NYC Children's Plan Governance Committee

To enact the mission and goals of The Children's Plan at the NYC local level, a Children's Plan Roundtable Discussion of youth, family members, and government representatives convened on December 11, 2009 to identify top priority issues and develop NYC specific cross-system action plans.  The focus was on two populations, children 0-5 years old and young adults ages 16-25 (transition age youth), that would benefit from extensive interagency collaboration and cross systems support. Roundtable participants proposed multiple initiatives to address the following top priority issues, as well as serve as the basis of these action plans.

Identified top priority issues for transition age youth (TAY) and children 0-5 years old:

1. The need for a collaborative approach to enable TAY to access appropriate housing and develop skills for independent functioning.
2. The need for youth service plans to be youth-guided and coordinated across all agencies with shared accountabilities for outcomes.
3. The need to enhance support for traumatized children 0-5 years old.

As a result, the Children's Plan Workgroups for 2010 are:

1. Skill Set for TAY: Have city/state agencies working with TAY agree on a set of skills for successful transition to adulthood and disseminate this information. (Leadership: Ronni Fuchs, Director of Youth Advocacy and Support Services, NYC Administration for Children's Services and Judy Blunt, Hunter College)
2. Housing: Develop a set of standards for housing and supportive services for TAY with the goal of TAY being successfully housed throughout their lives. (Leadership: Nina Aledort, Assistant Commissioner for Program Services at the NYC Administration for Children's Services - Division of Youth and Family Justice (formerly DJJ), and Jim Bolas, Director of Education, Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services)
3. Accessing Information: Identify and map existing services for TAY and develop a communication plan for youth, families, providers and government agencies. (Current Leadership: Marnie Davidoff, Director of Office of Policy and Planning, NYC DOHMH and Anthony Ramirez, Director of Youth Connect, NYC DYCD)
4. Cross-System Youth Voice: Develop a cross-system youth forum where youth advocates can network and provide feedback to agencies (Leadership: Brian Lombrowski, Youth Involvement Specialist)
5. Early Childhood:  Develop cross-systems consensus on the definition and levels of trauma; develop an instrument and suggest a protocol for uniform screening and early detection of trauma; train staff and educate families. (Current Leadership: Evelyn Blanck, Chair of the DOHMH Federation of Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and Associate Executive Director of the New York Center for Child Development).

Each Workgroups were formulated with recommendations for facilitators and participants based on experience, expertise and interest in the specific topic. Identified workgroup participants represent child and adult serving agencies as well as community based providers, families and youth. Each workgroup is responsible for developing a work plan to guide workgroup tasks, milestones and goals, as well as communicate the strategy on how work will be accomplished by January 2011.

The NYC Children's Plan Governance Committee will convene quarterly each year to specifically address governance of the NYC Children's Plan.  These meetings will occur from 9:00am-11:00am at April 1st, July 1st, October 7th, 2010 and January 7, 2011.  All the participants of the Roundtable Discussion and the leaders of the workgroups are invited to these meetings, along with members of the Citywide Oversight Committee (COC).

The role of the NYC Children's Plan Governance Committee will be to:

• Assist workgroups with strategic planning and addressing challenges to meeting the goals;
• Monitor and evaluate progress/accomplishments of workgroups;
• Promote workgroup accomplishments and recommendations; and
• Identify future issues/gaps and initiatives related to The Children's Plan.

Agenda & Minutes:

The Children's Plan Workgroups for 2010 in NYC:

~ NYC Early Childhood Mental Health Strategic Workgroup

~ Transition Aged Youth Accessing Information Workgroup

~ Cross-Systems Youth Voice Workgroup

~ Transition Aged Youth Housing Workgroup

~ Transition Aged Youth Skills Set Workgroup