just a really fun and exciting image of some of our kiddos who were engaged in a STEM activity during the camp and just such a great moment that was captured where this young scholar is just really excited about the texture in that kind of hands on.

Portion. So in addition to these fun daily activities we measured the impact of the transition summer camp via the kindergarten observation form at the start of the camp and then at the end.

So among those who completed the summer camp and have both assessments we see our overall readiness increased from 19 percent to 25 percent.

The assessment includes three domains which are kindergarten academics self regulation and social expression and we saw statistically significant improvements in the kindergarten academics and social expression domains this fiscal year.

Also within result area six is the developmental support provided by help me grow help me grow received 765 calls completed 371 ASQ and ASQ social emotional screenings and provided more than 700 community referrals across the first five areas of focus.

More than half of those referrals were successfully contacted which we see that help me grow continues to be that bridge for families navigating complex systems.

Our family advocates which are the help me grow home visitors also conducted 945 home visits this fiscal year.

And just to highlight in the words of this foster parent who shared that they were seeking support for her foster children.

I don't think I would have been able to keep the kids with me if I didn't have your help and advocacy.

So this family advocate was able to connect the family to programs for developmental evaluations and ongoing support as well as child care to support the needs of families navigating the foster system specifically.

And lastly in this result area in this priority area are the systems efforts to increase access to affordable and quality early care.

Some highlights include the ongoing investments in the Sacramento County child care coalition.

The coalition obtained a total of $950,000 in ARPA dollars to support child care needs including stipends and family child care home startup fundings.

And then the collaborative and the first five funded systems efforts also involved engagement in other various task forces and community councils throughout the fiscal year.

Our third priority area is empowered families which includes the goal that all families have access to resources and opportunities that support their children's development and safety.

This includes the zero to five activities through the birth and beyond family resource centers as well as the Sacramento crisis nursery.

First we'll take a look at birth and beyond.

Birth and beyond provides four different primary strategies ranging from intensive home visiting to group parenting education workshops, short term crisis intervention, resources, referrals and case management,

and light touch social and emotional learning and support activity or sales activities.

Across all of these strategies and all first five funding sources, birth and beyond family resource centers serve nearly 4,000 families with children ages zero to five.

Our home visiting services represented more than 9,900 home visits to nearly 800 families which uses the parents as teachers and healthy families America model at all nine FRCs and the effective black parenting program home visiting model at the two RWA CD funded FRCs.

Each year we share CPS involvement outcomes for birth and beyond participants who receive birth and beyond home visiting.

Every three years funded by AmeriCorps, birth and beyond presents a quasi experimental design to compare differences between the children receiving birth and beyond home visiting to a group of CPS involved children who did not receive services.

This quasi experimental design allows us to identify the natural choice between the two individuals.

This is not an experimental design where we're making the choices as to where they go, but allows us to match the two groups on key vulnerabilities so that the primary difference between the two groups is the B and B or birth and beyond home visiting treatment.

So this report shows outcomes for birth and beyond participants who had an intake between March 2021 and March 2023 and had a baseline CPS event in the six months prior to their intake.

The comparison group includes children with CPS investigation closed during the same timeframe but did not have birth and beyond involvement.

And our birth and beyond participants who received at least eight hours of home visiting were two and a half times less likely to experience CPS recurrence from that intake compared to the comparison group who did not receive birth and beyond home visiting.

When we increase that to the families and children who received 12 or more hours of home visiting, they were three times less likely to experience CPS recurrence than the comparison group who did not receive birth and beyond services.

And these substantial differences have been found and are consistent with prior years as well and continue to show that strong support for the impact of birth and beyond home visiting.

Next, 429 adults attended a group parenting education workshops during the fiscal year which included the Make Parenting a Pleasure curriculum as well as continued implementation of the Effective Black Parenting Program curriculum as well.

Participants of the Make Parenting a Pleasure curriculum showed significant improvements in their parenting knowledge and skills and a majority of the participants engaged in the Effective Black Parenting Program showed improved total scores on their pre and post assessments as well.

Next, nearly 3,000 families received short term crisis intervention services which includes again resources and referrals or case management based on the participants individualized needs.

And among those who did receive case management, 71% improved in at least one of their personally identified focal areas measured using the Family Strength Builder Questionnaire which focuses on increasing self-sufficiency and stability.

And lastly, more than 1,300 families participated in one or more light touch social and emotional learning and support activities.

More than a quarter of the families engaged in five or more cells activities during the fiscal year and on average spent about eight hours engaging in cells activities during the fiscal year.

Before we move on to our final direct service program, I just want to close out with a quote from one of our home visiting participants that I think really captures the first five priority of empowered families.

So this was a parent who was struggling with her mental health.

She said it was affecting her relationship with her husband, was adding pressure on to the husband and affecting her ability to connect with her children.

She participated in the parents as teachers home visiting and also received connections to additional support resources such as the diaper program and counseling.

So she shared that the lessons helped her deal with depression, helped spending more time with my children.

It also helped my relationship with my husband.

She also said that I enjoy being able to talk with someone every week without judgment.

Okay, so our final direct service program is the Sacramento Crisis Nursery.

There are two locations provided emergency daytime and or 24 hour care to 344 children in 234 families.

Two thirds of the families had three or more stays during the fiscal year, which highlights their ability and willingness to come back to receive support while they navigate chronic or ongoing or recurring challenges.

And the most common reasons for use at each day included employment, parental distress or housing or homelessness.

So this might include someone where a sitter fell through at the last minute and they have to go to work so that they don't lose their job.

It could include a parent who feels as though their child might be in an unsafe situation while they navigate unstable housing or homelessness or even just circumstances where the parent is in a more heightened state of distress for one reason or another and finds that mental health break is necessary to make sure the children are receiving care.

While the parent is able to handle some of those stressors.

And speaking of stress, caregivers who use the crisis nursery showed significant reductions in their self reported stress levels.

Nearly all agreed that crisis nursery kept their children safe and secure and they felt better able to resolve their situations because of the crisis nursery support.

One of our newer strategies aligned with the crisis nursery mission to prevent child abuse and neglect by providing support for families experiencing a crisis is an evaluation or exploration of CPS involvement.

This is based on a partnership with crisis nursery DCFAS and consenting families.

So 300 children ages 0 to 5 received crisis nursery services during the previous fiscal year.

We use the previous fiscal year so that we can explore 12 month outcomes.

And there in this 300, the 300 children also include those whose parents had an active consent form for this lookup.

So we saw that one third had prior CPS involvement in the past five years and 4% had substantiated CPS involvement in the six months prior to that initial intake or completion of their consent form.

In the 12 months following their crisis nursery intake, we saw 6% of the 300 children had substantiated CPS involvement which highlights some of the additional vulnerabilities of the family served by this program as well as operations.

So we saw that one third had continued research into identifying some of those risk factors.

And in closing, I just wanted to also add a quote that I feel really sums up the impact of the crisis nursery.

This quote comes from someone that we were able to talk with while doing a special study into the crisis nursery program this year and resonates with what we see consistently that parents are sharing that crisis nursery keeps their children healthy and safe.

Our participants shared that their kids love it, they love it, and as this person described, when I drop my daughter off, I know that she's in good hands.

They help me out, my daughter's healthy and safe. I'm just very grateful.

This participant said that crisis nursery helped her family and believes it can help other families too.

And lastly, we'll just close out with some of First Five's high level goals for the future.

As we saw in the previous presentation, we have already begun on the 2024 to 2027 funding cycle contracts, efforts, and the ongoing strategic plan and implementation.

And as I mentioned, fiscal year 2023 is the last year of this strategic plan, and we're already implementing some of the lessons learned and opportunities for improvement by First Five as well in this process.

So with that, there are continued efforts and ongoing strategies for systems change and advocacy investments, and as well as digging deeper into programs via special studies to identify strengths and opportunities.

First Five also maintains a close relationship with the PERSIMINI database team and continues to work toward opportunities to add functionalities, improve the ease of use, and ensure data accuracy across the First Five funded programs.

And lastly, we are continuing our efforts to increase collaborative partnerships as well as the accessibility and meaning making of evaluation data.

That is all of our review of the fiscal year 2023-24, and I'm happy to answer any questions that may have come up.

Commissioner Lloyd.

Thank you so much for such a great presentation. I have one question and then one comment.

For the crisis nursery, the 34% who had CPS involvement in the last five years, does the question go into whether that is with their own children or with them themselves?

We do a child level lookup, so it would involve if the child has any CPS involvement.

One thing that it doesn't do is specifically match the child with the parent who is bringing them to crisis nursery, so this could potentially involve families who might be escaping a violent situation.

In that past five years could potentially include that other parent if that is one of the example situations.

Or if it was, so just so I'm understanding, so if it was a mother who had aged out of foster care within the last three years, would they be answering with the way the question is posed to them?

Do they answer specific for themselves?

It's actually not a direct question. It's a lookup from your team.

So we provide the contact information and they return a de-identified database to us with whether or not there was involvement.

So I can't answer that exactly, but I do know we do the lookup based on the zero to five children, so that should not be.

That's based on the, okay. Thank you so much.

And then my other comment other than really, really nice presentation was it was nice to see on the family changes from intake to follow up the highest percentage change was, I know what program to contact when I need advice with that.

That 16% change out of all of those was just really great to see because I think it really just speaks to which we all know the importance of prevention and people knowing who they can be.

And then we can call when they when they have a question or need advice. So thank you for that data. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Oh, Commissioner Wesley.

Yeah, I just for the the piece under birth and beyond I think yeah for the 71% increase for self sufficiency. How is self sufficiency defined?

Yeah, so we use what's called the family strengths builder that is a tool developed in partnership with crisis intervention staff and ASR in response to the closure of the family development matrix.

So it's a four point scale on several items and the goal of each item is to each one is kind of uniquely defined based on let's say housing.

So it might say like my situation in housing is I'm homeless versus no concern. I have a stable home things like that. So the goal on a measurement level is to kind of increase toward that that scale of more stability and self sufficiency based really on how they define it.

So it's a little bit more of a flexible tool that is involved in their ongoing resource rather than like a paper that's handed to them. So it's a measurement that that we're using but primarily a dialogue and self reported indicator.

Okay, so then it's like it's individualized. Yes, based on where they're starting to. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Fernandez Garcia.

Thank you. Thanks for coming out.

Whenever I hear these amazing outcomes, I always wonder how do we extend that to more kids. Absolutely. Right. So I wonder if as part of our evaluation, we can. Is there a way to measure the capacity that the services that we're giving.

What the capacity is to receive more referrals to spends more of the of the interventions that we're that we're already giving you got more money.

This one I'm saying I want to know like, you know, what is the capacity are we under over, you know, spend more do more. Yeah.

That is a great question. And I think we are at a great, you know, pivotable moment, pivotable moment. Wow, I just can't speak. That's all right. I've done enough talking today.

We are at a great moment to be able to make that transition as we go into the new funding cycle. I will say it's not a measure that the programs themselves are explicitly asked to share from an evaluation angle, but definitely something that we can start incorporating into some of those more narrative approaches from staff to identify our

programs. Are they, you know, are the numbers that they're serving and that the families that they're reaching really like stretching their resources to the max or is it we know that some of our programs have been having a hard time recruiting families into programs.

So I think that there's definitely a range of stories being told within the programs that could potentially speak to where that support is needed or where they might be stretched to the max.

For instance, I know we didn't present the RWA CD programs, but I know our pregnancy peer support Black Mothers United is one that we really like to highlight as an opportunity to take from from pilot to policy. Right. It's a great.

They have they have great results where we kind of show that but caseloads of the pregnancy peer support coaches may vary based on the fiscal year their staffing capacity things like that. So I'm sure if we had some of our program representatives in the in the

room they could speak more directly to that, but we'll do our best to start incorporating some of those narratives into evaluation as well. Thank you. Commissioner Moke. Just on that. I'm sorry to be so cheeky about it, but I do I do feel like that's been what's been in front of us for cycle after cycle is determining

looking at what's doing well from a measurement perspective and from a research based perspective and then making decisions funding decisions and others hard decisions.

You know, based on that information and I think one of the challenges, especially when you're looking at a 22% reduction moving forward is, you know, it's hard to it's not quite apples to apples for some of these programs that are relatively new and are moving the needle.

Maybe not as much as other programs are or have been. I mean the the birth and beyond program crisis nursery. Those are two that have been around for 2025 years. And so there is definitely a cache behind those that goes to your point about the fact that people are able to indicate who I who you call where do you go when you need a resource.

You know, we it's it's just it becomes challenging and that's why I think we'll be challenged yet again, you know, 22% is not small. And but I do think that lining things up side by side and trying to figure out what the best, you know, kind of bang for our buck knowing that if you do invest more in some of these areas, you're going to get more.

It's always been the case. We've always seen it. So I don't know, man, it just it's fantastic to have this information. It's also a little scary because of what it represents, you know, it just makes the case in some cases clearer for what should stick around and maybe what should be scaled back in a time where we just don't need more scaled back, especially what's going on from the federal government and beyond.

So hopefully in 27, it's a different.

It's not quite a different day, but close to a different day.

And speaking to the crisis nursery, we had a really great partnership with them this year to be able to do one of the special studies as we described as one of the priorities each year and evaluation.

So we definitely see those challenges, those structural level challenges come up in our special studies as well.

For sure. I mean, it goes sorry to belabor this, but like I many of you know, I work for a sports team and and have worked for a couple sports teams.

And one of the ways to sell more tickets is hire more ticket sellers. It's very simple, actually.

So if you want to sell more tickets, then you need people to do that. And I mean, that's what I'm sure the head's nodding from the crowd.

Like they they know this, they see this every day and retaining some of these great people that are moving these programs along are is vital is vital.

So. Yeah, us in 2027.

You took that like a totally different direction than it was.

But it's cool. Yeah, I agree with you. I was thinking more as a as a pediatrician when I'm deciding where to refer, you know, and making it, you know, when you activate a family to do something, you want that something to happen.

Right. Or else you, you know, you lose trust, you lose their their motivation to carry out the different behaviors that you're trying to induce.

So that's why I wonder about capacity. You know, it birth and beyond is amazing. And if I hear we could do more, I'm sending a bunch more people.

Right. Right. And I'm activating my colleagues to do the same. Not that I wouldn't anyway, because I tell everybody to refer to all of our services all the time.

But we do as providers have to have to mitigate that excitement and choose wisely where to activate our patients to go. That's what I was talking about.

Julie.

Sure. I just wanted to chime in as well to touch on a few things. Yes, when you talk about bringing things to scale, right, we can look at a program like Black Mothers United and say,

There's this finite number of 1900 to 2000 African American black babies being born here every year. We see the impact that the hundred or so served in Black Mothers United is making this, you know, could clearly be an area where we could expand.

We see the data you just saw from birth and beyond today that kids who are getting those services are not ending up back in child welfare at two and a half to three times those rates.

So and it does it's money, money, money, really. And so again, prioritizing, which is why I'm not in your I'm not glad to not be in your seat all the time.

Those are such hard decisions for you all to make and I understand that I worry about capacity as well.

And, you know, I have heard and we have our team from Capsi is here, but I do know that there's been wait list at FRC's where families have gone in for home visiting and have not been able to get them because of funding reductions and staff turn over and

a variety of different reasons. But I would say for the most part, that's not something that our staff is hearing too much about is inability to serve a family or long wait list outside of child care, which of course is off its whole own different thing.

But but for our services and I think if our providers were to tell us there's a massive problem here with capacity to serve, then that would be something that we would want to look at through evaluation through special study, find out what's happening and if there's anything that we could do to support.

Commissioner Wesley, Julie just stole my question because that was exactly what's going to ask because I'm just thinking about this current climate. And I just know, you know, the stress level is high and some people will lose their jobs and people will go and hiding.

Domestic stressors will go up, abuse potentially will go up. And my question was, is there a way to look at assessing potential wait lists for these services? And then my other question I was thinking about what you were talking about, Eric, I was just thinking about, will we know, you know, there might be a new clientele of folks who don't know about the

brick and mortar of like a birth and beyond. I know about it because I worked at Child Action. It's just bread and butter in the community. And I used to, you know, need these services. But there might be a new emerging population who have no idea about these services that might find their way there.

That would have never imagined themselves in needing these, needing to access these services. So that my curiosity is like, do we want to start looking at being really a diligent and intentional about looking at a wait list and bringing that forth to these meetings?

It may be the same, but it may not. And maybe as thinking about having it reported here.

Yeah, I meet those people every day. I have a patient who I showed the map of the local FRC and she said, oh, that's right across from my house.

Right. It's right across the street. And she said, I just never thought of going in there because I didn't know what it was.

Yeah. So this happened. I hear this every day in clinic. And I do have attention. I have to say if I say it's a great place, you should go.

Right. But know that sometimes there are waits, you know, keep going. You know, you try to your motivational interviewing techniques to keep them engaged. But it would be good to know if the services we have have

could be a good special study. Good special study. Commissioner Lloyd.

I just wanted to say thank you for bringing that up because just to give a little historical reference back in 2008, 2009.

When there were challenges, as we know with budget, we saw a completely different demographic coming into child welfare.

The calls that were coming to our hotline, it was it was a very different demographic. We did have more middle class families that we were getting calls on and

circumstances of domestic violence and substance use. So I do really appreciate you bringing that up because we can learn from history in terms of somewhat being prepared.

Thank you very much. Appreciate the presentation. Thank you for having us.

Do we have anybody else? Do we have anybody signed up to speak on anything? No, chair. Okay. Thank you.

Item number 13 presentation. SAC Family Connect. All right. Very exciting. And I'm going to let Alejandra Loparato take this one.

Thank you. Got the video coming up.

Thank you. So we'd like to provide a demo for you of our new website, SAC Family Connect. And this website has been a long time coming just because of the thought process that we took in engaging the community and community partners in the development of this website.

So before we get into the website, I just wanted to give you some background about how SAC Family Connect came to be. First five, California, thanks to their funding in 2020, we were able to

establish this home visiting coordinating collaborative. In the past, we had attempted to have a home visiting collaborative, but there was no backbone agency and there was no funding or staff attached to it.

So although there was a lot of great ideas that came out of the group, they really didn't go anywhere because of the lack of funding and positions.

So this was really exciting to have First Five California provide this funding. And so to start, how we were going to start this, we thought let's put together all the main funders of home visiting.

And that's when we pulled together those that are on your screen. And we started with the conversation about brainstorming about what, who needs to be at the table.

We had to ask some questions, internal questions about how could we dismantle silos across all of our agencies and work better together to coordinate services, not duplicate services, and give parents a choice in what services that they want to receive.

So interesting, the question that just came up about capacity is that there shouldn't be a wait list with the resources that are out there. So we're not just, it's not just our first five funded programs that families have access to.

So we hope that with SAC Family Connect, that's something that we're going to start seeing so that you can refer some of your patients, whether if it's not a first five funded program, there are other programs that could alleviate some of that stress and also to highlight the expertise of the different programs that are especially for specialized populations.

So in December of 2020, we launched our first meeting and our first step was to conduct an environmental scan of the home visiting programs in Sacramento.

There was many fruitful discussions that came out of this and this led to the development of our MOU, which I will share with you shortly.

After several meetings, we wanted to be inclusive of the many programs and partners and referral sources of home visiting. So we went from being Sacramento home visiting coordinator collaborative to SAC Family Connect.

And again, this was a very thoughtful process. The collaborative took part from the very beginning, from the colors that you see on the screen, the logo, the name, the branding, MOU, everything, the community partners were involved in the development of the website.

We recognized that to dismantle silos and to work better together to serve families and to give parents a choice in the services that they receive was going to involve a two pronged approach.

To be truly family centered, our work had to be reflected in the community somehow, so everything that we were developing in our MOU had to mirror somehow in the community.

And that's where the idea of developing the website came. You'll see a description of that two pronged approach in your packet. I believe there's a one two-sided document.

Also, we swapped some of the slides, so if you see from your packet, the order might be a little bit different, but that was just to make the flow a little better here for you.

So we, the elements of the MOU were consists of five strategies.

While most occur in tandem, building stronger relationships has been a must as a first step, but it's not a one and done.

We are continuing to build relationships ongoing, and as some of you saw who were able to attend our summit back in November, the networking that takes place, the topics that we discuss, and really keeping the parents at the forefront of these discussions.

We also streamlining referrals through tools that we have created, specifically the decision tree, which I will share with you shortly.

And we not only are also sharing training, not only to our partners, but to parents as well.

And as for the data sharing, we continue to work with our county partners to develop a mechanism to share data, such as using the SHI or the social health information exchange, or working with UNIDAS or other platforms.

But we have a pulse on that, so we're hoping that something will come up in the next soon to be able to share data and to make our work more efficient.

So developing this MOU not only demonstrated our commitment to these strategies, but also communicated to our funded contractors and other partners that cross-agency referrals are an expectation, and that a family should be made aware of the services that they are eligible for, so that they can choose what's best for their family.

In preliminary discussions with the collaborative, we had heard a lot that sometimes families don't stay in home visiting because it wasn't a right fit, whether culturally, linguistically, the schedule, the geographic location, whatever it was, but they weren't aware of all the other programs that they were made eligible for.

The collaborative meets quarterly with work group meetings happening in between, and while we do resource sharing, SAC Family Connect is much more than that.

We periodically survey the members to build agendas, and typically these are the seven areas that we touch on.

And the members, this nice thing about this is that the members include community representatives, direct line staff, supervisors, managers, directors, and funders all in the same room.

So one of our first tasks after the MOU was to create this decision tree for home visiting that can serve as a tool, not only to our home visiting programs, but to any provider that serves families, hence that no wrong door approach to ensure that more appropriate referrals are made and reducing early exiting of the program because it wasn't a good fit for the family.

The green boxes are automatic referrals, yellow boxes include eligibility criteria, and the goal is to get a family to a red diamond which symbolizes a home visiting program.

And this decision tree is a tool for providers, not for parents. We're not going to send this out to parents.

So again, it's an illustration, that's an expectation that too, when agencies can co-serve is to coordinate the services without overwhelming the family, without duplicating services, and at the same time giving the parents the choice.

So I know that was a quick glance of the decision tree, so without having to walk you through it step by step, I just wanted to show this quick slide as at a glance, a summary of the home visiting programs, the red diamonds, the specialized programs are those in dark gray.

So if someone does not qualify for a specialized program, then they would be referred to BNB. And since the specialized programs have shorter time limits, if that family needs continued support, that should be an automatic referral to BNB.

So there's that continued continuum of care if they choose to do so. And there's also a relationship between the multiple agencies.

And all families should be made aware of the neighborhood resources being an FRC in their neighborhood, and if African American, a CIL in their neighborhood.

On the website we have a providers tab where we have created tools for agencies and especially for onboarding staff.

So you'll see the decision tree on the website under the providers tab.

We also created a short animated video that any agency can use to learn about the different program eligibility requirements so that they can make more informed referrals.

On the website for providers, there's also a place to share training opportunities and much more.

So for example, we had through another funding source with First 5 California, we're providing training on wellness and workforce development for our home visitors.

So we were able to share through this website for our home visitors to be CPR certified.

So here in Sacramento County, we're happy to say that about 50 home visitors went through CPR certification.

And this was not available to just our First 5 funded home visitors, but to any home visitor in Sacramento County.

And then since we did this as a regional effort, the other 10 counties also had their home visitors certified.

Another strategy of SAC Family Connect is to uplift the community voice.

Not only do we have community representation at meetings, but parents have meaningful roles.

At our summit last year, we had 10 parents who participated in the parent panel and they led activities to ensure that all the discussions that were taking place were family centered.

So if a discussion went towards broader discussion that brought them back to, okay, well, let's see how does that impact the family?

So again, we want to ensure that the families are at the forefront of every discussion.

The website also has an area where parents can share their stories.

And we will also be using this space to collect community input during our strategic planning process.

Since we don't have time to go through the entire website, what I'd like to demonstrate for you is the user experience.

We did do a soft launch of the website last year to get feedback from parents, including our parent leaders.

And we have since then made improvements based on their suggestions.

On the landing page, the user will have two options.

To either navigate the website on their own to find resources, or they can click on a button to complete a simple form that will generate a list of resources that they are eligible for based on their end.

When choosing to complete the form for filtered resources, there are specific services that are prioritized.

For example, to highlight the importance of maternal mental health, regardless of what they're looking for on their website,

if they've entered that they're either pregnant or have an infant automatically on top, be mom aware is going to be there.

Every user will then see the home visiting program that they are eligible for, starting with any of the specialized programs as you saw in the decision tree.

If they're not eligible for the specialized home visiting program, then BNB will be on the top, followed by the desired resources,

why they came to the site to begin with their neighborhood resources.

And we've also added some culturally specific programs to strengthen families by connecting them with others like themselves.

So lastly, this SAC Family Connect does not replace 2-1-1. We want to make that very clear.

The focus on SAC Family Connect is very specific with Family Support Services programs.

The list that the parent receives, if they do the filtered resources, it shouldn't be 100 agencies that they get the run around for anything.

That's why they're filtered. This is why the list is filtered based on their entries.

Usually it might be maybe five or six, seven resources.

However, when the individual meets the eligibility requirement for multiple programs,

it will be a little longer, probably maximum 10-12 resources.

And we're confident because the priority is those home visiting programs and those that you saw in the decision tree,

that whichever agency they do connect with, that agency will help them navigate through any of the other needs that they have.

So I'm going to demonstrate for you the user experience when they choose the filtered to filter resources.

And we're going to use Marie as an example to walk you through this.

Marie is African American. She is three months pregnant and she needs parenting support because she's concerned about her three-year-olds behavior.

And she lives in the 95821 zip code.

Now, I'm not doing this video. This is a video for the purpose of this demonstration. It's not in real time.

Using Marie as an example, she will enter just the basic information that was presented to you on the pre—oh, sorry.

Okay, great.

So using Marie as an example, she's going to enter what was shared with you on the previous slide.

We don't ask for a name. We don't ask for a date of birth and income or anything that will be too invasive and might turn the user off from entering

and being fearful of like, am I going to get people, you know, contacting me?

So the user will complete that form with just enough information to generate a list of resources that apply to them.

So that will eliminate any unnecessary contacts.

And of course, they will enter the identified need. In this case, she wants parenting support for her three-year-old son, who she's concerned about.

And once entering the form, she'll get the list of resources she's eligible for in the order that I mentioned.

The user then has the option to email the results to themselves.

They can also navigate through the website on each of the resources, or they can choose to connect directly with the agency by clicking on Connect Me,

and then consenting to the information on—for the information on the entry form to be shared with the agency along with their contact information, as we see here.

Otherwise, this information is not automatically shared.

So they can add any information they like, and this is what it looks like on the agency's end.

They will get an email saying, you've got a referral from SAC Family Connect.

This is the information that they entered, and please follow up.

So they can add any information they like, and this is what it looks like on the agency's end.

So they will get an email saying, you've got a referral from SAC Family Connect.

This is the information that they entered, and please follow up.

Yes.

So a little more.

I'm not done.

We are very excited to say that we just launched our campaign to raise awareness about SAC Family Connect in both English and Spanish.

We will be collecting monthly reports on the analytics and all, and this will also give us a snapshot of cross-agency referrals to see where we might need some additional training to organizations.

For example, I once had a question by a community partner saying, does this agency—another agency—do they know all of this, or are we just the default agency?

So sometimes there might be some training, and that's where the short eight-minute animated video can be very useful when onboarding staff is just to show them the video, though they don't have to attend it specifically on their time so that they can be aware of these programs.

And it's done—and it does not time-consuming at all.

Very simple.

It breaks it down.

The eligibility requirements and the time frame of this.

So is it up to one year or to six months, so they would know when it would be the appropriate time then to do a warm handoff to birth and beyond if necessary.

And this is a three-month campaign targeted to specific zip codes on social media and targeted websites, including neighborhoods that have at least a 40% Latino population.

And so I'm now going to share with you one of our 30-second videos, and then after that I could take any questions if you have any.

Learn more at SACFamilyConnect.com.

Okay, so that is SAC Family Connect in a nutshell, but we do encourage you all to just navigate through the site.

You could even put some pretend scenarios in there to see if the right resources come out.

We're open to feedback where these are the beginning stages.

So if there is something that you identify that maybe should be there and it's not, please let us know.

And as far as SAC Family Connect meetings, again, we meet quarterly.

These are the meetings for 2025.

Excellent. Thank you.

Commissioner Moak.

I apologize.

I've got to run out for a quick meeting.

But before I went, I wanted to congratulate you.

That is a massive, massive undertaking to see where the home visitation coordinating council started back in...

I remember I was going to mention that I was 20 something years ago.

Like Nancy Vendyson, like all the...

Right? Like it's crazy. It's so great.

I, in a kind of another, on another side, as Beth knows, as some of you know, I host a television show from 10 to 1030 every day.

It's a lifestyle entertainment show.

We showcase cool new things that help families and are part of kind of the ethos of Sacramento.

So if Aaron, you want to reach out, we can get this slated.

It's a perfect thing to showcase on the show when you're ready or when you want to send people from SAC Family Connect to the show to make their TV debut.

Thank you.

Alejandra's been pregnant with this for about 19 months. She's very happy to finally get over this.

Overdue. Overdue.

Is it? Way overdue?

Way overdue.

Yes.

He's ready to go to kindergarten and he is, baby.

Okay. Any other comments?

Yeah, it looks great. So look forward to hearing how it works.

Yeah. It's so exciting.

And really one of the reasons is that families don't know that they want home visiting.

Like no parent raises their hand and says, you know what I think I need is a home visiting program.

So this is like our back door way to get them connected to a home visiting program and to have it be truly the parent's choice.

Because we are resource rich in Sacramento County.

We have at least 10 different home visiting programs that are operating.

Some of them for like really specific time periods or race ethnicity or is it your first pregnancy?

These specific programs are where the family should be going to and or should have the first opportunity to join those.

And then every family can have home visiting through birth and beyond, right?

So it's like that whole continuum.

And yeah, it's so exciting.

So we're really happy to share it with you.

And we can present it anywhere if you have places other than on TV.

Right. Well, actually I mentioned the tools on the providers tabs.

If anybody is a part of a network or a coalition and they would like to, we've created the presentation slides so they could be shared at any, you know, anybody who's a part of SAC family can share it.

Right.

It doesn't always have to be me.

Anyone else could do it.

So I'm looking at the provider tab now and I do think you will have to do a lot of education of us because there are so many different ways to refer people to different things now.

Like to undo all of the processes that we've created with something simpler is actually hard.

I presume we're capturing the analytics about what people are typing in to those forms.

That's great. That'll be interesting to see what that looks like.

Yeah, you'll get a future evaluation on it.

Great.

Included.

Is there a way to get, do the hospitals know about this?

Because that's where you start feeling.

To spread the word to the hospital.

It's, it don't have the time to talk about all the home visiting programs, but you can hand them a QR code and say, go to SAC family connect.

So, yeah, yes, we would, we would love to, to spread this information.

That's great. Any more comments?

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that is the last item.

Unless commissioners have any comments.

On anything? No.

All right. Well, thank you very much.

We will adjourn at 2 27.