Learn More about our Local Care Team
The Queen Anne’s County Community Partnerships for Children and Families bases their work on a comprehensive needs assessment and strategic plan. These documents are meant to be a tool for identifying areas of critical need and strengths thereby developing community strategies and focusing local funding requests. Over the years the QAC Partnerships for Children and Families has been in existence six documents have been developed that served this purpose. Specifically these documents are meant to be a tool for the board, staff, and community in order to look at needs, establish priorities, and implemented child and family programs. View our strategic plan/needs assessment.
The QAC LMB Bylaws are the written rules that control the internal affairs of our organization. They define the way the group functions and serve as the legal guidelines of the organization.
In an attempt to help those in the community have a better understanding of the work we are doing, the board and staff of the Community Partnerships is taking a more active role in marketing our work and our successes. Below are some documents that have been developed in order to help others understand our role and accomplishments in the community.
The annual legislative report presented by the Maryland Association of Local Management Boards highlights the collective efforts of the Local Management Boards (LMBs) throughout the State, as well as the individual accomplishments that have been achieved in each of the twenty-four local jurisdictions. By bringing together local child-serving agencies, service providers, consumers of services, and other community representatives, LMBs empower local stakeholders to identify local needs and establish priorities for their communities.
The report, Maryland’s Local Management Boards: Making a Difference for Children and Families 1990-2010, is a 20 year review of the performance of Local Management Boards. It was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Richard A. Henson Foundation, and written by independent consultant Phyllis Rozansky. Overall the report indicates that: “there are multiple sources of evidence that LMBs are making a positive difference and that the state/local systems of which LMBs are a part have changed the landscape of services in Maryland for the better.”
Healthy Families Mid-Shore is evidence-based, accredited home visiting program that provides intensive prevention and early intervention services to first time parents, eligible for M-CHP and residing in Queen Anne’s, Talbot & Kent Counties, who also have risk factors for poor parenting outcomes. Home visitors (Family Support Workers) share the “Growing Great Kids, Inc.” curriculum, build a sustained relationship with the participants, conduct developmental screens, refer for services, and model essential parenting skills. Healthy Families is a research-based best practice initiative of Prevent Child Abuse America. The first objective of Healthy Families is to reduce the occurrence of child abuse and neglect in families with high risk factors for such events. This year the actual number of child abuse and neglect findings was 100% fewer than the predicted number for the population we served.
The second objective is to support and prepare first time parents to succeed in the challenges of raising an infant and young child to have the social capacity and developmental, cognitive, language, and motor abilities to be “ready to learn” when they reach kindergarten age. These goals are accomplished by developing a trusting, sustained relationship with pregnant and new first time parents, and providing them with child development education, parenting information, health and developmental screens, resource referrals, and successful goal-setting experiences. Outcome measures verify extremely positive results in healthy babies and positive parenting.
The Maryland Afterschool and Summer Opportunity Fund (MASOF) Comprehensive Plan & Recommendations is authored by the MASOF Advisory Board, which was appointed by Governor Martin O’Malley in 2013. MASOF – established in 1999 under then Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and then state legislator Chris Van Hollen – was initially funded up to $10 million; however, over time MASOF was eliminated from the budget by a series of cuts and remains unfunded at the present time. The MASOF Advisory Board has met to provide an updated landscape as well as recommendations for priority areas for future investment in afterschool and summer programs.
Expanding Opportunities, Improving Lives – Afterschool’s Return on Investment for Maryland updates past research and uses Maryland specific data to determine the potential fiscal impact an increased investment in afterschool program might have in Maryland. The ROI calculation found every $1 invested in afterschool program leads to a return on investment of $3.36. Just 17% of Maryland’s students (K-12) are currently participating in an afterschool school program, but more than 296,374 would participate if a program were available in their community.
To be used as a log for current and previous meeting schedules released to the public. Documents listed here do not reflect any changes made by committee members or staff after their initial release date. To view the current year’s meeting dates, times and locations, please go to Meeting Minutes.
CMCA is an evidence-based prevention program that utilizes community-organizing strategies to reduce adolescent access to alcohol by changing community policies and practices. Effectively limiting the access to alcohol of people under the legal drinking age not only directly reduces teen drinking, but also communicates a clear message to the community that underage drinking is inappropriate and unacceptable. Implementation of the model in Queen Anne’s County began with an environmental scan and the collection of baseline data. This report is an initial summary of that data. The report summarizes data collected in four primary areas:
The report concludes with a summary of the findings and suggested next steps in the CMCA program. The Prevention Office maintains a binder which contains original copies of CMCA supporting documentation including correspondence, laws, licensees, and other materials. Summaries of many of those documents are included within this report, and originals are available for review at the Prevention Office.
Periodically, Maryland’s sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders are surveyed to determine the nature, extent, and trend of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use among adolescents. The 2007 Maryland Adolescent Survey (MAS) presents the latest findings regarding ATOD use by Maryland’s adolescents and compares State and local findings with national findings and trends.
The Queen Anne’s County Community Partnerships for Children and Families received a grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy as part of its Drug-Free Communities Support Program. The grant began in FY 2005 and was renewable annually up through FY 2009. This grant supported efforts of the Drug-Free Queen Anne’s Community Coalition to (1) reduce substance abuse among youth and (2) improve community mobilization among key substance abuse stakeholder groups in Queen Anne’s County. Information in this report shows the community how the school system (Student Assistance Programs) work diligently to prevent youth substance abuse through early identification and referrals for assessments for “at risk” youth. Additionally, we want the community to be aware of the number of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug offenses committed by juveniles. Other juvenile offenses may be indirectly related to alcohol and/or drug abuse, but are not listed in this publication. Although progress has been made, we still have a lot of work to do as a community to reduce the age of onset of substance use and to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse among our youth. This report presents the progress made on key goals of the Drug-Free Queen Anne’s Community Coalition.
According to the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) Systems of Care is a coordinated network of community-based services and supports that are organized to meet the challenges of children and youth with serious mental health needs and their families. Families and youth work in partnership with public and private organizations to design services and supports that are effective, that build on the strengths of individuals, and that address each person’s cultural and linguistic needs. A system of care helps children, youth and families function better at home, in school, in the community and throughout life. Systems of care is not a program — it is a philosophy of how care should be delivered. Systems of Care is an approach to services that recognizes the importance of family, school and community, and seeks to promote the full potential of every child and youth by addressing their physical, emotional, intellectual, cultural and social needs. The Community Partnerships is working to develop a clear, efficient and effective system of care for Queen Anne’s County families. The Queen Anne’s County Draft Local Access Plan Document explains the Community Partnerships proposal for a two-pronged approach to improving the access to and utilization of services: 1) Central Point of Access through one phone number and a website link to resources that also provides information and referral services and 2) Systems Navigator. A person who will work more intensively with families to eliminate barriers to services and to empower families to obtain the support services they need.
A dedicated Disproportionate Minority Representation (DMR) Planning and Action Team was convened during FY 2004 to investigate DMR data related to Juvenile Justice and other domains, to research model programs, and to develop a plan for responding to local DMR needs. The Partnership engaged at least 150 citizens in a DMR needs assessment process locally referred to as “CommUNITY.” “CommUNITY” is a term used to describe a strategic approach created to ultimately lead to “systems change” with leadership provided by a citizen team who provided guidance toward a comprehensive assessment of disproportionate minority youth representation throughout public agencies and progressing to solution building opportunities.
The Queen Anne’s County Department of Social Service partnered with Coastline Training and Development, Inc., in consultation with Dr. Steve Preister, Associate Director of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organization Improvement, Paul DiLorenzo of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement and John Bumgarner, Research Faculty, Institute for Policy Outreach at Virginia Tech, to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the child and family service array in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. This report is the first report which depicts the assessment of the 96 service array objectives. The final goal in mind is to generate a Resource Development Plan for the Queen Anne’s County child and family service array.
In accordance with Maryland law, Mid-Shore Mental Health Systems, Inc. (MSMHS), the mental health authority for Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties, has prepared the Community Mental Health Plan for Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010. Local mental health authorities, also known as Core Service Agencies (CSA’s), were created by State law to plan, monitor and evaluate publicly funded mental health services. The law requires Core Service Agencies to prepare a comprehensive plan with input from users of the Public Mental Health System (PMHS) and the community at large. The FY09 and FY10 Community Mental Health Plan document describes the MSMHS planning process, including a summary of the comprehensive Needs Assessment completed in FY08. With the input of stakeholders of the region, MSMHS has developed the goals, objectives and strategies for the upcoming years.
In 2004 the Queen Anne’s County Board of County Commissioners established the Queen Anne’s County Education Task Force through County Commissioner’s Resolution #03-81. The County Commissioners asked the Task Force to report and provide recommendations on six issues. The Community Partnerships was assigned to staff this task force.
The School-Based Wellness Center (SBWC) study was commissioned by the Queen Anne’s County Community Partnerships for Children and steered by a committee of representatives from Queen Anne’s County’s Board of Education, Health Department and Local Management Board. The purpose of the investigation was to determine if school-based wellness center services are needed in Queen Anne’s County and if so what services should be provided and for whom. The study was completed on September 1, 2001.
In June of 2002, Queen Anne’s County Community Partnerships for Children in collaboration with the county’s Interagency Council of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (ICAPP), applied to the Governor’s Council on Adolescent Pregnancy (GCAP) for funds to conduct a teen pregnancy needs assessment and resource mapping process. The project is referred to as “Cap” and “Map” because the needs assessment involved “cap” turning data and “map” ping current resources.
Healthy Families Queen Anne’s/Talbot provides intensive prevention and early intervention services to first-time parents, residing in Queen Anne’s or Talbot County, eligible for Maryland Children’s Health Program (M-CHP) and at risk because of their own history of abuse as a child, current or past mental illness, substance abuse, anger control problems, inadequate support, high stress, limited knowledge about child development and other risk factors. The first objective of Healthy Families is to reduce the occurrence of child abuse and neglect in families at risk. The second objective is to build the capacity of first time parents to raise a young child who will have the social, emotional, language and learning skills to be “ready for school” when they reach kindergarten age. Brain development in the early years affects learning for a lifetime.
