TRUMBULL CO. Family agency has plan

The 60-page plan took a year to develop and involved discussions with a wide variety of people.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County Children Services officials have completed development of a strategic plan they believe will enable the agency to better serve families and children.
"The key for us was reaffirming that we need a lot of partners to help us. No public agency can do everything," said Robert Kubiak, agency executive director.
Kubiak said more emphasis is needed on developing foster home placements for children with emotional and behavioral problems.
Comprehensive: The 60-page plan took about a year to complete after meetings involving the community, other agencies' representatives and children services' employees at all levels of responsibility.
"People were encouraged to share ideas of family and children and the role children services should play," Kubiak said.
The plans will help with the delivery of programs, training and outreach, Kubiak added.
The plan, which Kubiak said will take the agency through the next five years, is divided into five areas.
They are: external relationships; internal partnerships; service enhancements and system improvements; agency resources; and how the plan is to be communicated to staff, foster parents and the community.
In the area of external relationships, children services will, for example, increase public speaking engagements by 20 percent and generally make itself more visible to the community. The agency has already started a newsletter.
The plan points out that some groups of staff feel isolated from other staff members.
More interaction: To eliminate the isolation, the executive director will conduct all-staff meetings. The personnel manual will be revised, social activities among staff will be increased and staff reports shared.
To enhances services, the agency will, among other things, work to return children being housed at the agency to their families or a permanent alternative family within 90 days of receiving them. Also, the agency will be more responsive in preparing young people for independent living. In addition, the agency will work to develop a program to increase the number of foster and adoptive homes for those with special behavioral and emotional needs.
In addressing resources, the agency will attempt to retain qualified staff; the plan noted that the turnover rate has increased the past three years.
In addition, the agency will work to share its plan or progress to those outside the agency.
"The agency is pretty much on line in the direction we want to be going," Kubiak said.
He explained that though the agency goal wasn't changed, the plan focuses on the goal and how to get there.
Such a document is never complete, it's always changing, Kubiak said, and development is ongoing.