Committee Hearing, February 16, 2001

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Friday, 2/16/01 9:30 a.m. - - - BILL 010005 - Adoption of FY '02 Operating Budget. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA, Chair COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL, Vice Chair COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN FRANK J. DICICCO COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN THACHER LONGSTRETH COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 707 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET I N D E X DHS Alba Martinez, Commissioner . . . . . . . . . John Zanier, Fiscal Officer . . . . . . . . . Estelle Richman, Social Services Director . . Harriet Dickter, Office of Child Care . . . . Joyce Burrell, Deputy Commissioner. . . . . . David Fair, Community-Based Prevention Svcs. Wanda Mile, Children and Youth Division . . . Department of Health Dr. Walter Tsou, Commissioner. . . . . . . . Michael Covone, Deputy Commissioner. . . . . M. Bencivengo, Office of Drug and Alcohol. . 708 OPERATING BUDGET LOUIS ROSSMAN .............................. 871 COM. WALTER TSOU ........................... 876 BARBARA WATSON ............................. 876 PATRICIA BASS .............................. 884 MICHAEL LUCAS .............................. 890 MICHAEL COVONE ............................. 896 MARK BENCIVENGO ............................ 899 RICHARD TOBIN .............................. 910 SUSAN LIEBERMAN ............................ 916 ESTELLE RICHMAN ............................ 930 JUDITH DOGAN ............................... 933 JOHN DOMZALSKI ............................. 941 RANDALL HIRSCHHORN ......................... 951 MICHAEL NARDONE ............................ 955 SALLY FISHER ............................... 961 VICTOR RICHARD ............................. 968 JANE GOLDEN ................................ 973 WILLIAM CARAPUCCI .......................... 991 ELLEN SPECTOR .............................. 1001 RICHARD CHANDLER ........................... 1012 WILLIAM MIFFLIN ............................ 1014 THOMAS KLINE ............................... 1040 709 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET P R O C E E D I N G S

Good morning, everyone. This is the continued hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill No. 010005. The first department to be heard is the Department of Human Services. (Witnesses come forward.)

Good morning. Kindly identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Good morning, Madam President and members of City Council. I'm Alba Martinez, Commissioner of the Department of Human Services, and I am very pleased to report to you the products of DHS's efforts over the past year and our vision and plans for for Fiscal Year 2002. Mayor Street has challenged me to find ways to improve services and supports for the most at-risk children and families in Philadelphia. Over the past year, I have listened to and learned from hundreds of community members, DHS staff, child-welfare experts and advocates and many others on how to achieve the results we want for 710 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET kids. It is clear to me that to achieve our vision, there must be change within DHS and also externally in the way systems that affect people's lives worth with one another. There are four guiding principles that inform all of my decisions at DHS: accountability to our children, families, taxpayers, and lawmakers for the quality and efficiency of our services; accessibility to our services and resources; reintegration of our work and services with other key systems that serve children and families; and the prevention of abuse, neglect, and delinquency of children and youth. At the beginning and end of each day, I challenge myself and my staff to ask, How are our children doing today? Are they safe? Are they in healthy and caring environments? Are they with parents or caregivers who know how to obtain the help they need for themselves and their children. We are raising the bar on the quality of DHS services and are aligning all of our resources, including our proposed budget, to achieve stronger outcomes for children and families. 711 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET DHS's budget request for Fiscal Year 2002 is approximately $479 million, an increase of percent over Fiscal Year 2001 estimated 5 obligations. 8 percent of the total appropriation. Over the past four years, DHS has aggressively increased revenues for services to children and families in Philadelphia. Total spending on services increased from $308 million in Fiscal Year 1997 to 444 million in Fiscal Year 2001. During the same time, revenue from other governments increased from 263 million to 391 million projected in Fiscal Year 2001. 8 percent 24 in Fiscal Year 2002. 25 It is my vision that over the next 712 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET several years, DHS will continue to generate increased revenue for children's services and will utilize those dollars for quality, accessible programs that truly make a difference for those in most need. At DHS, we have a renewed commitment to ensuring that our agency responds to the needs of families and communities in very concrete and effective ways. We want to create and be a part of a DHS that people will know and will use to access resources without fear or doubt and a DHS that will be a resource for all families in Philadelphia, not just those that become involved with our system. DHS has been embarking on an aggressive agenda for reform of our system and practices, and we have made significance progress over the past year to improve our work product. I'd like to highlight some of our efforts in a few important areas, the first being the prevention of abuse, neglect, and delinquency. In November, DHS established the Division of Community-Based Prevention Services to better coordinate a wide array of programs designed to prevent the abuse, neglect, and 713 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET delinquency of children in Philadelphia.

This division is composed of: The Office of Community Family Centers, which provides a variety of preventive services for children and families in locations 7 throughout the City; 8 The Office of School and 9 Community-Based Truancy Prevention, which helps 10 families of children who are truant, both before 11 and after referral to Truancy Courts; 12 The Office of Delinquency Prevention, 13 which provides programs for children youth whose 14 circumstances put them at special risk of 15 involvement with the juvenile justice system; and 16 The Parenting Collaborative, a new 17 effort we are designing, involving our 18 long-standing Parent Action Network, as well as 19 some planned new community-based programs and a public education campaign. Community-based prevention will also be instrumental in the expansion and enhancement of quality after-school programs, the implementation of home visiting programs for new mothers where the risk of abuse and neglect is particularly 714 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET high, and the expansion of a school attendance improvement project to provide social service support to a absent elementary school students before they are excessively truant. In addition, we are working on developing new models of service delivery that will link community-based prevention services to DHS's intake system. This will allow for direct referrals of families that need help without becoming a formal part of the child welfare system, which is a more effective and less costly alternative to DHS placement. In the area of parenting education and support, we are publishing the City's first Comprehensive Guide to Parenting, Education and Support Services, which we will issue as part of our recognition of "Child Abuse Prevention Month" this April. This guide will be regularly updated and made available free of charge to family centers, libraries, and community organizations and through a new parenting information line to be established at DHS and through the Internet. Another area of great importance to DHS is what we do with children in our custody and how 715 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET well they do. We are encouraged by data that shows that the number of people in dependent placement settings declined in Fiscal Year 2000 over Fiscal Year 1999 and is anticipated to decline again. The Department has also continued to increase the number of finalized adoptions over the past several years. Adoptions have gone up from Fiscal Year 1995 at 212 to Fiscal Year 2000, when we had 650 finalized adoptions. This has been done through improvements in technology and management information systems, which have allowed us to track better the adoption process, and also by working with Family Court to accelerate the adoption hearing process. We are working aggressively to minimize the length of time children remain in temporary placement and their families remain involved in Juvenile Court. In Fiscal Year '02, we will improve 24-hour emergency hotline and our responsiveness to crisis calls. We will develop a midnight-to-8 onsite shift for emergency investigations, which now operate on a limited standby basis. In the area of abuse and neglect investigations, we will 716 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET be specializing the handling of sex abuse investigations to improved coordination with law enforcement and with other advocacy organizations. We are also proposing the addition of 39 children and youth social workers to decrease caseloads to staff who provide case management service overall, and we will move towards specialization of caseloads to improve quality of service and greater supports for staff. Finally, DHS has committed to building capacity to ensure accessibility of health-care services for children in our care through the development of a new Clinical and Educational Services Unit. I want to close by addressing plans for Youth Study Center.

Overtime in the Youth Study Center is a great concern, and we have begun to tackle aggressively the serious overtime problem in a number of ways. We are strictly enforcing the citywide sick-leave policy, lateness policies, and overtime policies. Sick-leave use has been reduced from a projection of 27 days per year to 17 days per year through monitoring and strict 717 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET enforcement of these policies already. Lateness has been cut in half in the last four months at the Youth Study Center. We are proposing the addition of 28 additional youth detention counselors to further reducing amount of overtime at the Youth Study Center, and this increase will not require an increase to our budget because this increase in staff will significantly reduce the amount of overtime that is currently being spent. And, finally, our administration is committed to building a state-of-the-art detention facility which will meet the needs of the community and the youth it serves, and we are actively engaged in a predevelopment process for the development of that new Youth Study Center. And I welcome your questions.

Thank you, Commissioner. I would like to commend you and your staff on its success in maximizing federal and State dollars for children and youth services. Would you please elaborate on how you plan to accomplish your vision so that over the next several years, we will not only continue to generate increased revenues from children's 718 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET services, but we will utilize those dollars for quality, accessible programs for our community. How do you plan on accomplishing your vision? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, the Department of Human Services is actively developing a blueprint for reform, and this will be an agenda that will have very clear pathways to get us there, and we will work on multiple strategies at the same time. The development of a community-based prevention services division is an important vehicle, which allows us to elevate prevention to an equal level of importance that we have intervention. And so it is our hope that as we accelerate the process of achieving permanency for children, that we will be able to reallocate resources to prevention activities. What that means is that we will be able to help families sooner when they appear before us in a crisis and, therefore, we will prevent them from entering the intervention stream. Another area where we're actively working is in the area of improving our capacity to do policy and planning. We're working with a 719 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET central personnel department and a staff reorganization, and we're doing a lot of planning to build that capacity in order to make sure that we are investing in programs that we know work and are properly evaluated. We want to get away from the concept of historical budgeting, which means that you fund things because you funded them in the past, regardless of whether those strategies are working for the children and families of today. And we will develop that policy and planning unit more and more, but we're already moving in that direction.

Thank you. You state on of your testimony that in the area of after-school programs, you have budgeted $5 million of the expected new Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Funds to support the Mayor's commitment to continue enhancements and expansion of after-school programs throughout the City's neighborhoods. What are the restrictions of those funds? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: John?

Good morning. John 720 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Zanier, DHS Fiscal Officer. The criteria for getting TANF dollars are pretty broad. The State has additional -- because of the drops in the enrollees under the Title (indiscernible) Program, the State has allocated more dollars into child welfare. The restrictions are -- they're really broad and they're not too difficult. One of the restrictions is, Do you meet 400 percent of the poverty level. For a family 4, that would be $120,000 (sic) a year. Another restriction would be if you're -- it's not a restriction. I mean, another eligibility criteria would be, Are you on medical assistance or receiving food stamps or any kind of assistance. They're the only two restrictions on using these funds. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: And in terms of the objective of these forms, the ultimate goal is that the funds be used to help achieve self-sufficiency in the lives of low-income people.

And will that 721 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET be a citywide program? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes. These funds will be available in citywide -- on a citywide basis within the context of those eligibility criteria. We believe, however, at DHS that we do need to make sure that we target the majority of our resources to the highest-risk neighborhoods, given that those are the neighborhoods where most of our abused, neglected, and delinquency cases come from.

Thank you. You state in your testimony that you have piloted the School Attendance Improvement Project in some clusters. What clusters is this program currently operating? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I will -- I don't have that information here, but I will make sure that you get it as soon as possible.

And apparently, it's just in certain clusters? I'd appreciate that response. Do you have any plans of expanding this program? And if so, where? So if you wouldn't mind letting us know, I would appreciate it. 722 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We will give you the information. It is the expectation that we will expand the program to all clusters. I personally want to see the Department target those schools where we have the greatest risk initially, but this is a program that is needed and should be available on a citywide basis.

When do you expect that expansion to take place? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: The plan is for the next fiscal year, on a small scale. We know we have 44,000 children in the school system that do not attend school more than days a year, and 15 this number of children that are in elementary 16 school is a very significant number as well. 17 But we will make every effort to make 18 this available throughout the City in the next 19 year. 20

Thank you. 21 When do you expect to select a site for 22 the new Youth Study Center, and when do you expect 23 the new center to be in operation? 24 COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, the stage 25 we're in now is in pre-development. We have just 723 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET completed -- with the support of the Managing Director's Office and Capital Programs Office, we've completed the selection of a planner to get us through the pre-development phase. That phase concurrently will be inventorying potential sites throughout the City, but we can't really pick a site until we finalize the design process for this building. It would be my goal that we will complete this project as soon as possible. I would like to see it move on an aggressive timetable, and will personally put a lot of time and effort into it. But there is no specific timeline because it depends on how accessible a site is going to be. However, the Mayor has made a public commitment to push forward the concept of developing a new Youth Study Center because the one we have is no longer suitable to meet the needs of our children.

Councilman Nutter has just reminded me that it has been approximately ten years that we've been taking about a new site. How can you -- I don't know. 724 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Are we putting the cart before the horse? I thought you had to get a site and then you drew your plans -- COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well --

-- and your design. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, a site has to be appropriate for the design. And we're going to look at possible sites concurrently, but the design is really around -- we're not going to be architectural designs. It's --

Well, what kind of designs are you doing? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, it's planning; it's more planning. For example, how many courtrooms will be needed? how large is the Youth Study Center going to need to be? how much recreational space we're going to need? The Youth Study Center has a school; how large should the school be? So once we have a sense of the amount of space we will need, we won't design it and then find a site, but we will at least have some space planning, some conceptual sense of how large it 725 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET needs to be. And then we need to make sure that we find a site that can fit that. And, of course, we also need parking. So we won't do architectural designs. It's more, you know, space planning is the space we're in.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.

Thank you, Madam President. Certainly, I too would like to commend you. You're a wonderful Commissioner and doing a great job. And we're very impressed with the family centers. I've seen you in action there, and they are absolutely wonderful for our community, and the way they are tapered to meet the needs of that particular community and offer other social service programs to all segments of the community is just fantastic. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you.

And even there, when you have programs, the -- just feeding everybody is such a positive. Parents, children, 726 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET everybody comes out to participate, and that's a great program. We would also like to let you know what a great job Miss Ramsey has always done for us, and we appreciate her efforts in our district. We've been through a lot of battles together, especially over group homes, et cetera, but things are going well. Let me ask you a few questions though, one on the cluster-based Truancy Courts. I've attended a few -- in fact, I wasn't supposed to be there, but a few meetings in one of my police districts. And I assumed that that ties in with the Truancy Courts. How does that interrelate with probation officers, how does that interrelate with meetings they have in the police districts, and who is involved? Because in some court situations, they have members from community groups who volunteer to make suggestions as to what happens to a kid, whether the kid is allowed to go home with a parent, whether they should be referred to the Youth Study Center or some other facility, et cetera. 727 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Hmm. Well, the Truancy Courts are a joint venture between the Department of Human Services, the school system, Police, Probation, and a number of other partners. I believe it's one of the most successful joint ventures that I have seen. However, it is in early stages of development because the scale of the truancy program in the City is enormous. But I will say this: that the partners are definitely at the table, and what they are working on aggressively is on finding models that -- where everyone who's involved in the life of this child can play an effective role. There are a number of strategies that are used in the truancy system, and I need to say up-front that I am not an expert on it, so I will share what I know and I will answer your question in more detail as follow-up. But generally speaking, we do know that police have a strategy which involves picking children up and taking them to school. We know that the Family Court and DHS and the School District have developed a system where once they identify children with 25 or more unexcused 728 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET absences, they are referred to a community-based court system where their parents are required to attend, where a hearing is held, a formal hearing is held; and those children, whenever appropriate, are connected to community-based services that are then going to track their future attendance. There's a preliminary evaluation of that program that shows that attendance increases after the Truancy Court intervention. And we also know from that evaluation that community-based court involvement is more effective on impacting on truancy than the court that works outside -- or within Family Court. I would like to have the opportunity to answer in more detail your question about the specific interrelationship Police, Probation, DHS, and the School District, but I will say this: I believe that to tackle the truancy program, we absolutely need a comprehensive strategy where the role of every single one of the partners is very clearly defined. And I think that that's a very powerful question and one that I, hopefully soon, will have an answer to personally.

Thank you very 729 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET much. With regard to Youth Study Center, we visited the CEP program, Community Education Partners Program, for children with problems, with discipline problems last week 'cause we didn't get a chance to go to Texas; we couldn't leave town. And we were very impressed with the program. And, in fact, I learned then that they do have a particular site, because my question to them was, can't we -- since the Youth Study Center, I understand these people are looking around the City, even in my area and, you know, we believe that in West and Southwest Philadelphia, we have room for everything, and we thought maybe we could join the two, but I think they already have a site. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes.

I'm very impressed with the notion that the Youth Study Center will be, in principle, like a youth center, not just perceived as a youth jail, but a place where community can interact, where maybe you have a gym, you have classrooms, you have a room for the community to meet -- and thank you for that 730 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET information. And I think that we could really, really finally turn it around to be something that we can be proud of, where kids in trouble are treated and it is viewed differently instead of just some negative jail. But we really certainly would like to work with you and your department in any way possible to help make that a reality, and we're looking and our district and that sort of thing. I wanted to note that. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I will request that the individuals engaged to do the space planning reach out to all City Councilmembers to interview them about what their ideas and concerns and preferences are regarding the new Youth Study Center. I, too, believe that if our funding allowed, it would be ideal to build a Youth Study Center that also included some type of service for the community that receives it. I think that that would be the ideal. Of course, the cost of the Youth Study Center is going to be a factor on how much we can do. And we certainly want to build a very cost-efficient facility, and we also want to 731 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET make sure that it is state-of-the-art. So we will be balancing those two needs. But I certainly agree 100 percent, and I certainly think that it will be an asset to any neighborhood where it is at, because the truth is that these are our children from our neighborhoods that are served by the Youth Study Center. So thank you for your kinds words.

Certainly. And the President asked, how many youth do we have at the Youth Study Center now and what capacity are we looking for in a new center? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We recently did a detention study. The National Council on Detention just completed a study that shows that we would need a Youth Study Center with a capacity of approximately 154 beds, and so that would be in line with what the City had been thinking about in the past, but now we have some pretty strong data that shows us that those numbers are good numbers. Right now, the Youth Study Center has between 140 children, around 140. We have brought it down in the last year sometimes to under the cap of 105, but the number goes up and down. 732 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET But the critical issue here is that the number of kids in the Youth Study Center is affected by policy decisions and practice decisions that are made within the juvenile justice system. Sometimes children are in the Youth Study Center because there is no program to send them to. So, therefore, the development of appropriate programs for children to be trans- ferred to for treatment and rehabilitation is an essential component to managing the population. There are other types of reforms that we are working actively with Judge Sylvester, our new administrative judge, and Judge Gellen (ph.), who oversees a juvenile justice branch to make sure that children flow more quickly through the court process. So it's important to recognize that the population of the Youth Study Center is driven by policy and practice, and that we could manage the population to make sure that it doesn't exceed the cap. And DHS is working aggressively, in part, through our policy and planning development. You need to have good policy and planning capacity to tackle these issues to manage that population. 733 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET But it would be at around 150.

Thank you. Shortly, we're having hearings on another matter before Councilman Goode's committee to deal with SEPTA tokens. And, obviously, I am sure that DHS supports it. I don't know what we're going to get from SEPTA 'cause the whole notion of kids needing tokens and how it impacts on truancy obviously is an important one. But we assume that when that time comes that you'll testify for the need for it so we can get kids in school to begin with. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Absolutely.

Are there special programs that your department has to reunite children with their parents or with extended family members? Are you finding that during this time, that we need to focus more on that we need to focus more on that, or is it that it's so bad now that generally, when they reach a certain point, we really, really do need to try to do placement or deal with youth in other ways? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, it depends. You know, it depends on the situation in 734 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET every particular family. I mean, there is a law that governs how child welfare needs to act, and that's Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, and that act very clearly says that you must make reasonable efforts to keep a family together or to reunify a family whenever possible. And so we are obligated to provide services and supports to families to try to make sure that that family can remain together. In many cases, the Department of Human Services does just that. We have approximately 3,000 families presently under our supervision, where the children are with the parents and we are providing services in the home. Then, of course, we also have almost 8,000 children in placement because they have not been able to stay at home. But of those 8,000 children, a significant number are with relatives or caretakers. When you are with a relative but you are in foster care, it's still considered foster care. DHS puts enormous importance, and the law requires us to, in finding relatives to care for children first and foremost, before putting a child in foster care with someone who they do not 735 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET know. We put a tremendous value and importance on reunification of families. I believe we can do better, I believe we can do better. And I go back to the need to develop a policy and planning infrastructure that helps us understand which are the programs that truly work with families. I know that Council is very aware that substance abuse and untreated mental illness, Behavioral Health programs are a significant factor in destabilizing families and the removal of children. We are working really closely with the Behavioral Health System to again develop an integrated approach to not only planning for better-quality services, but getting those services to people when need them, and also making sure that we manage our resources efficiently. So, absolutely, we support reunification, but we also support child safety, and that means that when a child is not safe at home, we will take every step necessary to remove that child and make sure they are safe.

Thank you very much. 736 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET And, finally, my last question is, you know, those in the third tier who are trying to make their transition from welfare to work and have been so far unsuccessful and those who are seeking shelter et cetera, how does that relate to you department and what do you think we can do to help them? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: While I don't have any hard facts to present right now, a significant number, a significant number of the clients that the Department of Human Services interacts with are individuals who are low-income enough to receive TANF. So, therefore, they will be affected by the lifetime limit, many of them. Many of them fall into the category of being excepted from the work requirements. So it is a major concern for our department. And one of the priorities for me personally is to make sure that the Department of Human Services integrates much better with the employment and training and workforce development systems in the City. And that's why one of our business principles is integration, because while our clients need that support, we cannot do it 737 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET without the support of the workforce development system. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: I'm Estelle Richman, Director of Social Services. And I just wanted to add a little bit to that because I think it's such an important area in the potential impact that it could have on the City. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes. SECRETARY RICHMAN: We're currently negotiating with the State to receive a major grant that will be targeted at the women on TANF who have less than months remaining. As you 14 know, March of Year 2002, which is barely a year 15 from now, we are expecting to see a major number 16 of women lose their assistance -- that won't lose 17 medical assistance, but they will lose their cash 18 assistance. This puts us at fairly significant 19 risk if all of these women can no longer pay their 20 rent, no longer can support their families. 21 The State has agreed to give us a 22 fairly large amount of money, which we are 23 negotiating for now, to be able to first identify 24 these families and then begin to support them. And if the women will work with us, they will 738 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET extend the 60 months, which is what we're after. It also, incidently -- and I'm not sure many people fully understood it, but for those folks who had an exemption for health reasons, the clock has continued to tick. So even if you've been on exemptions for 3 years, the 60 months continues to apply. We believe that many people are under the impression that if you had an exemption, the clock stopped. It did not. So in light of the impact it could have on both the homeless system and on DHS, there will be a major initiative July 1st. It doesn't give us a lot of time on folks who will be hitting on March 1st, but it gives us an opportunity to contact them and have their time extended.

Thank you. That's so important, as you say. Our office has been, unfortunately, in situations where even when the mom went to work, kids have acted out, their grades have dropped, we have increase in truancy, and we have reports that even one child as young as five tried to commit suicide. So this whole area could really expand 739 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET our roles in ways we hadn't even considered yet because this is a population we need to treat. Madam President, I'll wait for another round.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Commissioner Martinez. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Good morning.

I only had a small note on this particular item, because it does come up from time to time. Let me preface my remarks by saying that the Youth Study Center, or the new Youth Study Center project, and where it is or where it is not is clearly not your fault, but now as Commissioner, it ends up being your responsibility. So my comments are in the context of, you have come into a situation -- not only yourself but Director Richman and Mayor Street -- on a project, on an issue that has, at least for all of the time that I've been here, has been a topic of the conversation. And my only 740 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET expectation, I guess, was when you arrived, that someone would actually hand you a document or a report and say, you know, we've been working on this for a while, and this is where this is, and it's ready to go. And I guess to hear that, I mean, we're still in somewhat of a study stage or a search stage, and I did say to the President that this has been going on for sometime, and then in a comment with Councilman Rizzo, I'm reminded that in the time that we've been talking about a new Youth Study Center, a couple of other things have happened around the City: There's a place called the Constitution Center that I think is up and under construction and will probably open later on this year; the Regional Performing Arts Center, now the Kimmel Center, will be open soon; probably before the new Youth Study Center opens, we may have two new stadiums, at a billion dollars worth of cost; and I heard the other day we were going to have a new museum in the City; at least six or seven hotels -- the Loews, the Hyatt, the Ritz Carlton, two Marriotts and a couple of others have all 741 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET opened in the time frame that we've been talking about a new Youth Study Center. Now, maybe this project needs to go over to PIDC and they'd figure out a way to get it done quickly, if somebody could figure out how to make money off of it. And I think you understand my point. We work on the things that people think are important at the time, we figure out a site, what we want to do with it, we find the funding, and all of those places, or almost all of those places, are up and running. And they happen. And so, 154 beds, 160, 130, whatever the case may be, it seems that this project has just kind of been around, and we like to talk about it, and we'd like to have a new one, but the things that we want, we do. Now, who's in charge of this project? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, even though it is a collective responsibility because it's a capital project and it involves the investment of a whole lot of money, and so, therefore, the Mayor's Office has a strong interest, the Managing Director's Office and the 742 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Capital Projects Office, I will take responsibility personally for whether this project happens or doesn't happen within my administration.

I understand that and -- COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: So you can hold me responsible --

I understand that and I believe that. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: -- if it doesn't happen, and you can hold the Mayor responsible if it does. (Laughter.) COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: But I will say this --

That is very generous of you. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: But I will say this: I was handed information about the Youth Study Center, and I made the decision that the information that was handed to me was not of acceptable enough quality for me to proceed ahead with the investment of 30 or $40 million of 743 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET taxpayers' money. So, therefore, I think that it's much better for us to invest a little bit more time in some quality space planning to ensure that whatever we do and we moved forward is going to be exactly what our kids need. So I agree with you that this is, you know, a timely project, and during the transition phase, advocates make very, very clear that the timeline that I thought was aggressive, which was five years, was totally unacceptable to them. So I am hoping that we will be able to move this project forward much more quickly. We do have the support of the Mayor, the Managing Director's Office and the Capital Programs Office. And I personally am going to work very closely with Deputy Commissioner Burrell to make sure that we're working on this project every week, that something happens every week. The national research and data that we have now, however, about the size, a recommended size, we did not have before. And so, therefore, different stakeholders would have had, you know, more of a debate around the size. 744 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Sure. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Some people want a larger Youth Study Center.

Right. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We want one that's just the right size. And so I think that we do have some better data. And also, there was a site apparently chosen that did not work out. The ideal site, of course, would be right next to Family Court. And there was a site that a number of people were interested in, and apparently, that site fell through. So I am going to advocate for us to concurrently, while do space planning, that we concurrently start identifying sites and not wait until we finish our plan to possibly look at sites because that will delay the process. However, of course, we can't pick a site until we know the size of the center we need.

One, I commend you for having, quite honestly, the courage to make the tough decision that it's better to have good information going forward than to just make a rush 745 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET to judgment. And I will trust your analysis of the information that you were given. You're the professional in this situation to make that critical judgment that if the data and the information is not good enough to go forward with a sizeable project, notwithstanding delays, notwithstanding criticisms, you know backseat drivers, Monday morning quarterbacks that may raise a question about it, you did you make the tough decision, and I commend you for it. I will certainly support your efforts in this regard, and if I can be of any assistance in my own small way, I'd be glad to be of help. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you.

You're welcome. I do want to ask a question, and it seems most appropriate, although I did not necessarily see anything in the testimony, but then I couldn't figure out who else might handle this, so I'm going to assume that it's somewhere within DHS. It's the issue of the Office of Child Care, which is a relatively new office. I will promise my colleague across the room that I will not exhaust all of the questioning in the Office 746 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET of Child Care, so there will be something left. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, luckily, that's Estelle Richman's responsibilities, so here she is. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: I am Estelle Richman, Director of Social Services for the City. And the Office of Child Care does function directly under my supervision.

Director Richman, can you give us, I guess, a little bit of preliminary information about the scope of the office, its role, its responsibility, its size, staffing, and where things are at the moment with this office. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: Okay. I'm going to take a shot at all of those questions, and if I don't cover them, I will bring up Harriet Dickter (ph.) for whom the office directly reports. The Office of Child Care was established last year for the first time. It reports to Director of Children's Policy within my office. We have hired a Director of Child Care, and that individual has one staff member. One of the things -- the office is the 747 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET first for is it City of Philadelphia, and it is something that we're actually very proud that we've been to develop at this point in time. Since its inception in the spring of 2000, which is just a little less than a year ago, we've been able to distribute about $354,000 to a Health and Safety Fund within the City to support child-care providers in the City. Some of this money is directly City money within the Grants Fund, and these dollars actually reside within the Grants Fund of the Behavioral Health System, partly because of the source from which some of them came. Some of them are from the Safe Schools Grant from the federal government, and some of it is from the Child Care Matters Initiative. So the dollars that have been put together are coming from a variety of different sources. The Health and Safety Fund has actually funded projects in several different areas. Just let me give you a couple of the highlight. There have been funds for providers for fire detection and prevention, for safety needs adaptation, for health and safety regulation differences, for building renovations, heating and cooling for play 748 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET surfaces and fencing. They were put out on a basically RFP basis. We made 112 grants. To date, we are planning to have another round, an additional round as we get to Fiscal Year '02, and hopefully, we have planned so that there will be approximately 2 to 300,000 additional dollars for Fiscal Year '02. As you can expect, these dollars actually meet a small percentage of our need, but it's such an improvement over what we've had in the past, it's really seen by the providers as something they could apply for and that will give them some help as they begin to establish child care within the City and to bring it sort of above ground so that we can both monitor the quality of it and assure that our children are going to be safe.

Thank you, Director. My last question for this round is, I had begun to receive -- I will assume my colleagues have as well -- information or usually maybe a report indicating who had received what 749 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET grants. If you could forward to the Chair for distribution to Councilmembers any general information about this particular program and how an individual would go about applying for the grants. Again, obviously, I know that we can't support or sponsor everyone, but it would just be helpful to have just kind of the general background information on this initiative. And if we do get inquiries, we'd be able to point people in the right direction. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: Okay, we'd be very glad to get you a summary of what's going on, how to advice your constituents to respond when the next round comes out, and a general summary on the program to date.

Great, thank you. SECRETARY RICHMAN: You're welcome.

Thank you Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. Let me likewise thank Deputy Commissioner Burrell. I've talked to her about the Youth Study Center. And around certainly 750 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Clarence Holmes, who's now Director. I knew when he started, when he just a youth worker way back in the '70s, so, you know, life's funny. If you hang around long enough, everybody meets up again. Councilman Rizzo?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

You're welcome.

Commissioner, I also appreciate the fact that you've stepped back to take a look at this to make sure that it's exactly -- the facility is exactly what we need and hoping that you'll put it back on track and get it accomplished hopefully in the next few years that we have this new facility. But I want to make a comment, an observation. I don't want to suggest that you were the only commissioner, but I think that you were one of the very few that communicated with me, and I'm sure other members of City Council, back in January, asking us if we had any concerns or questions of you prior to this hearing. I believe you were the only commissioner in this 751 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET administration that thought of this Council, asking if we had questions -- or at least of me. So I wanted to thank you for that. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

You're welcome. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Good morning. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Good morning.

I would be remiss not to echo the sentiments expressed by President Verna, Councilwoman Blackwell, and Councilman Rizzo with regards to the manner in which you've embraced your tremendous responsibilities this past year. And most notably, let me commend you on two things: One, what you have done to leverage local dollars in getting both State and federal dollars; and, two, how you are really holding true to what you stated last January, and that is begin to change systems and make systems work better for kids. So hats off to you on that and much 752 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET speed as you pursue the goals that you've established. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you.

Let me start with where Councilman Nutter left off around the Health and Safety Fund, and Estelle Richman spoke to a number of questions he raised. My only additional question is, you stated -- is she still here? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: I'm here. (Estelle Richman returns to witness table.)

I agree with you that we're off to a great start with regards to the grants that have been provided to those who are providing services to children in the child care area. And you indicated that we're not at the ideal yet, meaning we haven't maxed out taking care of a tremendous need. Is there a waiting list, as such? and do you use standards to make a determination on how and which child care centers benefit from those dollars? COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: Harriet? 753 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET (Witness comes forward.)

I'm Harriet Dickter.

Good morning.

Good morning. There have been a couple of rounds so far for the Health and Safety Program, and in each round, there has been more applicants who have requested assistance than need has been able to be met. So the fund actually has had a set of priorities, and I'll articulate them so people understand how the choices have been made. I do want to say that we have been able to work so far just in the first two cycles of the fund be with about 7 percent of all registered and family child care group and center providers in the City of Philadelphia.

Did you say 7 or 70?

About 7 percent of the total group providers in the City we've been able to reach so far with the fund.

Okay.

The priorities basically are the following for the distribution for it: 754 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET The first is to assist our child-care provider community meet our local and State rules and regulations for the operation of their facilities; The second priority is to allow them to achieve best-practice standards for caring for children in a health and safe way in their program; And the third is to make sure that we are allowing providers to make appropriate inclusion of children with special needs.

Okay.

And so those are the three principles that are used to review the applications. There was a very active advisory committee for this fund that has drawn from both City staff as well as experts in the community basically to make sure that need is best being met throughout Philadelphia.

You say 7 percent, which equals to about 114 grants at the $149,000 price tag? Or is that the $3,000 price tag? 755 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

That's for the total investment to date, that about 114 providers have been able to be included in the first couple of cycles of the program.

Okay. I know that the hard number for actual grants delivered, but I'm not clear about the price tag. Is the initial 149,000, or the anticipated or hoped-for 300,000? It's 149; is that correct?

Correct. Of the City's contribution.

Okay.

Okay? And I do again want to emphasize what Director Richman said here, that there has been other funding that this program has leveraged already. There has been private contribution from Child Care Matters. And in addition, Aetna U.S. Health Care Foundation actually made it's single largest year-end grant this year to help meet the demand for this program.

Let's speak at the future. What would be the ideal number, dollar figure to meet the need? And this is just for my 756 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET own education. If you had to in -- in an ideal world, what would the dollar price tag be? COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: I'm Estelle Richman, Director of Social Services. We've never requested that information from the child-care providers. And because they all differ so much, I'm not sure that I could tell you exactly what each one of them needs in those priorities areas. We know that it's probably fairly significant since there's never been an initiative to even help them identify all of their needs.

Okay. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: That is something that we will probably continue to work on as we develop this area. But I'm not sure I can give you any realistic number right now, not having surveyed those providers.

And see where it is. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: And see -- right.

Well taken. Okay, let me move before my time runs 757 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET out. Moving to the after-school programs. Miss Martinez, you indicated in your testimony that currently -- well, the new funding budgeted will allow for 2,000 new slots, and Miss Richman may have mentioned this in her testimony earlier this week, that brings us up to what level? What's the total level of after-school slots now that are funded? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: One of the exciting aspects of this after-school initiative is that it's being done in a collaborative way with the Office of Social Services and the Department of Human Services, so I'd like to be collaborative about answering your questions and ask Harriet to help me. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: I actually have the information on this one. At this point in time, we are covering about 15,000 kids within our after-school program, and that's broken down, just so you understand the diversity, as Alba said, between: Fairmount Park, the Department of Human Services, the Family Resource Network, the Free Library, the Mural Arts 758 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Program, the Police Athletic Leagues, the Recreation Centers.

Okay. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: And the Mayor's Office of Community Services. And there are some other smaller ones -- and the School District in general. So there are a whole range of initiatives that get us to 15,000 kids.

Okay, then. And the total number of children in the City that need after-school programs, what is that figure? COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: We would like to see all children in Philadelphia who are of school age have some choices around after-school programs in Philadelphia. So that number is probably going to be in at around 200,000.

Thank you. Now to the family care centers. And my experience with family care centers is a little dated prior to coming to Council, but with that in mind, you discussed that on , I believe? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Councilwoman, could you please repeat the question? I'm having 759 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET a little bit of a difficult time here.

Surely. The next is devoted to the discussion of the community-based family centers in the neighborhoods. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes.

And for FY 2000, approximately 12,000 children were served? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes.

Now, my experiences is dated. Prior to coming to Council, I had some involvement with family centers in West Philadelphia. And my observation at that hour, which was three years ago, was that that particular family center was not well-utilized in terms of numbers of children served. So the question is, what do you do with regards to outreach? And what kind of measures do you have in place that assure you, from where you sit, that the capacity is being reached in the family care centers, the family network centers? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, we emphasized in our testimony intentionally the fact that we are actively evaluating the family centers 760 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET right now, because in fact, while I don't think that there's any question in anybody's mind that the family centers are an extraordinarily powerful weapon to fight the kind of problems we want to fight. Because they are based in schools and that's where the kids are and that's where families come, I think that we also agree that we do not have good enough data on the impact that we're having.

Okay. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: One of the great assets of the family centers is that a lot of what they do is driven by what the neighborhoods want. So we do believe that a lot of good things are happening within the family centers but we also believe that it is important that we be able to measure that. I too share some of the concerns that you're articulating in terms of ensuring that these family centers are used to the maximum potential and capacity possible, given that we have some limited resources to help people. So we are going to evaluate those family centers, and I will ensure that you get a 761 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET copy of any information that we are able to collect around the impact of the family centers.

Please. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Some family centers have great utilization and others have more limited success, and I believe that outreach is an essential component of what those successful ones do.

Sure. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: And the other impact is the relationship that they have with the school. That often impacts on the --

Success. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: -- success of the family center and also on the range of services that they provide. We want to make sure after-school programs, parenting support programs, access to information that people need when they need it are all available in family centers. We want to make sure that there are some basic elements that are present in every single family center, and those three are some that come to mind for me: after-school, parenting support and education, and 762 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET access to information and referral, which I think, unfortunately, is so hard to come by. As you may know, I've been doing Town Meetings, and another great asset of the family centers is, we've been able to use that network to do one Town Meeting per month and have had hundreds of people from the neighborhoods come and talk to us about what they want to see from DHS. And, of course, they take the opportunity to tell us what they want to see from everybody in the City. And so we are using the family centers there. But what I am also finding that is very disturbing is that sometimes people, you know, don't know the -- they're in the family center and they don't even know exactly what the services are that are provided there. We have a disconnect in this city of getting information to people of services they we do have. And I believe that the family centers can be a vehicle to provide that information and that connection for folks.

I agree with you completely, and do know that I will be interested in an assessment as well as the locations, where 763 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET they are currently. So I look forward to that information. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Okay.

My final question revolves around the troubling realities we're facing with regards to girls. And you discuss that on , last paragraph on . COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes.

As an editorial comment, I look forward to the second Girls Conference, so please make sure that I'm on the mailing list. You state that "a 1999 study of girls in detention found that they are held in the same level of detention as boys with greater, more severe delinquency histories, primarily because of mental health and family problems." If you would, simply go into some detail and discuss for us some of the initiatives that DHS is currently pursuing to reverse the trend. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I would like to invite Deputy Commissioner Burrell to join me and help me answer that question. 764 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET But I can tell you that we are actively in development of programs that will allow us to serve children in their own communities through extended-day treatment programs rather than being institutionalized. We're trying to make every effort to make sure that girls can be served in their communities, particularly since many of the issues that they present are not about the severity of the crime that they may have committed, but more that they need really intensive behavioral health treatment. So we are going to be investing in specific programs, and we're also doing some research about the best-practice models that might be available to serve girls. But go ahead.

Good morning, Miss Burrell.

Good morning. Joyce Burrell, Deputy Commissioner. I think the Commissioner pretty much answered it. We really are looking at what the best practices are, we are making sure that our providers are aware of what basic components 765 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET should be present in any girls' program and the kind of issues that bring them to the juvenile justice system, which is very different from the issues that bring boys. Being around early abuse, around substance abuse, which gets tied into mental health or behavioral health issues is a part of the coping mechanism for them, so they come very complex, with very special needs that we can intervene in earlier. We're doing some mentoring programs with girls. A very exciting initiative so that we maintain the girl's place in her home is the development of these day and night programs that the Commissioner mentioned. Girls will be in program from 7 o'clock in the morning to as late as 10 o'clock in the evening, but as long as home is not abusive, to secure a place and maintain a special place for them with their own families. This initiative changes that take-them-out-of-the- home philosophy and forget that they ever existed.

Councilwoman Brown?

Yes.

Do you mind? 766 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET There are any number of Councilmembers that want to be recognized.

I do not.

We'll have a second go-around.

Sure. I just had one closing comment. Let me echo Councilman Nutter's comments with regards to your approach, which is to be driven by data and best practices verses anything else, and how it's data and best practices that move you towards coming up with strategy and planning that ultimately moves you towards implementation. So know that I join him and others here who support that approach, because the old way isn't working. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you.

I'm through with my questions, Madam President, and I thank you very, very much for your testimony. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: And thank you for your support during the year.

Absolutely. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: And your 767 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET guidance.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.

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

Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown actually touched base on the question I was interested in, the family learning centers, but I just wanted to carry it a little further. And I'm glad to hear that there is, in fact, an evaluation process taking place because I too am concerned, and I happen to have one a couple blocks from me, at the Blaine School, and from time to time, I've gone by and I was somewhat disappointed in terms of the participation level. In this evaluation process, can you tell me a little bit more about that? Because my concern is the participation of the community members in the evaluation process, 'cause sometimes, we in departments and we of government officials, we evaluate things without having the 768 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET individuals that we are trying to reach be a part of that evaluation process. Can you tell me about the process associated with that? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I've invited David Fair, who's the Director of the Community-Based Prevention Services Division to help me answer that question. But I will say this: If the evaluation doesn't involve the input of the community and the residents, then it's not going to be a good evaluation. So I certainly hope that his answer includes that that's been taken into account.

Absolutely.

I agree.

My name is David Fair. The process we're engaged in now works very closely with the advisory boards that we require be in place for each family center, and we have specific money identified in our budget for the ongoing training of the members of the advisory board so that they are able to engage with us in a positive way about the plan and the delivery of services in the family center. We also support a program called "The 769 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Family Leadership Institute," which trains people from the community to be able to participate in the advisory board of the family center system as well as other advisory boards that we're establishing for our division, such as the Parenting Collaborative and other places. I think that the motor that is driving the effort to restructure the family centers so that they're a more effective network for delivering services really has been the advisory boards. And concerns that you and others have raised about outreach is the primary concern that they have had as well. We are setting specific targets for the coming year for each of the family centers regarding how many people they need to see and where they need to come from. Many of the family centers have fallen into the habit of only working with children who are attending the specific school in which they're located. And so we have set very specific requirements that they be able to show us the strategies they will be using next year and specific targets on how many families they will serve. 770 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Have you given any thought, 'cause I hear you talking about the advisory boards, and sometimes the advisory boards don't participate as often as we would like, and I'm concerned that we would use that as primary tool. Is there any interaction with the other agencies? We talked earlier in the testimony earlier in the week about four or five different agencies who are responsible for organizing the communities, organizing block captains, and community leaders. Have you reached out to those particular organizations in your attempt to evaluate and increase your outreach process?

I have to say that we are in the process of doing this, and so in some communities, we've done well with those kind of connections, and in others, we haven't done as well. But it is a part of our agenda to be able to both talk to other organizations in the communities around the family centers and also to talk to organized groups of neighbors in communities that don't have family centers. We 771 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET hear a lot from people around the City who want to create a family center. And fortunately, we are now able to be a little bit more articulate about what we expect a family center to be able to accomplish. I'm not sure I fully understand your question, but the --

Okay, let me be more specific. I live in Strawberry Mansion. Our family center is not what we would like it to be. We happen to have an extremely strong block captains' network in that particular area. I have a mailing list of upwards of 70 block captains who are extremely active, and anytime I need something to be done, I send something out to these block captains and they get the job done. And I'm saying, would it make sense for us to use such a list in conjunction with the Mayor's Office -- I think the Managing Director's Office probably has that same list -- to get those people in, people who have already exhibited a willingness to go above and beyond their own personal responsibilities. I mean, block captains, they don't get paid, right? 772 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Right.

They do this because they care about their community. And should we possibly look at using those people?

Absolutely. And I can't really talk to you very intelligently about that particular family center, although I did finally get to talk to some people to begin to talk about what's going on out there this week with our staff. I want to reassure that you our strategy for the redefinition of family centers specifically requires those kinds of connections to be made, and we are hoping that we will ultimately be staffed up so that we can monitor that kind of relationship a lot better than we have in the past. In the past, for reasons that I'm not really clear on, the leadership of what went on in the family centers did not really rest at the Department of Family service, and so we are now trying to integrate this as a real service-delivery system, and everything we do in community-based prevention, that's one of the reasons I'm exhausted most of the time, is being 773 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET in the community and listening to people and trying to develop things in a way that really makes sense to them. So I'll make a commitment to you that on that particular topic, I'll follow up with your office to connect with those individuals, but I also want to reassure you that throughout the City, it is our intention to make sure that the family centers are integrated into whatever's going on in that particular neighborhood. And I believe that the Commissioner is willing to support whatever steps we need to take to make sure that actually happens. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: When I made my introductory remarks, I referred to some guiding principles that back up every decision I make at the Department of Human Services. And while some people might consider that somewhat naive or maybe an oversimplification, I want to say that I believe that some of what we need to do is really going back to basics, and I will say that I've been consistent from the day I walked in that if something as fundamentally community- driven as a family center is not attracting 774 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET community people, there is no justification in the world for continuing to fund that kind of program. And I will have the courage, sometimes even if it means pulling something out of a neighborhood where I'm going to have resistance, you know, if it's not working, we need to reprogram that money. And I'd like to introduce a broader -- have the opportunity to City Council our new Deputy Commissioner Wanda Mile (ph.), who replaced Maxine Tucker after many, many years of dedicated service. And Wanda's going to oversee both the Prevention Division and the Children and Youth Division. And Wanda also had the opportunity to help build one of the most successful family centers in the City, the Congreso de Latinos Unidos Family Center, which is in your district. And I wanted to see if Wanda want to do add thoughts her thoughts around family centers.

Thank you. I'm Wanda Mile.

Good morning.

And I hear your concerns about Strawberry Mansion, and we are concerned citywide, as David said, in building a system 775 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that's really going to be responsive to neighborhoods and to families, but also produce data and outcomes that are good for kids. In North Philadelphia and in the Julio De Borgos neighborhood, it took Congreso many years to really establish the right kinds of partners and to really invest the school because the school is really pivotal and their cooperation and support is pivotal, but there's also an important organizing sort of level of sophistication that has to be developed in community-based organizations, and some have them and some don't. Partnerships are important, but that organizing capacity is really not just about understanding the demographics of your neighborhoods; it's about understanding how -- what collaboration really means. And collaboration is sometimes painful; it's really about sharing an agenda that ultimately leads to positive outcomes. And so, you know, we will join with you and support you in your concerns around your neighborhoods, but I also want to ensure you that 776 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET we know how, based on experience and based on really good talent in our department, about how to achieve those levels of collaboration in neighborhoods that are under-served. And hopefully our community-based organizations will join us in these efforts.

Okay. I look forward to working with you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.

Thank you very much. Good morning. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Good morning.

Just a few questions. Could you call back Harriet Dickter? I just have a couple questions about something here. (Harriet Dickter returns to the witness table.)

Good morning.

Good morning. 777 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

As you may or may not know, we've had some concern expressed to my office about -- oftentimes we're in opposition to the increase in the number of children in home day cares because the City only allows so many. And we just have to go on record, based on what the law is right now, and the opposition is only based on that law. But in a lot of instances, we get requests for more than, say, up to 12, or more than children in a home day care. 12 And I wanted to know, what is your office doing to work with the State on coordinating the number of children in a home and also the enforcement of regulations surrounding what needs to be done? If you have more children, then you have to have certain physical requirements of a facility. Does your office get involved in any of this day care regulation and monitoring and the number of day cares? Also, while you're answering the questions, on the grants that were given to providers, was there any effort to identify those homes, make sure those homes are legally zoned to be day cares? 778 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Okay, thank you, Councilwoman Tasco for the opportunity to respond on that. Let me start with your last question first, which is in the Health and Safety Fund, what steps are being taken to make sure that these are providers who in fact are complying with City zoning and are legally situated? And the response on that is that that is a core requirement for participation in the program. The program is open to sites that are registered or licensed, depending on their status, and have in fact demonstrated core compliance with the City of Philadelphia's zoning requirements. That's a great deal of concern to us as well. On your other question, which is really what steps are we taking, if any, through the Office of Child Care on monitoring? What I need to share with you is that the monitoring within City government of family and group and center child care occurs through two of the operating departments. Licenses and Inspections does a great deal of this because of their -- the family child 779 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET care license, and they do send out people to look at the facilities. They're very aware of the health and safety program and of the resources that are available in that program to assist providers in compliance. And the Health Department also gets involved through the Environmental Division and food service requirements in the programming. So that those are the two operating divisions within the City that really have lots of on-the-ground, face-to-face contact with the provider community. I think you also asked the question about what about the category of provider who is seeking to have up to 12 children? And that's what the State would call "a group day care home," 7 to 12 children. And the State actually will not offer the license to that home until the provider has demonstrated their compliance with City of Philadelphia zoning. And as you know, those zoning requests go to the Zoning Board and have to be approved for the most part by the Zoning Board before the State would allow such a provider to really go into a business and to get their 780 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET license.

Well, are we proactive in working with potential providers or existing providers that want to increase their numbers? Because my office will get complaints about the number -- the increase because the day care does not have the play facility or the service -- or can't provide the services to the children in the home. Then we have to be in opposition, which makes us appear that we are against day care, which we are not a against day care.

Right.

But we do have to remember that there are other neighbors in the community who are impacted by the increase in the number of children that go into these homes, and they don't have the recreation facilities for these children, plus the parking, because we've gotten complaints about driveways being blocked, signs that are put up that are illegal -- you don't have anything to do with that. But basically the traffic and the impact-- or the increase in the traffic. 781 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Mm-hmm.

What we try to do is steer them to a commercial site or someplace that has less impact on the community. But I do think that we have to figure it out, 'cause I don't want to be constantly at odds with providers over day care. We need to try and steer them to other places.

Right. I think that particularly Philadelphia, as you know, has very few group day care homes of 7 to 12 children. There are only 80 in the City of Philadelphia, and the strategy that has been adopted for that group is much the same as, in fact, the provider the community has adopted here. To suggest that if you're going to have that many children in a home-based setting, then there may be alternatives. I think the real issue is for us to continue to pursue -- have to do with making sure that the small family child care home, which parents often like to have neighborhood-based care, they want to have access in their neighborhoods to the child care home, is truly 782 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET available in enough quantity and in enough distribution throughout the City that it can really serve families and children well. There have been increasing efforts made to make sure that there's opportunities to support the providers that if they're legal, that they're doing a good job that they're not an intrusion in the neighborhoods. There's certainly more progress that we can make in that area, and there is discussion between the City and the State on these issues and discussion and work with the nonprofit community to try to make sure that enough support is given so we can strike a good balance between the residential character of the neighborhood and the preference of many, many parents to have access to home-based child care programs.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Miss Martinez, you're not off the hook. I have a couple of questions for you. I want to go back to the Youth Study 783 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Center, not in terms of construction, but in terms of how children, young people are placed there. What is the general racial breakdown on any -- the average racial breakdown of the population at the Youth Study Center? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: It's overwhelming minority, African-American and Latino. Do you have a specific statistic Joyce? It's 75 percent African-American and 13.5 percent Latino. So that minorities are over-represented in detention, not only here but around the country.

Could you give any analysis as to why that happens? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I would like to invite Deputy Commissioner Burrell, who is the President of a national organization of detention leaders in the country and is much better qualified to answer that question than I am.

Thank you. (Ms. Burrell returns to witness table.)

Joyce Burrell, Deputy Commissioner. 784 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET The over-representation of minorities in confinement in this country has a lot to do with the front door. Our neighborhoods are overwhelming targeted for initiatives that result in large numbers of arrests, but we have not historically had the community supports to receive our children and support our children. Many of the things that are being done under this administration are to build more very basic community supports that strengthen them. This community-based prevention initiative should assure that there will be other places in the community for children who get involved with the law early, to be referred somewhere else other than to the court system. In many communities, when you look at the difference, there are folks who step up to say, This is not my child but I'm willing to assure that this child returns to court. This is not my child, but I'm willing to assure that this child will have something to do after school every day, and I will, you know, step in to support the family. So we have to build a safety net in communities to make sure that there are 785 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET alternatives. And we also have to go to the mat sometimes to bring the minority confinement issue to the forefront so that more people are talking about it. There is a national committee run by the Youth Law Center in San Francisco on over-representation of minorities in confinement. And their issues are around early assessment of the needs of the children to make sure that there are these safety nets for children and that they get adequate and appropriate representation. Poverty drives this an awful lot. There are homes where, when the police pick a kid up, they cannot reach someone by telephone, and there is not a standard practice of going to the home to see if someone's there. And they have to immediately assure the safety child, but often, they are brought to the attention because of something that appears to be illegal. Therefore, that child ends up in a secure detention setting, even if it's for a very short period of time, until a parent can be found. The sad part of that statistic is once they're introduced to the law enforcement system, 786 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET they tend to befriend young people who are in that system and they have a greater likelihood of going on to more activity with children who are already in the delinquent system. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I'd like to add an interesting fact that I've noticed since I've arrived at DHS, which is that the same zip codes in Philadelphia that include the highest poverty rates, the highest crime rates, the highest unemployment rates are also the same zip codes that include the highest juvenile arrests and the highest reports of abuse and neglect. So I want to echo what Joyce is saying, which is that at least in Philadelphia, poverty seems to be at the root of all evil.

You said something about the safety net and communities providing that. Could I conclude that the majority community here in Philadelphia has a stronger safety net for children of that community than for minority communities? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I mean, I think that the in lowest-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia, there are families facing multiple 787 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET threats at the same time. I mean, the level -- I mean, I think that poor families can be incredibly strong, and we have very strong families in low-income neighborhoods, but the threats that they face sometimes are often overwhelming. You know, the inability to access health care when they need it, inadequate access to transportation, as I believe Councilwoman Blackwell was speaking that, the issue sometimes is that families don't have enough money to send to school. So as a result, they are situationally truant. The overwhelming impact that drugs has on people's lives. And it's not only what's happening outside of your door; it's what's happening inside of your house. You can have a child or a partner or a relative who's using drugs and is draining your very limited resources. I mean, I believe that it is the environmental threats that are making our families vulnerable, and that sometimes what I have found in working in low-income neighborhoods is that those families are stronger than many families outside of those lowest-income neighborhoods because they've learned how to survive. 788 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET So I am not sure that I would conclude that our families have -- I know you were talking about networks of support; they definitely do not have sufficient networks of support, but I just want to make clear that I believe that the families in those neighborhoods are incredibly strong. And with minimal support that we could add, I think that they could do tremendously better. All things being equal, all things being equal, if a poverty, lack of community support, all things being equal, if an African-American or a minority youth is arrested and a youth from the majority community is arrested, what is the likelihood of both being confined, or one being confined and the other sent home, and how is that determined? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We don't have the statistics on that. I think that on a national level, there is a belief that, you know, the race of kids plays a factor, but in Philadelphia, we do not have the statistics on that, but we would be happy to provide the statistics on that for you, or studies on that for 789 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET you.

Who would provide those statistics to us in Philadelphia? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I think that what we'll be able to provide is any kind of research that we have or any kind of analysis that we have on the issue of disproportionate minority confinement. I'm not sure that a study has been done for Philadelphia, but I believe that there's some information on a statewide basis that has looked at disproportionate minority confinement. So Joyce Burrell will make that available to you.

Thank you very much. With regard to funding for provider agencies, what opportunities are there for minority participation and the provider network? And what steps are being taken to develop minority providers. If you have any, how many; and how do you do outreach to encourage people to become providers? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I don't have the statistics available, but I will make 790 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET them available around the proportion of providers that are, you know, minority. But I will say this: I think that the Department of Human Services, prior to my arrival, had made some pretty aggressive efforts and has been successful in expanding the network of providers that represent our client population and that are based in communities of color and that are based and grown and located and hiring people from the neighborhoods that are of most risk. I believe that more can be done, and I think that it is imperative that we develop a network of support that is community-based and community-owned. And in terms of how make resources available to people, we are going to make sure that funding is awarded on a competitive basis, that we have clear criteria that anyone can find out about and compete for. And I think that we certainly need to give tremendous value to the fact that providers need to be culturally competent and culturally diverse and really be familiar with the communities that we are asking them to serve.

One last question 791 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET on this round. We were successful in setting up the Kinship Care Program with the Department. And could you just give me a little status report on the Kinship Care activities? Have we seen a decline in the number of family members taking care of children, or have we seen an increase, or has it levelled off? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We have seen an increase in the number of families that are caring for their own children. And as a matter of fact, the next stage that we're involved in in the Kinship Care Program is the development of a guide, a resource guide that is in development right now, that makes available as much information as possible to Kinship Caregivers about how to access resources that their children need. It is certainly a foundation of good child welfare practice to have children placed with relatives or people that know the children, who are able to care for them, as opposed to placing them in a group home or in an institution, or with a foster parent that may be great, but who doesn't have a relationship with that child. So 792 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET we will continue to move that forward. In addition to that, we're going to implement -- and this is reflected in our Fiscal Year '02 Budget -- the strategy of permanent legal guardianship, and this is another permanency strategy in addition to adoption, which will, I think, be utilized significantly by Kinship Caregivers. And what that means is that a family or a child where we move that child to permanent legal guardianship is generally going to be a child that's older, that is not really appropriate for adoption, perhaps because they have strong bonds with their families or because they're with a relative, let's say, maybe with a grandmother who's saying, Why should I adopt this child, he's already my child? but they are still as a Kinship Care family under the custody and supervision of DHS. Permanent legal guardianship, which is a new option that the State put on the table, allows us to transfer custody, legal custody, to that caregiver and continue to pay a subsidy. Because that is a big issue. There are families who wouldn't want to have custody but remain 793 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET involved in the Department because they need the subsidy that we are able to provide -- that they were able to provide. And in our budget, we have set a target of having 250 children achieve permanency through permanent legal guardianship, and that's going to be a tremendous resource for people because they will be able to take back control over that child's health care, educational care, et cetera; where, when DHS is involved, no 11 matter how good, you know, there's a third party intervening and having to, you know, help make decisions. And often, there's an adult in that child's life who should be making the decisions for them.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.

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

I have a couple 794 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET of questions as it relates to the Office of Delinquency -- of Delinquency Prevention. And this is a particular of interest of mine because, you know, I always try to think of what can we do to prevent children from entering the juvenile justice system. But can you describe to me -- there's some -- throughout your testimony, when you talk about delinquency, can you tell us exactly what a delinquent child actually is? I mean, what are some of the things they've been involved in? how would you describe them? are they truant from school? Are they this, are they that? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I'm again going to invite Deputy Commissioner Burrell to help me answer that. But I will say that the definition of "delinquency," or the label of "delinquency," is apply to do a child when they are adjudicated by a court of law and they have been, you know, adjudicated and found guilty of committing a crime under the Juvenile Act. And, you know, those crimes can be pretty, you know, minor in terms of being involved in a fight but where somebody gets 795 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET hurt, or they can be very serious, you know, and so they could be, you know, arson, it could be, you know, burglary, it could be a car theft. And what happens is that the level of the crime dictates what kind of treatment a child gets. So, for example, generally young people that are detained in the Youth Study Center may have represented a different kind of a level of risk to the community either because it is assumed that they will not return to court for a hearing or because this is a second offense. But the range of what can be considered a delinquent can be very diverse. Joyce, would you like to add to that.

Yes. Joyce Burrell. Often when you meet a child who has been adjudicated delinquent and you look back at the history, they have obvious patterns of truancy, they have obvious patterns where there has been minimal or a lack of supervision, and often, this supervision from parents who often work in two jobs. Sometimes it's as a result of a parent substance-dependent. We find that often these youngsters or 796 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET pregnant, are teen parents. They have had bouts with incorrigibility, where parents have actually sought services, but because a child has not been in trouble at a level that would get the attention of the juvenile justice system, there have been no 7 services for that family or for that young person. Many times, especially for girls, they have been the subject of abuse that has gone undiagnosed or has not come to the attention of the public entity that manages that, and so they become very disconnected, they become very angry. And often when we see them, it's as a result of a an assault that is about something that happened many years ago, and this assaultive behavior is their way of fighting back and preventing the same thing from happening again. Peer relationships drive many youngsters to the juvenile justice system. You know, in many cities and in most cities, if you're in a stolen car, every child in that car has a charge that's related to how they got possession of that car, which is very different from how adult matters are handled. But prevention of delinquency means 797 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET shoring up all of those normal child-serving agencies, recreation opportunities for youngsters, appropriate educational assessment, and services available to youngsters. Reaching out to those parents and getting them involved in a way that both meets the needs of the parents and of that child. Many of the parents of children in the juvenile justice system have not been parented themselves after about age or because of 11 many dilemmas that they faced in going up, so many 12 of them don't know the normal milestones in child 13 development, and what they see as acting-out 14 behavior is very much normal adolescent behavior, 15 but they don't have the skills often to deal with that adolescent behavior in a way that is both productive to them and to that child.

Okay. So then "delinquent" means that this child has been adjudicated. If someone has not been adjudicated, then they're not going to fall in the category or be labeled as "a delinquent," or maybe "high-risk."

That's correct. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: That's 798 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET correct.

Okay. So -- COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: And precisely, the concept of developing a community-based prevention arm that is elevated in significance and is organized really well is because we know who those children are. You can tell by a number of indicators in a child's life, like those that have a problem of truancy or behavior problems, that they need intervention. And we cannot have a system only intervenes when a child is arrested. I mean, that's kind of turning the whole point of the system upside down. And yesterday, in a meeting with Family Court, the Family Court leadership was talking about the fact that they often have parents calling and saying, Please, place my child, you know, for this child's safety. And so the Family Court and the Department of Human Services and the Behavioral Health System are working in partnership to develop diversion options so that the answer is not to place that child either where they're not necessarily going to get treatment in the 799 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET environment they need, but to create options that are just like the options that they would get if they were arrested. We need to give children those options before they're arrested.

Well, we also get those kind of calls in my Council office, and we have, you know, parents that are frustrated, that are really seeking and looking out for help and have not been able access help because their children, or their child, has not been arrested and is not adjudicated. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: And the Office of Delinquency Prevention, which is where you led with your question, is precisely about that.

Okay, so -- COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: It's about having a network of services that is well- organized, based on best practice, and known to people, where parents and teachers and, you know, Councilpeople can refer cases, and that we can intervene in those children's lives as quickly as possible to ensure that they do not enter the juvenile justice track where they're going to be labeled "delinquent." 800 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Okay, good. Thank you. Also, I'd like to know if you can identify the neighborhoods that have the highest number of children and youth who are in the juvenile justice system. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: We can absolutely do that, and we will share maps with you about that. Southwest Philadelphia is one of the areas, North Philadelphia, Germantown has a pretty significant number. We do have maps about it, and we are going to use data a lot in terms of figuring out how to target services. I would be happy to share that with you. It's pretty striking information, although it's kind of what we all know.

Yes, and we'd like to know that too. Also, the Philadelphia Youth Violence Reduction Project, is that going to expanded at any point in time? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Yes, there are plans to expand it into the 25th Police District, which is the highest youth crime area in this 801 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET city.

Okay. Part of the 25th is also in my district. Okay. And I, too, want to just make a comment, that I also wondered -- and I'm glad that there's several of my colleagues that have asked the question regarding the TANF benefit cuts and how that would impact services to children and youth here in Philadelphia. And, also, I would like information probably by zip code about where the after-school programs are. You know, many departments talk about their after-school programs, and you go, Well, you know, when you wrote that you were going to expand 2000 slots, and I said, Well, is that under Recreation or is that under this one or that one? So it would be nice if there was a comprehensive list that laid out where all of the after-school programs are, and I guess the easiest way, again, would be by zip code. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I am sure that we can make that available to you through the Office of Social Services. DHS would be able to provide it information about DHS, but we'll 802 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET provide it citywide through --

Right, I figured come through the Office of Social Service, but, as Councilmembers, we would like to know where they are. Everyone talks about expanding their after-school programs and we just need to know where all of them are. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I also understand that also Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth has developed a guide, a resource guide about after-school programs, and we'll make that available to you too.

Okay. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: But we certainly understand the request.

All right. Now, does that guide include the 15,000 spaces? Does the guide include -- we have the guide in our office; I haven't personally looked at it. But does the glide include all of the after-school program slots that are funded through all of the various departments? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: What they know at the time was included, and so we'll update that 803 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET information with what we know about City-funded slots. That's the information that the Office of Social Services could provide.

Okay. I'd also -- I'm really kind of interested in the delinquent services to teenage girls. And I also wonder if any after-school programs are targeting teenagers rather than just children in elementary or middle school. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I am certain that there are -- yes, there are programs that target teenagers, and that information will be made -- I don't know exactly off the top of my head, but absolutely. I mean, we recognize that what changes is the model you use, but that certainly, you know, older teens need a lot of support and supervision, so that is a major area. And it's also a major area of priority for the Department of Human Services in the highest-risk neighborhoods since know that youth get in trouble between 3 and 7 at night, and we want to keep 'em real busy. Wanda?

Both through our Juvenile 804 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Justice Division and then our new Prevention Division, we are working to fund youth development programs. And also the after-school programs and the standards that were developed through the Division of Social Services has really focused on sort of involving older youth, involving them both in the programming but also in the staffing of after after-school programs. But we can also give you more specifics.

Okay, one other question. You know, there are a lot of young people in my neighborhood that are constantly asking me to help them find after-school jobs or just employment, period. Will you also service those types of young people?

Yes. And when I use the term "youth development," and I know that you know this, 'cause, you know, I know that we've worked together in the past. Youth development for us is a whole range of support and services. It's life skills training, it's support, it's connection to their community. But it's also -- we all know that older youth and youth as they grow older, and particularly in economically-challenged 805 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET communities, really need access to resources and need access to jobs. And so, as you know -- I know in Germantown and also at Congreso and at a variety of really quality community-based organizations, there has been that outcry and that request from systems to partner with them for resources for after school and for resources to hire kids and train them -- not just give them a job, but give them skills and supports that are going to help them on their road to adulthood. So, yes, we share with you that concern. Obviously, there are limited resources, but we are targeting resources where we can and encouraging our partners in the system to really look at that as a value.

Okay. So for now, if we have someone -- and I do have two young men that actually just came to my house last week -- do we just call you, Wanda?

Well, you can always call me, Councilwoman Miller, but I think that Harriet Dickter also wants to respond to that.

Okay. 806 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Yeah. There is a program that the Philadelphia Youth Networks runs, YouthWorks, which provides both summer employment as well as year-round opportunities for kids 6 and above. And so that is the other resource to 7 contact in terms of kids who are coming to you 14 8 and above, who are looking for constructive things 9 to do with some money attached to them, is to call 10 the Philadelphia Youth Network and to enroll 11 children through that mechanism. 12 And I think we want to add that this 13 year, there was a very good relationship 14 established with several of the City's after-school programs in terms of the model for the teen leaders to make sure that we were in fact bringing kids into those programs in a leadership and mentoring role through that. But that's an ongoing available resource.

And I would just like to add that the Freedom Schools is an effort that was initiated through the School District, but the Department of Human Services is very active in that partnership and helps to funds Freedom Schools during the summer, and that does provide 807 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET funding for summer jobs and training for kids. So you can call me directly about that.

Okay. Well, you know, my office works very close with, I still call it, the Urban Coalition around summer youth employment. It's the after-school, winter-type employment that we seem to not have access to. Or enough places that we can refer children to. But it would be great if we could just refer 'em to one source and know that they're going to get some assistance. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I will also sort of integrate your comment into our thinking as we design models and systems because I think that that's consistent with what I found, which is the fragmentation, the difficulty that people have in finding out information about what they need. You know, even if the service is not there, at least give me clearly the information about what is and what is not there. And I certainly agree that we need to do more around developing real options for kids for work during the school year. I know that there are options out there. I think that we need 808 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET more. And so I'm not sure how we will get there. Many people are working on that as we speak. But it has to be a combination, by the way, of public and private dollars. I mean, we really need to get the private sector to invest in our young people and put money on the table because the best way that we're going to develop young people is not only by keeping them busy but by assisting them in developing concrete skills that they can use when they enter into the workforce. And it seems to me that the private sector, you know, which has all of the resources and controls -- you know, many of the businesses here would be a tremendous partner to have at the table for this purpose.

Well, I certainly agree with that. One other comment. I'd also like to be kept abreast of anything you're doing special for teenage girls. I'm a mother of a teenage girl, and we have lots of teenage girls in our neighborhood, and we're always trying to figure out things to do with them. But I also know that at this time, 809 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Germantown High School specifically is having a real problem in terms of violence, and the problems are basically the girls, not the boys. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Okay.

So I was talking to the dean of students maybe two or three weeks ago, and he specifically asked me if I could help him get females to come out to the school. They haven't really structured whatever it is they want females to do yet, but maybe I'll give you a call and see, 'cause I told him certainly, we could put together a list of people. But I don't want to say on the record what their specific problem is, but I will certainly be glad to talk to you off the record about their problem.

And I hope that you will call me.

Okay.

I mean, you're welcome to call Alba, but I also would love to come and visit and sit with you. You know, as Joyce mentioned, that we're researching best practices for services for girls, and we want to do that both on the intervention and sort of delinquency end, but we 810 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET really want to do it on the prevention end. And any ideas or needs that you have, you know, we're very much interested in connecting with you.

All right, thank you. No more questions at this time, Madam President.

Point of information?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I'd like to suggest, Commissioner, that for employment during the school year, that maybe an initiative with the Chamber of Commerce. Charlie Pizzi possibly would shepherd a program within the Chamber that might give some of the young people that we're taking about today employment opportunities. I know the Chamber is always interested in supporting efforts that we support, so I would suggest a letter to Charlie Pizzi and possibly the member businesses of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber would -- COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I'll tell him 811 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that you told me he'd do it.

No, you don't really need to tell him I gave you the idea. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I'll tell him you ordered him to.

You could do that, certainly. Also, I had a conversation with Mr. Mifflin, from the Fairmount Park Commission, and I know the Fairmount Park Commission is looking at developing a program to employ not just young people but others during the summer to take on many of the tasks that are sometimes not dealt with on a day-to-day basis -- trail clearance and trail restoration. Hard work, let's put it that way. So I would also suggest that the Executive Director of Fairmount Park would probably be interested in assembling a team of young people that could get out there and make the park a better place. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you for those ideas. It's wonderful.

Thank you, Madam 812 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Chair.

Thank you. Councilman Nutter?

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner, I had a couple last questions in the child care area, and then I had a series of hopefully quicker things to go through with regard to your testimony. I did want to get a good understanding, and I think Director Richman was going to touch on these items, and then I probably distracted her with another question. What is the size, what is the staffing level of the Office of Child Care?

The Office of Child Care at this point has two staff: a director and additional staff.

Okay. And I know it's a new office and you obviously have to start somewhere. At the same time, it sounds like we are asking for a significant amount of work and, I mean, there are a lot of children and issues in the City. Do we anticipate over some period of time that we might see some level of increase in 813 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that office? I mean, I just don't know how a couple people do the enormity of the work that we're talking about. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: They're actually doing an incredible job. And our plan has been to transfer originally someone from L&I who understands the child care regulations. That would have added another person. And to add one more person to that. So it would have been a staff of four altogether.

Okay. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: We're still working on both of those. And hopefully, we'll get that done over the next -- I'm not sure we'll complete it by June 30th, but probably over this calendar year, we'll get that done.

Okay. Myself and a couple other members will be at a talking with Miss Dickter soon, and she and I have had some discussion about any opportunities to get out information either that we have or verified information that we have from others, utilizing certainly the City's Web site as well as cable television, the government-access channel, 64, and 814 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that kind of scrolling series of information that's provided there. I think that any information that we can get out to people about quality programs that are out and available, recommendations on issues that are of concern to parents would really make this office the kind of top-notch place I know we all want it to be. And, again, I'm appreciative that the administration thought enough to have this kind of office. You know, I've, you know, having a close-to-6-year-old, I pay a whole lot more attention to child care issues than I ever imagined before. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: Obviously, we're very interested in making sure -- I think Commissioner Martinez also mentioned that one of our challenges is to make sure people know about programs, know about resources. And we would be glad to work with you and obviously are working in the City to make sure that happens.

Lastly in this area, do you expect that the Office of Child Care will be involved in -- there is an ongoing process 815 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET to evaluate a variety of child-care and childhood education programs at the School District. The School District runs, for instance, naturally Head Start funded by the feds, we've got the comprehensive day-care programs as well as the parent cooperative nursery program, which had a little bit of controversy last year. All of those are apparently in the process of being evaluated. And I just wanted both not only for what they provide but also what we should be doing going forward, and I wanted to ask if the Office of Child Care would be involved in that effort so that we make sure that, you know, four- and five- and six-year-olds, and even, I guess, three-year-olds, can have a quality educational experience, even at those younger ages, as they move onto, you know, like 1st grade. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: Right. One of the things that I want to assure to you is that the Office of Child Care is very involved in working with the School District.

Okay. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: And that that relationship will continue. 816 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Harriet, do you have a response to the specific question around the initiative going on right now?

I just want to affirm that we are very involved in the current thinking and planning over the problems that I know are of great concern with the parent cooperative nurseries as well as the rest of the programming. We're very fortunate, actually, to be doing a citywide right now in conjunction with a special private planning grant we have with the United Way, looking actually at child care quality in all types of child care settings, formal and informal, throughout the City of Philadelphia. And so we should have very good information to share within a couple of months that actually gives us a much, much better understanding of the kinds of experiences young children are having throughout the City, the School District settings, as well as other settings.

Let me just lastly say in this area, I mean, beyond my general concern and great feeling about the quality of the 817 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET experience that the young people have when we have them, I mean, there are, quite honestly, other motives that I have, one of which is, to the extent that 3- and 4- and 5-year-olds can have a good experience either directly with the City or with the School District, quite frankly, I think out of that, we get the opportunity not only to positively impact that child's life but we also potentially get to hold on to that child into 1st grade, and that that young person might actually go to public school, and we get to keep the parents, who, in many instances, have options. And they might have an okay preschool or kindergarten experience, but now comes the big decision about where is my child going to go to 1st grade, and if haven't had a good experience with us or with the School District, they make that decision right then and there, and they are out of here. And so, a part of this is, to the extent that we can kind of keep them in a path and keep them involved and that the child is enjoying their experience, obviously that gets translated to the parents in many different ways, and I think 818 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that we get a chance to compete for those parents and keep them in the City and in our public school system. Thank you. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Thank you.

On , Commissioner, of your testimony, you talk about the Office of School and Community-Based Truancy Prevention. It's my understanding that on any given day, the census of school-aged population seems to indicate that we have about a percent 13 truancy rate throughout the City. Has this office 14 done any analysis of truancy in the City, either 15 by school or by Council district? 16 COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Let me ask 17 David Fair to help me answer this question. 18

Thanks to the fact that 19 we've been doing an evaluation of the 20 effectiveness of the cluster-based truancy course, we have specific data by school and by cluster and by Council district, and we could provide that to you.

If you could provide that to the Chair, I would greatly 819 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET appreciate that. Tell me what happens in the -- I know a lot of attention is obviously focused on the young person who didn't go to school and why, and our first effort, naturally, is to get them back to school. Tell me a little bit about what goes on with the parents or guardian of these truant students. And what, if anything, do we do with them?

In those situations where there is the ability to do that, and most of the kids who are truant, by the way, are not report to Truancy Court and do not come to the attention of our system. But for those who do come to the attention of our system in those situations where the parent is having difficulties that are encouraging the truancy among the kid, we try to link that parent to the system of services that's available from the Behavioral Health System, from DHS, and from community-based supports. The evaluation that was done of the services provided in Truancy Court in the 1997-1998 school year, which is the latest version that we have, indicated that the vast majority of 820 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET the kids that we were successful in getting to go back to school were those who -- where we were also able to address the family needs. It's not usually done -- it's often not just the parents, it's also the siblings. My biggest difficulty right now, and Commissioner Martinez referred to this earlier, is that we really don't have a master plan on how we're approaching this stuff. And so we have often had situations where a child will show up in Truancy Court with virtually nobody knowing what it is that's going on in that child's life, and the master is then asked to make some recommendations or decisions about what to do. So we're working now on developing a much more coherent system of doing that in trying to put in touch with every child who is truant -- our current goal is 10 absences or more -- in touch with some kind of social worker or case manager or someone who can assess the family's needs as a whole and address them as a whole, because the evidence is absolutely clear that if you don't address the family's need, the kid does not go back to school. 821 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Okay. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: And, Councilman, I would like to add that truant children and youth come to the Department's attention also in another way, and that is through our intake in children and youth, because more and more, we are finding that judges place children from the bar of the court with the Department of Human Services in court-ordered supervision because a child is truant, and, you know, they've been trying to intervene, and so then they mandate DHS intervention. And that is yet another reason why we believe that we need to build a prevention system because, you know, we shouldn't wait for that. However, when that is the case and when we are court-ordered into a child and family's life, then we put services in the home, services to children in their own homes, trying to keep that family together and attack the truancy issues. But what we are doing to make that even more effective is that we are going to incorporate into the performance standards for the Department 822 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET of Human Services truancy as an issue of priority in every case. In every case, we're going to want to measure our success and the success of our provider agencies by how well the child is doing in school. So, for example, we're talking about when we go out and we monitor agencies, to have our monitors look at a report card and make sure that a report card of a child is in that file. We need to institutionalize as a practice the analysis and the review of how our children are doing in school, because we think that it's a window into many other things. And the other thing we need to recognize about truancy is that kids -- you know, what's behind truancy can be many, many different things. Sometimes it's a child just acting out and not, you know, responding to what parents want him to do; parents want him to go to school and they're not doing it. Sometimes it's fear of going to school; they're not having a good school experience. Sometimes it's that the parents are compromised by the use of drugs and are neglecting the children. You know, it's very complex. 823 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET I think an assessment is key in every case. You know, you can't generalize, but we know that there is generally a problem on the adult side, but there is not always an unwillingness of that adult to do the right thing.

Okay. In the same paragraph and then in the paragraph below, and I won't so much ask you questions, and if you could get us the information subsequent. Is there,, I guess, for the Department somewhat of a resource guide that any one of us could have that would not only give us information but locations and contact numbers for -- you have in your testimony, you make reference to the Parenting Collaborative. You talked about expansion and enhancement of after-school programs, the home visiting programs for new mothers, the expansion of the School Attendance Improvement Project, and a host of others. I mean, obviously, given the magnitude of your department, there are a whole host of programs and activities that you have. I don't know how you keep track of them all. But for us, is there something, I guess, that is a little smaller in terms of a 824 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET guide book that would tell us -- if someone were to call, and based on where my district as maybe compared to Councilman DiCicco's district, this is where you need to go, this is who you should talk to. You know, I mean, I'm not trying to run a social service agency out of the office; nor certainly would I even think that we could do it anywhere near at the level of DHS. On the other hand, sometimes people just need information. And, I mean, more in our preventive role, if someone reaches out, rather than sending them through the "Oh, you shouldn't talk to us, you should talk to the other one" or "Let me give you this number," or, you know, a runaround and send people all over the place, sometimes when you have them, I mean, you really have to try to provide an answer and a response right at the moment. Is there a that kind of document? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, let me talk about a couple things really quickly. The first thing is that I asked for that guide when I first came to the Department of Human Services, and it was not available. And so we are right now 825 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET in the process of developing a guide to the Department of Human Services. The development of that is actually underway. We are going to issue a parenting resource guide the first time, and every year, we're going to reissue it to make sure it's updated and every year it's going to be better and better. So we're going to issue one specific to resources for parents and parents support and education. We will issue a guide to the Department of Human Services as soon as we complete it, and we are working on that, as I said, right now. And we're hoping not only to tell people how to access DHS services, but also the services of our unbelievable network of agencies. I mean, the Department of Human Services' budget is over $450 million, as you well know, and $71 million of those are in our staff, in our 1800 staff, and the rest is in services to the community. So we need to make sure that we're not talking only about what DHS does, but what our network of providers does. But the other we're thing doing, which 826 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET is, I think, even more significant, is that we're creating a strategy and an approach which is a customer-service approach, and we're working on a couple of things to break that problem once and for all or get rid of that problem, which is that people who need services have a really hard time connecting with them. And I'll tell you, this is being called for more than anything by my own staff, who often cannot find resources available or easily for our own clients. So we're going to do the guide and we're going to have a main number, which is now -- now being tested. We actually have a number, 683-4DHS, which gives people access to DHS through one single number, and we're working out the kinks of that system and we will advertise that number. We're going to develop an information and referral network that will connect callers to services as needed.

And we're going to develop a Web site, and the Web site is in development as well. So we hope to have a number of vehicles to give you, your constituents, my staff, and our clients access to information as quickly as 827 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET possible. We'll also hopefully be working with United Way in joint venturing around the development of a 211 number. I'm not sure if Council has heard about that, but it's a national concept, it's happening in Atlanta, where the 211 is used as an information and referral tool. And I've been speaking to Chris James (indiscernible) joint-venturing. We don't need two information and referral systems; we need one really good one.

Commissioner, at this moment, let me now commend you. You have obviously held your own very well up here and attracted the attention of the electronic media. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Say some very nice things now, please.

Well, I will start being nice. Three last questions. One, in many instances, it is pretty much always taken as a given that all of these systems and programs and the bulk of the responsibility involving children, then naturally we talk about their mothers and what's going on with the mothers. It does occur 828 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET to me that there's only one woman in the history of the world who had a child and there wasn't technically a guy around. What are we doing with fathers and their role in this whole process involving their children? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: I'm inviting anyone from the Department -- (Laughter.) COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: -- who can speak to that issue to join me. But I will answer that question from a conceptual standpoint, which is that, you know, when I think about family, and as I said, you know, I'm pretty new, but I'm driving my decisions based on some guiding principles. And certainly, one of my guiding principles is that when you look at family, you know, you look at it as broadly as possible, and you exclude no one. And certainly, under no circumstances, would I, you know, even think about developing programs or certainly continuing to invest in programs that do not take into account, you know, that kids generally have a mom and a dad. And 829 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET whether the dad is present at home or not, you know, the attempt to make that connection and the support really needs to be made. Moreover, Councilman, the law requires that. The law requires that the Department really work with both parents of a child or the caretakers of a child to make sure that they are an affirmative part of achieving safety and permanency for that child. So I assure you that as those issues come up, we will always fall on the side of inclusion in making sure that is taken very seriously, the role of men in raising children.

Thank you. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: Councilman, it's an excellent question, and you will hear in the testimony, the Mayor's Office on Community Service, a new program they'll be instituting in Fiscal Year '02 called "Father Figure Initiatives" to address the fatherlessness in some of our communities. And I'm also reviewing a proposal that I have by the National Father -- I forget all of the names of it -- to be able to work with DHS and 830 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET other programs around how do we make sure fathers are included in all of the things we do, because so often, all anyone hears is about the mother. And we need to make sure that all of these children have fathers. And that the father initiatives are not only heard, but that they become more a part of our conversation. So those things are clearly on the agenda, and I hope by next year at this time, we're talking more mothers and fathers as opposed to references just about moms.

Great, thank you. Commissioner, in your Key Performance Measurements section of your testimony, the last page, I don't really know what this means; I know what it is. There's a line item that reads "Children Participating in Immunization Programs." FY '98 and '99 are listed as, I'm assuming, N/A, not applicable. There's 78 in Fiscal Year 2000, 165 in '01, and 200 in '02. Is this a new effort? I'm assuming that we work with or help to immunize more than a couple hundred of kids a year. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: It's not the 831 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET only immunization project in the City by any means. It's simply a reflection of an immunization initiative that was built by the family centers, so these are the children that have been immunized specifically through the network of family centers. 8

Okay. Last 9 question. Unfortunately yesterday, and 10 unfortunately probably earlier this year, and 11 unfortunately, it will probably occur in the 12 course of this year. Yesterday there was a rape 13 of a young woman, or a young lady, at Roxborough 14 High. There have been other instances of abuse of 15 young people, primarily young women of school age. 16 In that situation, does the Department 17 get involved at the level of any kind of 18 counseling, either for the victim, for the parents 19 and guardian, the rest of the school-aged population community at that locale that has obviously been affected at some level by this incident? And what happens with the perpetrators? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, in the case -- in the case of a sexual abuse or a rape 832 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET incident, when the perpetrator is not a caretaker or a relative, DHS doesn't have a responsibility to investigate. We investigate sex crimes and sexual abuse when the perpetrator is a parent or a caretaker. However, that does not mean that the Department of Human Services does not play a role or does not have resources invested in a number of different places where we can touch that young woman's life and make it better. We fund, as I said before, over 300 agencies in the City nonprofit agencies, you know, that serve our clients that we refer, but also serve, you know, citizens all over Philadelphia when they need help. One of those institutions is the J.J. Peters Institute, which specializes in providing services to victims of sexual violence. They also treat perpetrators, as a matter of fact. We also fund the Philadelphia Children's Alliance, which specializes in intervening and supporting child victims of sexual abuse. Our family centers, I'm sure, could be places where kids connect. So, informally, although we do not have 833 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET an investigative role, DHS -- I certainly recognize that we have a responsibility to contribute to the network of support. And there are also organizations in the City, like Women Organized Against Rape, that are funded by the State and have a tremendous role in the City, and intervene affirmatively when those issues come to their attention. So my vision is that we are, and will continue to be, a part of a strong network of partners in the City, funding coming from many different places, and that when a child is hurt, that we all step up to the plate and offer whatever we have to make a difference. So I certainly accept responsibility and want to play a role anytime we're needed.

Thank you very, very much, and I deeply appreciate your testimony this morning. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

You're welcome. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, I see, is not in the room. She had some questions. 834 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET All right, we have other questions but I think maybe we'll move on. We certainly want to thank --

Madam Chair?

Yes, Councilman Nutter? (Councilman Nutter responds off-mic.)

Councilman Cohen, do you have questions?

Yes.

Please proceed.

Alba's been a favorite of the Cohen family for many, many years. There's a lot of talk about partnerships between faith-based groupings and governmental bodies with respect to services out in the community of all kinds. I'm wondering -- and there was a recent article in the last couple of days about Philadelphia being a leader in that, or at least being the home where the origin of that idea took hold, things of that sort. Are there steps being taken to make 835 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET sure, as that partnership grows, because there seems to be a big petition at the national level, that there is going to be watchful observations at both ends to make sure that the rights of the religious organizations are observed, and that there be no governmental interference with them? And at the same time, that the services given to the people are not tinged with the aspects of a particular religious group or idea? I'm just wondering, what is the (inaudible), because there may be good out of it and there may be dangers to both sides, because government tracks money when it's government money, and that tracking process may involve religious faith groups and problems that they're not aware of. And at the same time, the government has to observe the line of separation and demarcation between State and religion. I'm wondering whether there are any preparatory steps being taken to guarantee that the rights of both sides are, you know, rigidly obtained and maintained and observed. COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ: Well, I'd like to answer specific to DHS, and I'm sure that 836 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Director Richman will have more to add from a citywide perspective. )(3)'s, and so they have to abide by all of the requirements of the law, but that are rooted in a faith-based, you know, community. For example Catholic Social Services is one of our largest providers; Jewish Family and Vocational Services is another one of our important providers. So there is a precedent for the faith community to step up and formally engage in relationships and obtain public funding to do community work. But when they do that and when they enter into a contract with the City of Philadelphia, they have to abide by all of the rules and regulations that every other provider has to abide by. So that has been the history in the Department, and it will continue to be the history, since anyone that we give public funding to, you know, has to abide by all of the laws and 837 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET regulations that apply to all of us. COMMISSIONER RICHMAN: I think one of the things we're all interested in seeing is, how are these dollars going to flow. Are they going to flow to cities to be able to distribute, are they going to flow directly to the religious organizations, and who is going to be in charge of doing the monitoring. I think, as Commissioner Martinez has indicated, this is not a new area for us. Almost all areas -- many of the areas within social service do some level of contracting now with organizations that have often very strong religious roots, but in the contract within the City, they have a work statement that determines exactly what that work will be. And we have program analyst as one category of worker, social workers and other people who go into these organizations to make sure they're doing the activity of our contract, as opposed to maybe the activity of what their original mission is. There have been some occasions where there have been contracts that -- where there have been grants of dollars to faith-based 838 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET organizations, where I've gotten a call from ACLU saying, Are you monitoring these people to make sure they aren't trying to work with people religiously? And when I've had those, we've followed up very closely to make sure that we know their mission.