Committee Hearing, March 4, 2002

Good afternoon.

It's going to be a long day today. Good afternoon. Estelle Richman, I'm glad you clarified that because of the questions that I wanted to ask was about Safe and Sound involved in program implementation, and Estelle just made clear that you do research and data-gathering and then the different departments contract out and monitor.

That's correct. We might do some evaluation of some projects. For example, the Behavioral Health System launched the Multi-Systemic therapeutic Intervention Program, which is a program, again, a blueprint program based on research that intervenes with young people in the juvenile justice system who have emotional- disturbance and mental-health disorders who have a propensity to be violent, and it's a extremely intensive community-based program that provides services not just to the individual client but to those people with whom that client comes into contact: Family and school and other people. We provide evaluation for that particular 1485 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET project, again, in connection with the Teen Centers. We are the ones who develop the evaluative forms and will help the Recreation Department understand whether those centers are having the intended impact. But we don't do the actual program implementation for any of the services that the City offers.

Good, we want to get that clear on the record. We currently have around 46 young men and women, young kids in the after-school program, but the actual need in terms of our after-school programs is much greater than that. And the numbers of students and school-aged kids that are not in a after-school program, what is their total number currently, 46, 48,000 or more?

Our number is based on the research that we did a little over two years ago for the City of Philadelphia, again, using resources from Temple University, St. Joe's, and the University of Pennsylvania. Census data as well as resource and mapping information suggest very strongly that this 1486 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET city needs to research approximately 100,000 more children in after-school and youth development, and while we're encouraged by the degree to which the City has invested this year, I think it's a phenomenal investment of over $12 million. We still have a long way to go. The other thing I would keep in mind is although the official Children's Investment Strategy might suggest million, when Commissioner Martinez 11 comes up and testifies, I'm sure she'll be sharing 12 with us some of the prevention and programming in the non-school hours that the new Prevention Unit is advancing as well. But we still have tremendous challenge. It's a multi-year strategy. Certainly we need the dollars to advance it. But, again, you need the technical assistance, you needed training, and you need the monitoring to ensure that that investment is reaping what you hope to reap at the end of the day.

We have projected 11 Beacon Centers. Have those 11 areas been chosen as of this time?

Yes, and I can share that list 1487 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET with you, Councilman. And the Beacons are scheduled to open on April 1st; they've not yet begun to provide service. The one caveat is with a new School District administration, we have to renegotiate a facility-use agreement with that district, and we have been meeting with them and hope to bring closure to that relatively soon so that we can meet that April 1st target.

Is the agreement just going to be for the use of the facility, or is there going to be actual incorporating of school personnel into the Beacon Program?

The lead agency has the option of hiring and incorporating school personnel into the Beacon Program, and the Beacons don't just start operating at 3 o'clock in the afternoon; they have to tie closely to the academic day and the needs of that particular school as well as the community so it becomes kind of seamless in terms of the services, interventions and enhancements and activities offered to that child and his or her family.

But you have budgeted, 1488 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET you said, $325,000 initially for every Beacon, and how is that budget going to break down? And it's going to be almost --

I can send you a complete --

How many services are we going to be able to provide, and maybe in terms of the school system and the school board or whatever they are called.

Well, they certainly will benefit from the Beacons since the research indicates that Beacons and these kinds of programs improve academic achievement, so we hope that they'll be full partners at the table. I can send you a description of the kinds of services offered at the Beacons, and again, they vary ever so slightly, depending on community in which they're venued. I do know that our goal for at least the after-school youth development component for the Beacons, which is only one of the many services, is that each Beacon be serving by the end of June approximately 100 young people, and that by the end of December this year, that they be serving a minimum of 300 children. 1489 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET The goal for what we call "full development of the Beacons," because, again, they have to evolve over time, is that they serve annually 1,000 children and families.

How do you project the costs as they increase in terms of students that are served? And how is the money going to be projected and found in order to provide these services?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you talking about the cost per child and how we're going to ensure sustainability?

As more children come into it, and you have initial budgeting of 325, but as the program grows and services more students, there's obviously going to be an incremental aspect in terms of the cost, and how are we projecting budgeting for that? And whether -- well, you said that the contracting agency will work with the school that they're going to be looking to, but shouldn't that be a part of the overall negotiation as to what contribution the school system should be contributing to this overall program?

We are, as a city, negotiating 1490 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET School District so that individual Beacons and after-school programs do not have to engage the School District, and we will come up with an agreement between the City of Philadelphia and the School District.

Is that part of the overall agreement that we're working on?

Right, right, it is part of the overall agreement.

It is?

Well, in terms of staffing, I mean, when you occupy a school building, there are certain staff that may need to be present, whether it's security staff or building, maintenance staff or building engineers, and those would be School District employees. So to the extent what that they need to stay beyond the typical 5 o'clock hour, that negotiation is occurring between the City of Philadelphia and the School District to reach an agreement, and individual providers of service are not obligated to engage in that negotiation.

Right.

In terms of the cost of the 1491 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET Beacons, this first year, the City dedicated -- and again, I could be corrected, Ellen -- $325,000, with an expectation that that budget per Beacon would grow to $450,000 annually next year, when they are fully operational. So this was a partial-funding year as they build up their services.

I'll come back in a second, ma'am.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller. Councilman Miller, are you ready?

Yes. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilman Nutter. I guess what I want to say basically is that I think Safe and Sound is a really good program. I've enjoyed working with them. I think the people that's been working in my district have been a valuable part of things that we're trying to do. Last week, we had a big community meeting in Nicetown and Cynthia Barnes was there, and Cynthia and I have met prior to the meeting, and we're doing a lot of organizing and we're trying to 1492 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET get funding for the (indiscernible) office that was there. Anytime you have a extra pair of hands to help you organize and deal with community problems, we welcome it. I am concerned, though, about the Beacon Schools and who got the contract. Last week, I asked the Recreation Department if they would send a copy of the list. Commissioner Estelle and I -- I keep calling her "Commissioner." Managing Director Estelle Richman and I had a discussion about the Beacon Schools in my district a few weeks ago, and I'm still not sure who actually got the contract, and I need more information regarding that. And I think we're all sitting around here wishing for a Teen Center in our district 'cause last week, when the Recreation Commissioner described those centers, I mean, they sound like really great centers. MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHMAN: Councilwoman, the list has been prepared and is just going through our process now to be able to be sent to the Council President, and you should have it in a few days.

Okay, thank you. 1493 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET So that's basically what I wanted to say. I would love to have a Teen Center, can't wait to find the information out about the Beacon Schools, and we have a Family Center, and I'm not sure whether we have a Youth Access Center, but anything you're putting together, we want it in the 8th district. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter

Madam Chair, I'm sure there must be someone else who wants me to yield to them at this moment. (Laughter.)

I think I will yield to myself. With regard to the various centers or facilities -- and I know I had asked the question earlier about the Teen Centers, and then on Page of the testimony, right in a row, there's Beacons, Family Centers, Teen Centers. I think I may have confused myself based on testimony the other day. Councilwoman Miller reminds me that what I asked 1494 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET about with Commissioner Richard, I think, was actually the RECS, which I think is a computer base. I thin it's RECS, which is an acronym for some of the schools that are going to have increased --

Technology.

-- technology and computerization, and this may be a part of the Digital Divide Program. I wrote down in the budget book in Recreation that those were in -- I think these are the names of Rec Centers: Feltonville, Meyers, Lawn Crest, Simons, Gaithers, McVeigh, and Grays Ferry. Now that, I think, is not -- I mean, they're certainly not Beacons, I don't think Family Centers or Teen Centers; I think that those are the --

Youth Access Centers, probably. MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHMAN: Youth access Centers.

Youth Access Centers. We've got a lot of stuff. MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHMAN: That's correct. But those will be on your mapping also.

Okay, all right. 1495 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET Those are the Youth Access Centers, which are different than Teen Centers,

Yes, that's correct.

Which, I think, there are actually only two Teen Centers; is that right/ MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHMAN: That's correct.

That's correct.

Okay, and they are...?

At rivera and McVeigh at this point in time

Rivera?

Yes, which I think is the 5th.

And McVeigh, which -- McVeigh is also a Youth Access Center, okay.

I'd like to just mention about the Teen Centers. They were developed in response to a request from acting Commissioner Johnson. As the Youth Violence Reduction Project achieved a level of success in the 24th and 25t Police District, he challenged us to try to create a model that might entice older youth who are not inclined to go to the typical after-school programs to come 1496 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET to a program and participate, after which we might be able to connect them to services to assist them in getting jobs or back involved in schools. The Teen Centers were that concept based on research, and I think the Recreation Department is doing a phenomenal job in moving that forward. We had hoped to expand the Teen Centers next year and, in fact, Safe and Sound has already secured some federal funding to build two more Teen Centers -- not build, but have the Recreation Department implement two more Teen Centers next year. And, of course, the Police Department would like us to do that in conjunction with the expansion of the Youth Violence Reduction Project because works well in tandem. I certainly agree that we need more resources for kids for programming in non-school hours, whether it's the Youth Access Centers or the Beacon Centers or the after-schools or the Teen Centers; it shouldn't be just one model, but it should be universally available to all kids and families.

Right, yeah. I mean, if you're in a situation where you have a variety of 1497 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET these entities all in the same place, I mean, on the one hand, I think that's certainly great for the folks there; on the other hand, it's probably also indicative of a whole host of factors that lead to having those at that location, which may not necessarily be something you want to jump up and down about, because it's a sign of something else going on. On the other hand, I would ask President Post and Managing Director Richman -- we've had this discussion internally, both of you have been around in a variety of capacities in different parts of the government for some time. On the neighborhood revitalization kind of discussion -- I will not drag you through an NTI discussion, but similarly, there is -- in the expenditure of resources. There is the age-old debate over places that clearly, by every measurement and indicator, have enormous need, and we naturally put resources in those places. And then the question is always left for everywhere else, where there might be signs of these kinds of problems, whether it's on the housing and neighborhood revitalization side, or now even in the 1498 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET children's services and opportunities that are available to children, whether they end up on the radar screen in the Report Card as produced by Safe and Sound or the Kids Calendar or anybody's measurement, we are always left to then try to figure out what goes on in other places. And I would only ask, even as it's laid out in your testimony, the discussion we had earlier, into , for the neighborhoods that are not necessarily showing all of the signs of distress, I would only ask for continued sensitivity and look-see at those other places, because they seem to fall in the prevention side of the discussion, but where you don't necessarily have the luxury of doing a lot of prevention, you deal with immediacy. And so whether it's a Youth Access Center, and in the discussion I had with Commissioner Richard last week and the lack of one on the north side of Market and in the northwest part of the City, or when we went through this other list of the Beacons, of which I know there is one in the 4th District at 56th and Vine, Family Centers, the Teen Centers, all of these various 1499 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET opportunities, I think sometimes even if it's one, if you can't get three or four, if there is something that we've targeted different neighborhoods to have those things. And I know we obviously have funding and budgetary constraints, but I would like to continue to advocate and push for as decisions are being made, that we at least try to figure out how we're trying to serve a variety of different youth and their needs, because just because they haven't gotten in trouble or have not decided to either kill somebody or put themselves in danger and end up being killed themselves, you know, in the realm of "there but for the grace of God," I mean, sometimes they wind up in that situation as well, and where there is nothing, it's not necessarily an indication that everything is all right.

I agree with you, certainly.

The federal money that was secured on , the $225,000, either how was that secured or what federal program were you able to access to get to the $225,000?

Those dollars come from the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant money that comes 1500 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET to the City of Philadelphia. I sit on the coordinating body for those dollars, as does John Delaney and Denise Clayton from my staff. We provided technical assistance to the Recreation Department to apply for those funds and sat in the body that helped to determine priorities within the City for what should be funded. Those funds are specifically earmarked to reduce risk behaviors, so you'll see that they're typically used to support programs like the Youth Violence Reduction Project, the Teen Centers. Sometimes we use those funds for equipment purchase within the court system, scanning programs, fingerprint programs, but it's tied to juvenile justice and our need to create effective prevention programs to prevent further penetration into the system or to keep kids out of that system.

And what exactly is the Children's Investment Strategy? Is that --

That's an initiative of the Mayor's, and what it encompasses is this philosophy that children should have access to after-school and youth development, and the Mayor publicly announced a challenge, indicating that this City wanted to 1501 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET serve, at a minimum, 100,000 more children, and that this city should be looking to redirect or raise approximately $150 million. There is an Oversight Committee for the Investment Strategy that is cochaired by the Mayor, by David L. Cohen, and by Janet Haas the William Penn Foundation, and there are a number of public and private folks that sit on that Oversight Committee, including Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds and Council President Anna Verna, who sit on that committee along with business and foundation people for oversight purposes.

And the $150 million is principally to be raised either privately, foundation, and some combination of directed or redistricted City dollars?

It would be from a variety of sources, yes.

Okay. If we ended up raising the $150 million, would we be able to serve 100,000 kids after school? I mean, where would we do all of this?

Capacity-building is yet another challenge, which is why we have a multi-year 1502 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET initiative. I would like to see -- and people can agree or disagree, and I know that there's that guiding body that directs us -- as many of these programs as possible in school buildings. I'd like to see as many of these programs connected to, you know, the academic achievement in the school day and seamless services for children universally. And I know there are some pros and cons to locating in school buildings, and different kinds of programs need different kinds of venues, but to the extent that we can closely connect to the school, we know that research suggests that that's going to have the greatest impact on attendance, performance, and reduction of risk behaviors.

Philadelphia Safe and Sound -- there's obviously been a tremendous amount of discussion here this morning -- primarily is a data and research provider, or is it a service- provider, or is it a coordinator?

One thing I can clearly say is we're not a service-provider. Sometimes we are a coordinator, sometimes we do convene groups of people to achieve a particular goal. We certainly 1503 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET do a lot of data and research and fiscal analysis as well. We are, essentially, what the City wants us to be. And I'll give you another for example. When the Report Card came out and the Health Commissioner and the Commissioner of DHS were concerned about abuse and neglect, they can turn to Safe and Sound through the Division of Social Services and say that they want research done on what really works to reduce abuse and neglect and what kind of models have been tested with scientific rigor, and we're the people who go out and do that research and make that information available to them.

And what, if any, entity was available prior to -- I guess it was '97 or '96. I mean, who would they have turned to in the past to get that kind of information, or would someone have just been pulled from some project somewhere possibly? MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHMAN: Speaking as a former commissioner, you really didn't have someone doing that, and you often did not take advantage of some of those opportunities that have the most 1504 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET cutting-edge programs, because you either pull someone from something else, change priorities, or redistrict the staff in such a way that in many times, you undermine it yourself from some of the things you were doing. Just let me add that when Robert Wood Johnson put this RFP out. They were looking for systems change. They specifically did not want these grants funding programs and doing implementation because implementation of the programs very rarely, if ever, create systems change. And their point of these and the longevity of these grants was to look at how do you begin to get a system to change so at the end of a grant, you've actually produced something different, that it can be sustained as opposed to a grant to a program, that when the money goes away, the program goes away.

Okay. A couple last questions. I heard some of the discussion back and forth when the issue was raised about some grant opportunities. I don't necessarily need to get into 1505 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET all of the earlier discussion, but what I could not figure out from some of the back-and-forth was, where did the money actually come from? And there was reference made to RFPs that apparently come possibly to our offices. Who is actually issuing an RFP, and who is cutting the check for whoever's getting grant dollars?

The actual RFPs, although they might have been drafted or supported or provided technical assistance in drafting by Safe and Sound, are issued by the Office of Children's Policy within the City of Philadelphia, which reports to the Division of Social Services in the Managing Director's Office. That's a mouthful, Councilman.

I was still on O-F-F dot of...

Office of Children's Policy, which functions under the umbrella of the Division of Social Services, which is venued in the Managing Director's Office.

Okay. So the Office of Children's Policy issues RFPs to groups of 1506 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET organizations to get funding for whatever their thing is, and I think the part I didn't understand was, you're saying that the RFPs are sent to us if we knew of someone who may want to participate or something like that?

Yes. I can confirm with Mr. DeLorenzo, who's the Director of the Office of Children's Policy. My understanding is that he did send to all locally-elected officials copies of that RFP. There will be another series of RFPs for further expansion of both Beacons as well as after-school, and I will check with that office to ensure every Councilperson is on that list.

And by my asking the question, I'm not in any way indicating that I did not get it. I mean, you know that there's a fair amount of paper that flows through the government. Is it possible to get a list of, I guess, the successful applicants or the successful recipients of any of the various grants and some kind of listing, either broken out by Council District, name of entity, and how much?

I can break it down by zip code. My machine doesn't sort by Council District, 1507 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET because that wasn't one of the fields, but if I break it down by zip code, you can probably locate those that are venued in your district.

Absolutely. I can do the zip code thing. You made mention of eight community organizers, which sounds like an earlier activity by Safe and Sound, and then it sounded like they drifted over to MOCS; is that correct?

I probably wouldn't say "drifted over"; I might say they planfully relocated to MOCS, but they're still connected to Safe and Sound.

Okay. Well, I understand they didn't just not show up one day, but they were sent over, okay. This is my last question. What is the Health and Safety Fund? Or is that not pertinent to this particular discussion?

It's not pertinent to my testimony, but Ellen Steiker might be able to respond to that question. MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHMAN: The Health and Safety Fund is actually the dollars we use to 1508 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET support child-care entities that need to do usually something that is structural capital in nature, some repairs to their residence, some repairs to where they will have children located. So it's really bricks-and-mortar dollars that go to child-care applicants.

Okay, I'm sorry, Director. Obviously, that doesn't go with Safe and Sound, but who is that a part of, or what is that a part of, which department? MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHMAN: It comes directly out of the Social Services Division. The contract themselves lie with the Health Department.

Oh, okay, I guess we'll have to bring Mr. Domzalski back. No, I'm only kidding. Lastly, President Post, you indicated in an earlier discussion between us $325,000 for the Beacons as start-up, and that that was enough, but I thought I heard in a later discussion that when they're fully operational, I heard the figure of $450,000.

That's correct. I think for this partial year, when we don't anticipate the 1509 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET Beacons being fully operational -- and, again, I'll stand corrected by Ellen from our Budget Office if I'm wrong. The City allocated $325,000. It is expected that they will be fully operational in the next fiscal year, and the City has committed $425,000 per Beacon to support operations the operations then.

Okay, and the $25,000, I mean, that was what I was getting to in our earlier discussion, was there a gap. It sounds like there's a $25,000 gap between City funding at 425 and fully operational at 450?

There is no gap, as a matter of fact. The question is, what goes directly to the Beacon School and what may be held back for technical assistance or for payments to the School District for use of facilities? But there is no 20 funding gap for next year; in fact, there's room for expansion.

Okay. I'm just trying to understand the distinction between the 425 and the 450.

I misspoke. It's 450. 1510 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET

Oh. And the City's providing 450.

Yes.

Oh, okay, all right, I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you very much.

My mistake. Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? (No further questions.)

I would like to suggest that perhaps in writing, we can get information on where the Teen Centers are, what they do; Beacon Schools, exactly what that program entails, where they will be located? And we have a number of other programs. I think it would be really very helpful to everyone if we could have that in writing and as to where the locations are. MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHMAN: Council President, we will provide for you a listing to all of these programs; the definitions; where they're located; and if there's a partner, who the partner 1511 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET is, because between many of these, it's a private nonprofit partner along with the school; the zip code location of them; and who the key contact person is, if you run additional information. We should have all of that to you on the timeline that we've set to get feedback.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you again for your patience. The committee will stand in recess for a half hour. We will return here at 3 o'clock. (Council stands in recess.) - - - (Proceedings resume.) - - - 1512 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET (Proceedings now being stenographically recorded by Brian Rasco.)

The Committee of the Whole is now back in session. The next department to testify will be the Department of Human Services. (Witnesses came forward.)

Good afternoon. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Good afternoon, President Verna.

Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes. My name is Alba Martinez and I'm the Commissioner of the Department of Human Services. And joining me is the Department of Human Services finance director. Madam President, I was ready to skip my testimony and start with questions, although maybe you want me to just read my testimony.

You don't have to read it in its entirety. But I think if you would summarize it and we will then give a copy of 1513 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET it to the stenographer. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Very well.

I'm sure the members are in their offices and they can hear your testimony. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Okay. I'm here to present our fiscal year '03 operating budget request and to report to council on the progress we have been making. Our general fund budget request is $530,445,000, which represents an increase of 11 percent over the department's FY '02 estimated obligations. Of this request, it is expected that fully 92 percent will be offset by federal and state revenues, making the city's share of DHS's expenditures $41,600,000. For each Human Services' budget dollar, the city will contribute only eight cents toward building up the quality of family life in Philadelphia. Since 1988, the city's net contribution in dollars has been reduced by 52 percent while overall expenditures have increased 306 percent. The significant decrease in the city's share has been brought about by a combination of enhanced 1514 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET revenue generation from several federal and state funding sources, as well as diversion of costs to other federal and state programs. The department's agenda strikes at the core of what we all want for our city: improved quality of family life. This year we began implementation of our Blueprint for Excellence, a strategic roadmap for increased performance. The work efforts described in our Blueprint center around building safety nets to support families in need or in crisis, building bridges with our partners for efficient and effective service delivery, building supports, competence and accountability for our staff to ensure quality outcomes for our consumers, and building fiscal responsibility, accountability and sustainability across our service systems. Increases in expenditures are directly related to the increased need for child protection and to prevent child maltreatment and neglect from occurring. 8 percent increase in abuse and neglect reports between July and December of FY '01 and during the same period in FY '02, requiring 7,130 investigations. The number of 1515 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET families accepted for in-home services also continues to rise, following a trend which began in '98. Placement services have shown a slight decrease, resulting from our enhanced capacity to serve children in their own homes. However, many of the children in our care now require highly specialized programs and services to meet their needs. In January of this year, there were 7,728 children in out-of-home care. Maintaining a full complement of qualified staff is essential to meeting our mission to ensure children's safety and permanence. Efforts to fully staff DHS with highly qualified people were implemented last fiscal year and will continue throughout this year and the next. As a result of these efforts, we hired 134 new employees to fill chronic vacancies. We face continuing challenges in recruitment, particularly of bilingual social workers, and are investing in additional recruitment efforts to achieve full staffing, which is essential to ensure child protection, meet state-mandated caseload ratios, and sustain full state licensure. 1516 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET In the past year, important programmatic additions, changes and improvements have been implemented to advance our commitment to community access. We established the Division of Community-based Prevention Services, dedicated to developing a network of community-based services to divert families from DHS and build a neighborhood-based safety net for children and families. 4 million in FY '03. A major focus of the community-based prevention services has been the development of a system of voluntary services for families who do not require child protection services.

The core of this service are our community family centers, located 19 in neighborhoods throughout the city and offering case management, parenting education and support, linkage to other health and social services, and a variety of youth programs. Among the most exciting of our prevention initiatives has been the funding of a network of 45 new community-based programs that 1517 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET provide education and support to high-risk families to enhance the parenting skills of parents and caregivers. Over 3,000 families will be served through this program this fiscal year, and we plan to at least double the number of programs and families served in FY '03. In partnership with Family Court and the behavioral health system, pre-hearing case conferences were instituted in August 2001 for new petitions filed in Family Court. These conferences offer not only an opportunity to share information, define problems and discuss possible solutions, but also to quickly engage services for families so that children can return home safely and permanently in a faster time frame consistent with national outcome standards. This fiscal year we have seen a steady increase in the number of children being made available for adoption. Between FY '01 and FY '02 the number of children assigned to our adoption section has more than doubled. The number of finalized adoptions in FY '01 was 469. While the number of finalized adoptions in FY '02 will increase only slightly, the impact of the increased 1518 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET terminations of parental rights will be more evident in FY '03. To foster permanency solutions for children, we have embarked on two significant campaigns to raise public awareness about children who need out-of-home-care. This effort yielded over 300 calls to the foster care home recruitment hotline and over 200 families referred to foster care agencies to begin the process of becoming foster parents. In addition, DHS is collaborating with the National Adoption Center, the Statewide Adoption Network, the Faith-based Partnership for Adoption and others in the creation of a campaign and strategy to recruit 150 new adoptive parents for Philadelphia's children. Law enforcement initiatives in recent years, such as Operation Sunrise, have been a primary factor in the dramatic rise in new delinquency cases, an increase of 31 percent from 1999 to 2001. During the same period, admissions to the Youth Study Center increased from 6100 in '99 to nearly 6300 in '01. Despite these increases, we are proud to report that the average daily population at the Youth Study Center has declined 15 percent over 1519 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET the last 12 months to 115, from a peak of 135 in February 2001. But the efficiency and usefulness of the Youth Study Center, as you are well aware, has long been waning. Considerable progress has been made this year to move us closer to the reality of building a new facility. During the last months, 9 juvenile justice partners have met regularly and 10 have agreed that a 150-bed center should be built. 11 A space plan sets forth detailed staffing, 12 programming, and living space needs, and 18 million is requested in the capital budget in addition to the original 30 million already appropriated. Counsel President Verna, in the sake of time, I'm happy to begin taking questions.

Thank you. Can you tell us what, if any, changes have been made in the area of foster care? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes. Well, in the area of foster care, we are right now engaged in a major effort to bring performance-based contracting into Philadelphia. And this will engage our providers in a discussion around achieving the time frames for permanency for children in 1520 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET accordance with the national outcomes. And in addition -- and I assume that you might be referring to a change we recently made that moved direct foster parents to provider agencies. Is that the question specifically?

Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, the department has approximately 5,000 children in placement. 3,478 of them are in foster care. 1,971 are in kinship care, which means that they're with relatives or other people that they knew prior to coming into placement. Historically, the department also had approximately 150 children in direct foster care, which means that there was no provider agency working with that family and with the department to provide services. This has been a historical trend in the last five years for the department to contract out most of its placement services. And in the last two years, we've done a careful analysis of our direct foster care program. And we found that while the parents are amazing and they're excellent, that they were really not getting the same type of services and supports that foster parents were getting in our 1521 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET provider network. And so a decision was made, for practical reasons and based on best practice and for quality assurance reasons, to transition all direct foster homes into our provider agency network. And that process is happening right now. It's approximately -- I can give you the exact numbers. But I believe that there's between 100 and 120 children and perhaps 70 foster parents. The children will not be moved. And we have gone through careful analysis to choose five or six agencies that we thought would be the ideal ones for this transition. And in the next month we are going to have meetings between the foster parents and the agencies. We're trying to give the foster parent options. And there will be discussions to match the right foster parent to the right agency. I recognize that some foster parents are deeply upset about this change, and we are doing everything we can to explain as much as possible why this change is needed. However, for practical reasons, the department is better off monitoring a system of care rather than also being a provider agency itself for only 120 children. 1522 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET

Thank you. You mentioned the replacement of the Youth Study Center in your testimony. Has a site as yet been determined for the new center? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: No, President Verna, it has not. However, the Capital Programs Office has done a survey with the assistance of a number of departments and also some private entities in the city about potential sites based on their size and accessibility to public transportation and their availability. They have done a survey of publicly owned sites and privately owned sites. And it is my understanding from the director of the office, Rick Tustin, that they're scoring these sites, as we speak, in accordance with the priorities that the juvenile justice stakeholders, which include the Court and the Managing Director's office and the District Attorney and the Public Defender, in accordance with all out of their preferences, and that list of sites will be presented to Mayor Street for his review and his decision.

Do you anticipate the center to be operational within the 1523 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET proposed five-year plan? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I believe we can. I believe we can get it done. I believe that we've made tremendous progress this year. I recognize that site selection is a critical step in the process. And if that process moves smoothly, then I do believe that we can have a new Youth Study Center in five years. I firmly believe that.

Thank you. In your testimony, you state that DHS will be establishing five support centers this fiscal year. Please explain for the record what support centers are and where the new centers will be located. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: The support centers are a business and programmatic enhancement to DHS. And they actually don't call for a whole lot more staff than we already have. They really represent a reorganization. And I'd like to explain what they are in the context of what we had. DHS has historically spent most of its resources in delivering services. And our services are very, as you know, complex. We have caseloads that are, for the most part, mixed. We have 1524 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET children that are at home receiving services, and then we have children in placement receiving services. We have children that are one year old, and we have children that are 17. We have children with no behavioral health needs and children with severe behavioral health needs. We're also operating within a context that the law and best practice changes again and again and again. And yet we have a work force that stays for a very long time in city government. So therefore what they came in learning doesn't necessarily apply five years later. So these support centers were created to support the people within DHS and also our provider agencies that do the work with the kids and the families. And there are five of them. One is a behavioral health and wellness center, and this one is developed in partnership with our behavioral health system in the city. And what we do there is we provide technical assistance, consultation and teamwork with the staff of DHS and again our providers, because we have 300 provider agencies that we contract with to serve our kids and families. So we're there for 1525 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET them when they hit a rough spot. Generally, those children that we cannot help early on end up institutionalized with behavioral health problems. We know that institutionalization of children is not the ideal for them. We know that that should be the last resort. So just as one example, this behavioral health and wellness center is allowing us to troubleshoot cases very, very early on and to provide support to staff when there wasn't that kind of support before. In addition, we have a staff development center. And that staff development center will allow us to shift our focus from only on-the-job-training, for people who start their careers at the department, to lifelong training. It's also allowing us to integrate all training activities within the department under one director. And in addition, we're going to develop better partnerships with colleges and universities that will help us train not only our social service staff, but also our supervisory staff because supervisors, in our view of the department, have to serve as coaches and they too need a great deal of 1526 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET training and support. The third one of these support centers is a quality assurance center. DHS is one of the largest city departments. Next year our budget will be almost $600 million. And it is troubling to see we simply do not invest enough in quality assurance. These systems do not self-correct. We need to constantly be monitoring how we're doing, and if we're not doing well enough, then we need to be aggressive about fixing it so that we don't have to deal with another ten-year civil rights lawsuit which cost the city millions and millions of dollars. The quality assurance center will allow us to continuously be looking critically at how we're doing and also being publicly accountable. The other support center is a policy and planning support center. And what that allows us to do is just what the name says, do better strategic planning.

One of the challenges that we face in government is that when you start a program, if you're not careful, you move on to the next thing and that program will stay there for the next 30 years without being re-evaluated. So we believe that given our serious 1527 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET mandate and given the amount of money we spend, that we need to have an aggressive agenda around planning, strategic planning, and also policy development because DHS represents 50 percent of state dollars in child welfare. So we must provide a leadership role around policy and child welfare and juvenile justice. Last but not least is a clinical and educational support center. And that support center will allow us to partner more closely with the school system because we know that there are many children in the City of Philadelphia that are not doing well educationally. And we also know -- and we're collecting data that confirms this -- that the experience of foster care and juvenile justice is often directly tied to even worse performance educationally. And we feel that we have a responsibility to identify that problem and to correct it. But again, the unique thing about these support centers is that we're not requiring a whole lot more staffing for them. We're simply reorganizing. We did add three new director positions. But these centers will pay off 1528 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET tremendously in terms of the quality and the depth of services the DHS will be able to deliver for the city.

The three new directors, have they been with the office for a number of years and they're being elevated? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: There is one new director who comes from the outside who's actually worked in child welfare in the city. The others are being elevated or have been elevated.

And where will the support centers be located? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: They will be located in our main building at 1515 Arch Street. I might add, President Verna, that we are also developing a housing support center in partnership with Rob Hess, the Deputy Managing Director for Homeless and Adult Services, and that one we might co-locate somewhere else. So that's an additional support center that we did not mention in the testimony. And that's also going to be critical for us because we recognize that housing barriers sometimes prevent families from being reunified and the department 1529 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET does not believe that lack of housing and lack of furniture and basic needs should keep a family apart.

Could you explain for the record what TANF, T-A-N-F, what that stands for? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. And that's the federal funding stream that replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

So who's eligible for the program and what are the lifetime limits? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, the lifetime limits on TANF were the lifetime limits that were imposed on people who were receiving public assistance, cash public assistance during the Clinton administration. And for Pennsylvania, the first families to hit the so-called wall will hit in March of 2002. So it's really a limit on receiving cash assistance. And individuals were encouraged for the last five years, as you well know, to engage in some kind of work activity to stop the clock. Some families in the city have not been 1530 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET able to get off of cash assistance. And so in March, unless some extensions are granted, which we believe they will be and there's a number of efforts to make sure that nobody is made homeless as a result. But it is possible that some families will lose cash assistance when they hit that wall. And if not in March, unless the law dramatically changes, in the next couple of years.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Good afternoon.

Let me first congratulate you on the first publication of the comprehensive parenting guide. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you.

I suspect you may have published that for clients, but mothers like myself could probably benefit as well. Who funds it? Is it a grant or is that from the general fund? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: The parenting efforts of the department are funded through our 1531 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET needs-based budget and through our general fund. It's all child welfare money.

And at some juncture might a guide like that be presented or available for students and parents of our school children? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, absolutely. Absolutely. The guide is part of DHS's vision to be much more aggressive at communicating with the public the services that are available for them because in the first year that I spent at DHS, I spent a lot of time just talking to people and assessing what the needs were, what our strengths were, which we had many, and also what our gaps and weakness were. And one weakness that quite frankly terrified me is that not even my own staff often knew the services that were available for clients. Then when you went to the community, you would find that people thought that there weren't services available when in fact there were. So we have made a major commitment to public accessibility. And that includes marketing, for lack of a better word, the services that are 1532 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET available to people. We've distributed 50,000 parenting guides already. The first run cost us a dollar each. We're right now about to issue a second edition in less than a year, another 50,000. These are costing us less than a dollar because we're also having people complete for our services. And we distribute them through schools, recreation centers, libraries. We have a line, 215 P-A-R-E-N-T-S, and people call that line to request it. So absolutely. We will continue to print these so long as there is a need and a demand for them because we believe that by putting information in the hands of the public and parents and caregivers we will help prevent abuse and neglect. We firmly believe that the more information that is available to people when their problems arise all over the city, all over the city, the more impact we will have on preventing abuse and neglect and delinquency.

Well, I commend you for that tremendous effort. Last year during your testimony you expressed concern about the impact, not value, but 1533 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET the impact of the family care centers. And you made it clear to us that your department would be looking at how they're operating closely and making changes. What's new and different this year? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, the family centers, for one, are providing a lot more services this year than they ever have before. And I certainly heard loud and clear council's questions and concerns about the investments in family centers. I would like to speak briefly about it while I afford David Fair the opportunity to step up and also report out to council on what we have done. We have expanded the menu of services that are available in the family centers. We have set standards for family centers that they must meet in order to continue providing services, and we have built a referral bridge between Children & Youth and these family centers. (Witness came forward.)

That's what we did. So I don't know what else there is to say. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: You can make something up. (Laughter.) 1534 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET

Identify yourself.

I'm sorry. My name is David Fair. I'm director of Community-based Prevention Services for the Department of Human Services. For this fiscal year or actually towards the end of the last fiscal year, we've required all of the existing family centers -- there are of 10 them -- to re-compete for these funds, not really in 11 a broad general competition but according to the new 12 standards that we had developed and the new 13 performance expectations that we had developed for 14 them for this current fiscal year. 15 At this point all family centers are 16 required to provide four basic services. They're 17 required to have professional case managers 18 available primarily for families referred by DHS to 19 the family center from among the 700 or so families that are investigated every month for abuse and neglect but which are not brought into SCOH or into placement services. We have 700 families that are reported for abuse and neglect every month that we do a full investigation on but the situation doesn't rise to the level of a substantiated case. 1535 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET Before the creation both of this division and the diversion mechanism that Alba referred to, DHS generally would give a phone number or maybe not even that to some of these families and hope that they didn't come back. Now, we are making a direct referral, when we can, to one of the local family centers, and the case managers are responsible for helping that family to connect to service that they may need without having to bring them into the formal child protection system. Each of the family centers is also required to provide after school and youth development programs according to the new core standards. They are required to provide parenting education programs according to the same standards that we established for the 45 new community-based programs that we funded through our requests for proposal a few of months ago. And they're also required to show us a formal referral arrangement between that family center and 28 other kinds of services ranging from the local food bank to intensive behavioral health services or whatever it is the family might need. The basic concept is that family centers will be a 1536 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET place in which DHS feels comfortable and safe in making a referral of a family that has been referred to us, DHS, for some reason but who we do not think needs to have the more intensive services of the child protection system. We're not limiting the services to those families. But we're trying to design a service system through the family centers that's capable of meeting the needs of those families as well as others in the community that might be referred there.

Okay then. That certainly sounds like a dramatic improvement from last year, starting with the implementation of standards. That alone puts --

If I could just say one more thing I forgot.

Sure.

We're also collecting a lot of data. Prior to this year, the family centers, which had been operated out of the Mayor's cabinet for children and families, had very simple reporting requirements. We now have established a web-based reporting system where the family centers themselves 1537 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET enter in data into a central data base that's maintained at DHS. We're not fully in operation yet. So don't ask me for data from it. But the idea is that we could ask that data base for any information on these families and what services they're getting out of the prevention system as a whole, not just the family centers, and most importantly track the level of risk of those families of eventual involvement in the abuse and neglect system and whether we have kept them out of that system, which is our primary prevention goal.

Absolutely. Commissioner, you spoke or articulated very well the "why" you're moving towards performance-based contracting in foster care on of your testimony. Can you share with us how you selected the agencies? You gave a number. The criteria that you used to select those agencies to start with this new procedure, performance-based contracting. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: The performance-based contracting initiative will impact on all agencies that provide foster care services. 1538 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET The agencies that I referred to selecting was for the transition of the direct foster parents. But in terms of performance-based contracting, every nonprofit provider of foster care services will be part of that initiative. We are going to begin some part of performance-based contracting this July 1, and we hope to roll out a full performance-based contracting model for the next fiscal year. And we are working with Illinois, which created it and has won some national awards for performance-based contracting, as a learning partner. We're also working with the Fell School of Government because it's very important that this be done properly. Under no circumstances do we ever want DHS or the city to be seen as pushing kids out of the system, because that's not what it's about. It is, however, about making clear that timely decision-making is imperative for children in our care. And we want to set standards and we want to measure performance of all providers in the system, which again is ultimately measuring our own performance. And acceptable options -- acceptable outcomes in performance-based contracting are 1539 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET reunification in a safe home or adoption.

Yes. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We also have a third option that we're beginning to implement in the state, which is called permanent legal custodianship, which allows a caretaker to accept full custody with a subsidy but without government intrusion. So they would continue to get a subsidy until the child is but the government would not 11 have custody, they would, which gives them a lot of 12 decision-making power. 13

That is a 14 relatively new option, is it not? 15 COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: It is a 16 relatively new option and we are working out the 17 details. It is slower than we would want it to be 18 in implementation, but we are going to get there. And it is a very good option. Illinois used it a number of years ago because they got a waiver from the federal government to implement it. And the State of Pennsylvania recently issued a bulletin allowing us to do it. But yes, it is a very good option for children that cannot be adopted for whatever reason. 1540 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET They can still achieve permanency.

With a family member, extended family member? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes. And an interesting statistic that I think is important is that in Illinois, once performance-based contracting was implemented, their rate of moving children to permanency went up in the first year from 8 percent to 32 percent. And those dollars then can be reinvested in other types of services to help those families in after care, for example, or placement prevention.

Thank you. One more, Council President?

Yes.

Thank you. You spoke to the relationships that you're enjoying cultivating with universities and colleges in the area and you also spoke to the recruitment for bilingual professionals. So I need to commend you for thinking out of the box. If you have a need, you got to go to where they are. How is that recruitment effort coming with regards to I believe it's Puerto Rico, number 1541 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET one? And number two, have you explored the relationship with area colleges specifically as it relates to the need for bilingual professionals if in no other way to sort of get them on line so that at the end of that training and academic experience there is an opportunity for them at DHS? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you for the opportunity to address that question since I know that it's sparked some interest. DHS has been extremely aggressive and proactive in recruiting social workers almost since the moment I walked in the door. I took over the leadership of DHS February of the year 2000, and in April or May we were already on radio advertising and also in a media campaign to recruit social workers because we had a significant number of chronic vacancies. And we -- let me just look at the statistics here. For example, I believe they had 171 vacancies when I took over and we now have 88. And during the same period our staffing has increased by 51. So we've made a dramatic impact on increasing the numbers of social workers. That was critical to us because it was difficult for me to expect people 1542 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET to accept a reform agenda within DHS when we were struggling with a lot of understaffing. This issue of recruitment of social workers, I might add, is also a national problem. I have read a lot of articles where there's discussion about how difficult it is to retain child welfare employees because of the high stress nature of the work and because of the high caseloads. So I thought it was really important to do that. Unfortunately, our recruitment efforts did not give us enough results in terms of the recruitment of bilingual staff. And that's why we're taking our bilingual recruitment campaign to the next level. We've been partnering very closely with the Office of Central Personnel. We moved to monthly testing, sometimes bimonthly testing for social workers. We added the category of social worker II to the types of employees we could hire. And social worker II's allow us to hire people with experience, with Masters degrees and experience, and pay them a little more. We have advertised in regional newspapers. The highest concentration of Latino 1543 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET residents of Pennsylvania are in this region. So we've started in the regional newspapers that go into Delaware and New Jersey, the radio. We've used radio and we continue to use radio. And unfortunately, we are competing with our 300 providers for bilingual staff. I also might add -- and this did not come out in the press -- that the Department of Human Services is under agreement with the Office of Civil Rights of the Health and Human Services Department, and we have agreed to be very aggressive about improving the quality of our services for Spanish-speaking clients. So this is why we are engaging in this trip. We've received at least 81 resumes as of last week. We've scheduled 40 interviews. And God I hope I come back with some results after all this press.

You should know that the crisis is not specific only in the profession of social work. We're suffering from the same kind of thing in education with teachers and finding qualified teachers who are bilingual in math and the sciences. 1544 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: That is correct. I came to the city in 1985. And since 1985 there have been discussions. I remember reading a report from the Human Relations Commission about the critical need to recruit additional bilingual capacity to the city work force. But now that I run DHS, I see firsthand the terrible consequences that that has in the lives of children and families. You can't investigate a sexual abuse case and communicate effectively through an interpreter. You can't take a hotline call and put people on hold until you get an interpreter and say that we're providing optimal service. While we are doing the best we can, it is simply not good enough.

Surely. Again, I commend the out-of-box thinking. I'll rest at this time, Madam President.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner, how many kids are on the adoption list right now? I'm very interested in adoption. 1545 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: The statistics I have, Councilman, at this point is we have -- in 2001 we had 641 terminations of children that then moved into the adoption unit. That represented a 34 percent increase over the previous year. We had 469 adoptions this year versus 650 last year. However, we are engaged aggressively in a campaign to identify adoptive parents for a number of children that are in our care for whom we have no adoptive resources. That number is 200.

What is the number, the totality of the kids that have had their parental rights terminated that are under our care and are eligible for adoption but for one reason or another we haven't been able to get them adopted? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Approximately 200. We have 200 children who have no adoptive resource identified. And I don't want to guess the number, but there's a number of children also in the unit for whom we have an adoptive resource identified and their adoption process is underway. The number that worries me the most is the one where we have no adoptive resource identified, and that's approximately 200 children at 1546 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET this point.

Of Philadelphia kids that just fall into our system. What are the agencies that we have contracted with to do this service for us or do we do it directly? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Councilman, I can get you the entire list of agencies. But I will say that it is quite a number of them. We partner with the Statewide Adoption Network and also with Diakon, which is an organization that we transfer money to and they then subcontract with a number of agencies, Concilio being one of them, Lutheran being of them, Bethana. We may have over 15 agencies right now, perhaps more, that are doing this work. And I will get you that information. Our challenge at DHS is being more aggressive about coordinating that work in a way that gives us the results we want.

At the time a family expresses an interest in adopting a child, how does a family go about it and what is the time line expected from the application and the process to the child being given to that family permanently? 1547 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, when a family -- and I'm going to invite Wanda, if she would like, to come and help me address this question in more detail. There's a number of ways to answer the question. (Witness came forward.) COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: If a family expresses interest in adopting and they have a home study completed, then the process moves faster because the next step is to identify a match, to match the family with an appropriate child, and then begin the process of moving toward a decision on both ends that this is the right fit and then moving it towards adoption. If a family is interested in adopting and they do not have a home study, then the first step is to complete a home study application.

Hi, I'm Wanda Mial. I'm a deputy Commissioner at DHS. The only thing I would add is that the time line is affected by whether the child has lived with the family that's interested in adopting them.

Let's say that someone --

If they have, then there's 1548 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET already been clearance. There's a process in place for clearance.

-- goes in to DHS and wants to adopt one of the kids that we have.

I'm sorry?

If someone doesn't have any of it -- because I'm an advocate of adopting Philadelphia kids. I have two of them. So I keep telling people. I say, we have the kids in the system. I say, why don't you just go to DHS and ask to adopt a kid. And people, they will constantly come back and they say we tried that and it didn't work for whatever reason. I want our kids to get adopted because I've been fortunate. How do we get people not to go to Honduras or Romania or China to adopt kids from Philadelphia and go right to DHS? How do we begin and how do they start, from the moment they walk in through the door to the moment that they can say they can begin painting the room blue or pink? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: First, I have a little bit more information for you, which is that a completion of a home study takes three months, and once a match is identified, a child must live in a 1549 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET potentially adoptive home for six months prior to finalizing an adoption. DHS is right now -- in terms of your question about how we market, for lack of a better word, the opportunities for local adoption, I agree that DHS can do a lot more and we are doing a lot more. First, we have entered into a joint venture with the National Adoption Center, a national organization based in Philadelphia with whom DHS had no formal agreement. And we have entered into a formal agreement and created a line called the Philly Kids Connection. So DHS is beginning to advertise -- perhaps you have seen them -- about the opportunity to adopt children locally.

How long does it take to terminate parental rights usually? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, it depends. The law now says if a child is in care 15 out of 22 months, then a petition must be filed with the Court unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. Once the petition is filed, though, after the 15 months, that process is in the hands of the 1550 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET Court and can take six months, can take a year, can take much longer. One of the areas that DHS is now tracking more aggressively because we want to and because we have to under the law is how long it takes. The average length of stay for children in our care is I believe approximately four years. But I will get you that information. That means that, of course, some children get reunited or adopted quicker and some are there much longer.

We've also engaged in stronger partnerships with Family Court and with our law department to really aggressively increase the efforts around termination of parental rights and have really improved those procedures. And that really shows in our numbers of terminations filed last year or granted last year.

Have you any data on that that we can see and look at? Because, like I said to you, I'm very, very much interested in how this is done, implemented and how we can expand it and get more of our kids into more Philadelphia families. How is it done, how is the cultural 1551 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET done, the cultural aspect done in terms of Puerto Rican kids being targeted? Because we come in different colors. And at one point in time there was a policy that if you had Puerto Rican white kids as such, they would be -- and many of them actually ended up outside of Philadelphia somewhere in suburbia. And I want to know how is that being done, what is the policy in terms of the cultural aspect of families and matching with that. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, adoption work is an area that we are going into much deeper. We've started to go in much more deeply in the last three to six months, and we are going to do some major work in the next year. I want to first say that one of our current negotiations is with an entity that we will join forces with to find adoptive families for children that do not have adoptive families right now because we believe that DHS needs external help to accelerate that. On the issue of decisions made around culture or race or color, I need to say here what I say everywhere that I'm asked, which is that DHS absolutely does not discriminate in any way, shape or form. And if I found out that there was a 1552 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET decision being made that was contrary to that belief, I would hold the person or persons accountable. I don't know what happened at DHS in the past, but I can tell you that right now I think people would know much better. However, I will also add that we are in the process of writing our vision for adoption and making it widely known. It goes back to the issue of staff development, Councilman, which is that we cannot expect our staff to change with the times and grow unless we also build an infrastructure to lead them and train them and retrain them continuously. But I assure you, I assure you that the standard for matching a child with a family is we find the best type of family where they're going to be loved, nurtured and developed, and race, religion, all of those types of issues are secondary. There's no predetermined matching on the basis of race or anything else.

I held hearings with the Police Department to try to reform the way they deal with women and families that go through a process of abuse and rape. And the advocates and 1553 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET the Police Department finally agreed with the advocates to set up a center, co-location center. And part of that is DHS's role within that. We haven't been able yet to -- is it open? We're moving from Frankford? I'll ask you, because we're moving from Frankford to Episcopal Hospital. And one of the issues is DHS's role and presence within the center. And you and I have spoken over the few months that this has gone on. And again, you said you were trying to get the staff ready at that point and getting it focused into this. Where are we now? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I certainly am pleased that I have some progress to report. DHS has now specialized sex abuse investigations into three units which represents one supervisor and five social workers, which means that we have three supervisors, 15 social workers, under one administrator that only do, only will do sex abuse investigations. That is a necessary prerequisite for co-location. I was very concerned that we had 125 investigators of child abuse and neglect rotating 1554 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET sex abuse investigations because it is an area that requires a great deal of expertise. And especially when you are collaborating with specialized partners, in the Police Department, for example, and with the Children's Alliance, then it wasn't conducive to the ideal form of collaboration. The next step for us is massive training, based on best practice, of sex abuse investigation. And co-location then becomes a real possibility if it is what the department chooses to do and if it fits within the time line of the other partners. We can co-locate absolutely or we can co-locate by having space within another entity where our staff can work out of. I believe that either way we will end up spending a lot of time in the police office where the Children's Alliance and the Police Department --

Well, it's not the police office. It's multiple offices that holds the police but also multiple services that are in there and obviously DHS's role within that because it's been a very disturbing aspect of women and children going through a process that it is one almost abusive to the women and families to one that is 1555 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET much more sensitive and conducive to the investigation and making the families cooperate in a much saner actually, because there's insanity sometimes when you go down to Frankford, and much more caring environment. And the presence of DHS within that unit is, from every report, every study that I've seen and that we were able to get through our hearings, essential. This is a one step type of situation in which we can bring the families and process and investigate, do the interviewing and so on. So I would hope that I would get a time line from you as to when we're going to be able to integrate fully the services that we're talking about and that the hearings brought out that are needed so we can get that time line. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I would be happy to share that with you. And I agree philosophically with the need to co-locate. And the reason, of course, why I erroneously referred to it as the police office is because they will have the bulk of the people there. But I do recognize that it is a co-located facility where we will have nonprofit partners, the police and the child welfare system, 1556 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET among others.

Madam Chair, I guess my time is coming to a close.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Good afternoon.

Just a couple questions. I was struck by actually Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown mentioned and had asked you some questions about the -- you have a parenting guide? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes.

And you had indicated that you had distributed 50,000 copies. Was that last fiscal year? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: This was in the last six months, in this fiscal year.

And you're anticipating distributing another 50,000, although I thought I heard earlier that they cost you a dollar the first go-round and now you've I guess -- COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We're going to 1557 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET get them at a little bit less than a dollar is my understanding.

This can potentially complicate the area, and I'm sure you've thought of it. So if it's been looked at and decided, don't worry about it. I'm wondering, though, whether there might be some opportunities to lower the cost even more either by advertising, appropriate advertising that some people -- and you'd have to establish guidelines; as I said, it can get a little complicated -- where you may end up getting it either at a significantly reduced cost, if not for free, although, again, ads can get complicated. Or secondly, as a city product -- I think technically we've gotten rid of the print shop. But I just wonder whether there's a way to obviously significantly reduce the cost, have more of them available. And I think what Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown said, I'm sure that there are a lot of parents, whether they are a part of the system, if you will, or not, who could utilize the information. I've not seen the guide, but I'm sure it 1558 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET would be helpful. If you have a special section for fathers dealing with smart little girls, that would be particularly -- COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We were thinking about developing a program just for you.

Well, I need a program. So that would be very helpful. But what I'm struck by is the department probably provides a whole host of services or it could at least point people in the right direction who may generally think that, well, I don't really have any problems, so why would I ever call the Department of Human Services. Quite honestly, some people are probably trying to do their best at some level to stay away from the Department of Human Services -- COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: That's right.

-- lest they end up in the system. And for some people -- we've had contact with our constituents. They feel like once they kind of get in, you literally cannot get out. And you just don't want that level of involvement in your family life. You just want some information, but you're not necessarily looking for a case worker 1559 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET or somebody to kind of spend the rest of your life with you. So I think that to the extent that the marketing campaign or the public education campaign can somehow convey to people that you don't have to have these kind of bad things going on in your family or that you haven't -- you know, it's only people who have done something wrong or who have been reported by somebody or who are somehow not doing what they're supposed to do end up getting service from DHS. And while I was somewhat joking earlier, in a more serious fashion, I think -- I mean, those kinds of booklets and guides we should try to get to everyone. I mean, all of us need help in a variety of different ways, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. And I'm sure that the concepts in the guide can be very helpful to people as you try to figure out in this crazy world, even though our parents may have figured it out in an even crazier world with less resources, they didn't have the internet and a whole host of other things. It's a struggle just trying to do what you're supposed to 1560 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET do and point your kids in the right direction, kind of keep it all together, whether it's a single head of household or Ozzie and Harriet type or everybody's working, money's coming in, things are going well. I mean, we all have our various issues and things that we need to contend with. And to some extent, I think the department has just kind of become a place where it's almost -- for some people it's a great day if you don't have any contact with the Department of Human Services because you don't want to be over there. There are a lot of people who could get the benefit of DHS and not necessarily be a part of the system. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, we absolutely share your vision. And that's, in part, why we created the Community-based Prevention Services division. We will never shy away or speak less loudly about our agenda to protect kids from abuse and neglect delinquency. However, we also see ourselves as having a much broader role in the city in terms of supporting every parent because the Department of Human Services I believe has to be the 1561 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET department that speaks out around parenting and gives people help all over the city wherever they need it. As we are able to more effectively impact on the deep end of the system, which we are aggressively doing, that will free up more money to do some of the earlier intervention, earlier prevention and primary prevention we need to do. One of the striking experiences for us around this parenting guide is that it took us around six to eight months to compile the information. We collaborated with Safe and Sound and PCCY to get all that information, and it's parenting programs all over the city, not necessarily at all funded by DHS. It's really programs that hospitals run, that child care centers run, that churches run in every neighborhood, in every neighborhood. And this had never been compiled. The new edition will have those programs plus 47 new programs that DHS is funding. But it's certainly a vehicle that we are using to market everybody's work around parenting. And I agree with you that the day DHS is 1562 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET seen by people -- and I believe it's starting to happen -- as a place where you can go for help to find an after school program for your kid, or your kid is missing school, what do you do around truancy. That doesn't makes you a bad parent.

That makes you a parent with an issue you have to deal with, if your kid has a behavioral health need. This happens all across classes. It's not about economics. I think that poverty exacerbates a lot of problems. However, it is not about poor people. Behavioral health issues and truancy happens everywhere. We need to be a resource for all families in the city. And we also, I might add, developed a customer -- we have a customer service initiative and we have a new number, 683-4-D-H-S, which allows people to call DHS for information and not go through the hotline. They used to have to go through the child abuse hotline to get to anybody. And we get many calls from people who are interested in adopting, being foster parents or finding out about programs for their kids. And yes, it is a challenge because we have a reputation of being in the intervention 1563 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET business. But we're really trying to get away from that because we think we'll be more useful to the city that way.

On , there's mention of Community Family Centers. 7 COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes. 8

Could you, either in 9 coordination with your earlier testimony or on your 10 own, forward to the Chair a site list of where the 11 19 centers are? If they're mentioned in the budget 12 book somewhere, you can point me in that direction. 13 COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We will 14 coordinate with Safe and Sound and we'll make that 15 available to you. 16

How do you decide 17 where to put a family center? 18

My name is David Fair. I'm 19 director of Community-based Prevention Services. The 19 existing family centers, the location of those family centers was determined by the Mayor's cabinet for children and families in a previous administration. We haven't added any new family centers in the last two years, though our budget request under the needs-based budget for the state 1564 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET for next year would allow us to -- if we get the full amount, would allow us to open up four new family centers.

Where do you anticipate those to be?

The current plan is to rely on the data that Safe and Sound representatives were talking about earlier in terms of targeting the location of those family centers so it's consistent with the broader children's investment strategy, with the location of the beacons and where the highest number of reports of abuse or neglect are occurring and where the need might be the greatest.

Now, what are the five DHS support centers mentioned on ? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: The five support centers are actually not a whole lot of new staff. They don't represent a whole lot of new staff. They represent a reorganization within the Department of Human Services. And they respond to a finding that I made when I came in, which was that the bulk of our services -- the bulk of our investment in staffing and personnel was in providing direct service. 1565 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET A challenge that our direct service staff face -- and not only our own DHS staff, but the provider social workers -- is that there's a lot of complexity and specialization within their cases that they lack. So these support centers are designed to provide technical assistance, co-case management and support to DHS social workers and to provider social workers in dealing with specific types of cases. For example, our behavioral health and wellness support center was developed in partnership with the behavioral health system. And what we have there is people who are able to step into a very, very complex case. DHS sometimes has to place children and has a very hard time finding the appropriate placement for them because of their behavior. So our support center is then able to intervene and make sure that a child does not stay hospitalized longer than they have to, so that we can find them the least restrictive setting and do other kinds of troubleshooting.

Let me try to understand. At the bottom of , you make reference to the five DHS support centers and then 1566 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET they are apparently by type. So one would be the behavioral health and wellness? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes.

Now, maybe I'm attaching too much to the term "centers". COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes, maybe.

Are these just kind of offices somewhere within -- you're over at One Parkway; right? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: They're a reorganization of some staff, and we have changed their role within the organization. Rather than being folks who do a function and then pass it on, do a discrete function within a chain, they are really in a support function. They help other people do their job better. And their job is done when the other employee achieves a successful outcome for the child.

So if someone was having a problem with a behavioral health issue, that a staff person was working with a constituent, a resident, a citizen, the case has become complex or some other issues, they would be able to go to this support center? 1567 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: That's right.

And talk to people who have either more expertise or more experience in that area? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: And troubleshoot until the problem gets resolved.

And present what their issue was or what the problem was and get backup and support from a person in the support center? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: That is correct, as opposed to the old way, which is that if you're a social worker and you have 30 families in your caseload and in one of them you have a major behavioral health crisis, you drop everything else to deal with that crisis or you push that crisis back and do everything else. And these support centers are really our redesign of DHS so that the people who handle the bulk of the cases feel supported. And that is a major shift from the past. Behavioral health is one of them. We will develop a housing one, which is not reflected here, with Rob Hess. We will have a clinical and educational one which deals with physical health 1568 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET issues and education. And then the other ones are also critical but are more around policy and planning and quality assurance and staff development. And they are all designed to increase the quality of our practice and our results.

of the testimony, near the top, this is with regard to the Youth Study Center. It says, "The department is also focusing efforts on more effective management of staff. As a result of employing effective strategies at the Youth Study Center to reduce the number of special staff assignments and in shift staffing changes, we are projecting a surplus in overtime of nearly $800,000." This is a slightly confusing phraseology. What do you mean a "surplus in overtime"? Do you mean you have a savings in overtime of $800,000? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes, yes. Since it had never happened, we didn't know how to describe it. (Laughter.)

You get a special star because the Commissioner made a funny and it 1569 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET was a very good one. So what happens to the $800,000 in overtime savings? Do you get to keep them and redirect them or has the Grinch back there collapsed them into something else? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: It gets reprogrammed.

You knew who I was talking about, didn't you? Let the record reflect that Commissioner Martinez turned in the appropriate direction at the appropriate person in the back. All right. So you don't get to keep the money? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: No. 16

Well, I commend you for the effort and the savings. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you.

My last question is we've had a recent situation where we needed to have some discussion. Without going into the particulars of that, which are at the moment less important than the larger issue, I would like to ask if you could work with, at a minimum, the Managing Director -- there may be others, possibly the health 1570 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET department -- in some special situations for the development of some written protocols around the issue of placement of facilities, primarily private operators, whether nonprofit or for profit, in how we make some of the decisions around who's located where and types of services. First, let me say that there is no 9 question that the various members of our community, Philadelphians, one, have a right to receive a variety of services throughout the city; two, if there are living circumstances involved, people who need services have a right to live anywhere in the city, and as long as their facility or building or structure is in compliance with all the various codes or they get whatever approvals that they need, again, they should be able to live whether they want and be in compliance. On the other hand, to the extent that we can communicate at an early stage of a proposal, a project, a development, a contract, a financing and help to ensure that whatever is proposed to happen, if it is going to happen, can happen in as smooth a way with as much public notice as is reasonable, I think that it will help to cut down on some 1571 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET uncomfortable and difficult situations for a variety of parties, whether it's the provider, the government, elected official and certainly yourself as Commissioner. And I think that in some situations we've done that well. In some other situations, a few things have happened that have caused us to have some difficulties. And I think to the extent that there might be any written protocols around that that we can agree to, that are reasonable, that everyone knows what they're supposed to do, when they're supposed to do it, it might help to prevent some uncomfortable situations for again either services recipients, neighborhood people and certainly everyone in the government. And I would like to -- I'd just like to encourage that we do that on a going forward basis, have that information shared, and then everyone would know what to do. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you. I have definitely discussed this particular matter with the Director of Social Services and the Managing Director. And I believe that we will continue to discuss how we can improve this type of 1572 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET communication early on in the future. And thank you for your help and your patience in this.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

You're welcome. Councilman Rizzo.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner, were you here when I had a conversation with the Health Commissioner earlier today? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes.

I want to go back over that. And for the benefit of the folks that weren't here, I'd like to just restate part of what I said earlier. I'm concerned about the services to our senior citizens. And I know because annually I visit Riverview. So I do know some of the things you do. But everyone in this room has a neighbor on their block that's a very senior citizen that may be home alone, that might not be in the best of health, might not have hot water, might not have all the essential services that we need each day to live 1573 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET comfortably. And I know in your department you're very focused on the young. But I also would like to hear your focus on the scenario that I just described, about our elderly that are home alone. Just recently -- and you heard the story I believe that I told about the lady that was beaten badly and just left in her home alone until we got the call through an interested person. I'd like to know what you do in the area of care for our seniors and the relationship -- and I'm going to ask the same question of you -- the relationship to the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging because I'm starting to learn after looking at that agency very carefully, even though it has the name the Philadelphia Corporation for the Aging, it might not be doing a whole lot of things for Philadelphians. So could you comment on your organization's work with our seniors? Outside of Riverview. I think we all understand that. I'm talking about the people that may be home alone. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, Councilman, I think that that, first of all, was a 1574 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET compelling and disturbing story. And I want to say that having a 96-year-old grandmother who is one of my favorite people in the world and I've seen how she struggled, even with a support system, I can tell you that I'm personally very connected to the issue. I will say that when I came to the Department of Human Services I was struck by the fact that we had this huge mandate and array of services for children and youth in the abuse, neglect and delinquency arena, but yet in the senior services the only segment in our portfolio was Riverview. That was the only area where DHS had resources to spend on senior citizens. I engaged in conversations immediately with then Social Service Director Richman to transfer the oversight of Riverview to Adult Services because I did not believe, given the huge challenge I had with abuse, neglect and delinquency, that I could do a good enough job monitoring and supporting Riverview because I realized that the needs that Riverview represents, in terms of who ends up there, was huge. But I will tell you what I did see in my 1575 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET short time overseeing Riverview: that the connection between PCA and city departments was not strong enough. And I echo your sentiments. Not that they don't do the work, because I know they do fabulous work. But the connections between our city departments -- and I will include DHS in this -- and PCA is simply not strong enough and it needs to be stronger. And I will take some responsibility because even though we do not have as one of our mandates to provide services to the elderly, there are many elderly people that we come in contact with. In fact, I had a referral from a council person this week of a grandmother who's been raising her three children and simply is at the end of her rope and can't do any more. Do we remove those children or do we design special services to support that grandmother so that she is successful? We have some contracts that specialize in providing services to relatives who are caring for their children. Often those relatives are their grandparents and often they are older people.

So DHS can do more, and you have my commitment that that is an area where I am not 1576 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET comfortable that we're doing enough. I did want to invite, however, Rob Hess, since he's been supervising Riverview for the last six months at least to nine months, to share with you where Riverview is.

I think I heard you answer the question about the grandmom. Thank God for grandmoms and grandpops, but especially grandmothers because if it weren't for grandmothers raising children all over again, we'd be in real big trouble. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: That's right.

And I think I heard you answer the question, which I hope is the answer, is that I'd like to give that grandmom the help that she needs to do that rather than just take the kids away. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Absolutely. Absolutely.

And again, I understand all the good work at Riverview. But I would hope that someday we can be where we need to be where the 85-year-old lady that is by herself, that never gets out of the house for weeks and weeks 1577 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET at a time, that may be heating her home with her oven, may be without the basic necessities of life, gets some care, because again I am very, very committed to this because many of these senior citizens have given a lot to make this city, this state, this county a better place. And in that part of their life, I don't want them to be forgotten for one minute. So whatever we need to do to be there for them, I want to be there and be part of that. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I thank you for your leadership on the issue. (Witness came forward.) COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Do you want to add something?

I'd like to hear about Riverview.

Sure. My name is Rob Hess, Deputy Managing Director for Special Needs Housing. Thank you, Councilman, for that question. There's really two parts to that answer besides the PCA piece. PCA gets involved with adult protective services for folks that are 60-plus. They also have a variety of attendant care programs and some other services. 1578 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET But even before folks would have to be interacting with PCA, we would come in contact with them very often through Adult Services through our relocation services. That is to say, if there is a senior citizen living in substandard housing or L & I has found the house to be unsafe, then of course our relocation services would go in at any time, hours a day, seven days a week, do an 10 assessment and provide the kind of services that 11 that individual or family would desperately need and 12 want. 13 And that could include actually 14 relocating the family, say, in PHA senior housing. 15 It could be temporary relocations. It could be a 16 variety of things based upon the situation and the 17 circumstances that that family faces. And so 18 another option, of course, may be Riverview home. 19 And at Riverview home, again, that's -- 20 we view that as a transitional facility. So folks 21 could move there, be assessed, get the kind of 22 services they need, and then we'll find the highest 23 and best housing outcome for them and help them move 24 on to that outcome.

Can I just comment on 1579 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET that? Certainly, I know that we can move people from a residential environment to a substitute housing or substitute shelter like Riverview. But I think that the Commissioner's grandmother or some of the senior citizens that I know, the last thing in their life they want to do at 89, 90, 91, 92 years of age would be their whole life's possessions put in a shopping bag and taken to Riverview. I'm talking about the things that we can give them along the way, quality of life, a visit. Again, this is new to me. But I'm learning that there's lots of things we can be doing. And I know that there's a lot of services out there that once the right connection is made that provides some of our seniors, especially the ones that are living alone, some very, very basic care. So I know that we can move people out of their homes, and obviously, we would do that if they were without heat or they were in a situation that is substandard. But I'd like to prevent it from becoming substandard because again I know -- again, to repeat, the seniors that I know, the last thing that they will want to do -- and I think you'd have to do it forcibly, and many times I'll bet that's 1580 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET the way you have to do it to get them out of their home because they're afraid while they're at Riverview that some burglar is going through the second floor, chopping a hole in their roof and taking whatever's left.

Councilman, it sounds like you've been talking to the Managing Director because that's the kind of advice and guidance that we routinely get. We do every thing we can to maintain an individual in their home, and when that's not possible, to relocate them in another home. Riverview or the shelter system would certainly be an absolute placement of last resort. And even then, we view those facilities as a point of entry, not a point of destination to our service system. So that is to say that ultimately we want folks to be able to move back into the community as quickly as possible with the appropriate support services.

And just to comment about the Managing Director, there are a lot of issues that you can call her hours, seven days a 24 week. But that is the one that is top on her agenda because when I had this problem, Estelle Richman 1581 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET said to me, If you need me seven days a week, hours a day, when it comes to the care of our senior citizens, don't hesitate to reach out to me. So I'll confirm that that is the fact. But I think this is going to be my issue for a while, and I just want to make sure that everybody is ready for it. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Absolutely.

Thank you, 11 Commissioner. 12 COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you. 13

Thank you, Madam 14 Chair. 15

Thank you, 16 Councilman. Councilman Ortiz. 17

Grandmothers are 18 good. Without them, we wouldn't have no mothers. 19 One step at a time. 20 How many employees totally in DHS? 21 COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We have as of 22 January 31st, 19 -- I'm sorry. 1792 as of January 23 31st. Wait. 24 No. As of January 31st, '02, 1840.

How much? 1582 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: 1743 filled.

17,000 what? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: 1792 on the general fund.

Oh, 1700. Okay. I was wondering. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: No, that's two years from now, 17,000. (Laughter.)

I was wondering here. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: 1792 are on the general fund, and 87 are grant funded.

Right now in terms of social workers, you have a vacancy of how many? How many of those are -- how is that broken down? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, it is complicated because the way that the budget process is developed, these numbers kind of automatically move in the budget from year to year. So I have been making significant changes and reprogramming. My numbers are not exactly the numbers reflected in the budget. The APL has not changed. My numbers show me that I have eight vacancies in social workers at this point in time. 1583 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET

Eight vacancies? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Only eight. For next year, however, we are requesting an additional 75 employees in Children & Youth and approximately 55 of those will be social workers. So we have 63 vacancies as of the next fiscal year.

And out of that, you plan to make that 41 or more bilingual positions? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, over time I would like to see DHS's work force be representative of our client population's need for bilingual services. I would like to, by the time I'm done, have an 8 percent bilingual work force. 11 percent of the children in foster care are of Latino descent. 16 percent of the children in the delinquent system are of Latino descent. So we believe that 8 percent of the work force should be fluent in Spanish. That will not happen overnight. It will be a gradual process. Turnover at DHS has slowed down, but there is still turnover. For example, next year we will have 23 employees that will leave the department as part of the DROP Program. So there will be continuing opportunities to hire bilingual 1584 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET staff.

Could you give us a breakdown of the employees that you currently have so that we can have an understanding of who goes what, who goes where, who performs what jobs and so on? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Absolutely, yes.

And again, I'd like to see a greater degree of Latinos. percent. 11 And I think that's meaningful since we haven't 12 progressed from three in the last 15 years. 13 I'd like to see what are the numbers of 14 the people that are supervising in social work and 15 actually performing the work of case work and so on 16 down the line and the breakdown, the ethnic, racial breakdown of the staffing both at the supervisory level and the lower levels. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I will be happy to provide that information for you.

In the last year, how many people have come on board? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I believe we've hired 134 social workers and 171 total in the last year. 1585 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET

134? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: So 171 total. 134 of them social workers.

And what did the other 40, 35 do? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Clerical support, administrative functions, work directly related to supporting social services, security in the Youth Study Center, for example, maintenance in the Youth Study Center. We've been extremely conservative and focused on meeting the critical programmatic needs of the department.

The issue of TANF, because it was all right in the last few years, we had a very robust economy. However, lately I was reading in the New York Times the other day about the breakdown right now in terms of people that were supposed to move off welfare rolls but can't because of the economy, because of the way it is performing, and it's affecting New York and Chicago and so on. I was wondering what is the impact that is having on us and our ability to be able to keep on decreasing the welfare rolls? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I don't have the 1586 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET exact numbers here. I can certainly get them. But in Philadelphia, the caseloads, like everywhere else in Pennsylvania, have decreased in terms of people who are receiving cash assistance. However, those that remain on the caseloads are often those that are most difficult to place in jobs. And the Managing Director, in partnership with the Department of Public Welfare, has created a program called maximizing participation. It's the Maximizing Participation Program, MPP, that provides case management and other types of activities for people who have been exempted from work force requirements. And that program is actually very important for us because the people who are engaged in those types of activities will not get cut off of TANF. But the ultimate goal of the state is that they do engage in some form of work activity or being permanently disabled, you know, that there's some resolution to their TANF case.

Do we have any numbers? I know there's going to be waivers and it's going to probably be extended. But do we have any numbers of people and families that will be 1587 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET hitting the wall, as they say, on this month? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Councilman, I don't have the numbers off the top of my head. We can get them for you just to make sure that they are accurate. There are projections around that. But as you say, it's a moving target because the state right now is considering regulations to allow people in need to continue receiving benefits and avoid a crisis. I believe that the state is strongly considering what it can do to prevent people from getting cut off. But it is a possibility.

Of that 134 that are brand new social workers, what is the breakdown of that? How many of those were Latinos and African American, white? What is the breakdown of that? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Only six of them were fluent in Spanish of the 134.

Fluent and being Latino are two different things. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, fluency. I can't speak to you specifically about their ethnic origin. I know one of the six is non-Latino. The other five are probably Latino and fluent. At least 1588 3/4/02 WHOLE - CONTINUED FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET one of them is not Latino.

Fluency is one thing. Ethnic background is another. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I will get you that information. I can tell you the breakdown of DHS staff overall. It's 71 percent African American, and a half percent white, 3 percent 9 Hispanic and 1.32 percent other. 10