Training Advisory Board (TAB)
Bay Area Academy
MINUTES
June 22, 2012
9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: Martinez
40 Douglas Drive, Room 100/101
Martinez, CA 94553
Patrick Duterte - Chair, TAB
Judith Lefler - Assistant Director, BAA
Attendance
Name
Shean, Mary
County/Organization
Alameda County
Name
Thompson, Jenell
County/Organization
San Mateo County
Bryant, Mieke
Robertson, Paula
Lefler, Judith
Riley, Adreanna
Donahue, Maggie
Johnson, Barrett
Lerable, Christine
Wocher, Donna
Cole, Cyndia
San Mateo County
Marin County
BAA
BAA
San Francisco County
CalSWEC
Monterey County
San Mateo County
BAA
Luque, Renee
Fankhanel, Shawna
Greenham, Mary
Cannell, Jennifer
Martinez, Linda
White, Alice
Barrett, Peter
Duterte, Patrick
BAA
BAA
Santa Cruz County
BAA
Santa Clara County
Monterey County
Sonoma County
Solano County
9:30am – 9:45am
Welcome and Introductions
1. Cyndia Cole will be leaving BAA to her new position as Hotline Supervisor in Sonoma County
2. Renee Luque is the new PPC Coordinator(Parenting for Permanency College) for BAA, San Francisco
3. Mieke Bryant is replacing Jenell Thompson in San Mateo County
4. Mary Greenham, new to Santa Cruz County
9:45am – 10:00am
Review/Additions to Agenda
1. Agenda review
a. Reviewed
2. Approval of March 2012 Minutes
a. Approved
10:00am – 10:30am
General Academy Updates
1. Staffing updates
a. Jeri Smith is back in a .6 time position. Currently doing evaluations and will be filling in for Cyndia as she
transitions out.
b. Bay Area Academy will be posting Training Specialist position. It is full time, covering five northern
counties. This should be posted by 6/25/12.
c. Bay Area Academy is looking for full time training assistant to work half time with Alameda County (and
other counties as assigned) and half time doing registrar duties.
d. Bay Area Academy looking for CWS/CMS person. Position will either be a full time training position or a
half time coordination position.
2. The Future of Bay Area Academy
a. BAA getting ready to put all CORE curriculum onto tablets
 Participants will also receive a link to provide them with resources for
information that they would like to keep.
 Eventually to have evaluation pre-posts on tablets.
 Pilot to come soon.
b. The contract for 2012 – 2013 has already been signed and is back to the State.
c. Another meeting with Berkeley Extension took place to continue placement discussions.
 They had hired Roger Lum to create a comprehensive proposal.
 Berkeley Extension had made the decision that Bay Area Academy was not
a good fit prior to this meeting.
 A consensus was made to keep BAA with Fresno.
 From director’s point of view, the continuity is good and everything seems to
be going well so far.
 One concern would be the physical distance may become an issue with
connections and partnerships.
 Discussion between BASSC, David Foster, and BAA needs to happen.
 BAA may want to consider renting training rooms from Berkeley ext and
utilizing resources for e-learning development.
 BAA is also looking at hiring social worker interns, working with
guardianship programs to bring in former foster youth, beginning to search
for new opportunities for funding, all in an effort to rebuild its reputation in
the Bay Area.
d. Updating website, should be more user friendly.
3.
Fostering Connections Summit
a. BAA hosting on 9/20/12 from 10am – 4pm at Presido, save the date reminder will be sent out. Lunch will be
provided.
b. Lisa Molinar, along with 6 counties are working with Jennifer Cannell in planning.
c. There will be a youth panel, talk about transitions out of care, county teams will work through questions, CW
groups to have problem solving discussions, AB12 discussions – what’s working, what’s not working with
digital stories and possibly some youth from the digital story workshop.
4. BAACPSS – A New Beginning
a. Beginning to transition into a group more like BAMM.
b. New group scheduled to begin mid-July.
c. Group will be re-named and facilitated by Mary Garrison
d. Group will be responsible for re-defining their mission and creating their own agenda.
5. Coaching and Mentoring Training
a. Two day training held on July 9th and August 13th.
b. There are a few spaces available.
c. Participants must attend both days and there will be “homework” in between dates.
d. A consultant will be hired to help develop this training.
e. The flyer is located on BAA’s website and will be held at CalEndowment.
10:30am – 11:00am
Hot Topics/Discussion
6. CORE Revision
a. Current curriculum was developed in 2005, even though there have been ongoing revisions, a complete
revision is needed.
b. Possible ideas include involving e-learning and coaching and mentoring.
c. The goal is to create content that is more manageable for the new CW worker.
d. Gathering feedback from BAMM focus groups about what is working well, worries and concerns, and
recommendations for next steps.
e. Question should be added regarding whether or not new CW workers go through CORE training before
getting a case load or while having a case load and what seems to work the best.
7. BASSC Update – Patrick Duterte
a. Within the new budget that was just passed, there is an agreement that affects CW, but it is cloudy with the
realignment issue.
 CalWorks participation went from 48 months to 24 months


Not able to provide assistance to family members returning from jails
Healthy Families will be moving 800,000 cases to medi-cal beginning
January 2013
 Child Care received dramatic cuts
b. Because of budget constraints, many IVE programs have been cut.
c. Solutions need to be found around training calibration between schools and social work and securing field
placements.
d. Searching for creative ideas to consolidate positions.
e. Standardization in partnerships with schools to match quality students with suitable positions.
f. It would be helpful to have the ability to forecast number of intern slots and two years from now match up
with the number of students being accepted into programs.
11:00am – 11:15am
Best Practice Focus/Alameda
1. The Gathering Place
a. A more homelike environment for child/parent visitation during the reunification process.
b. AFS and Behavioral Health collaborative.
2. Vicarious Trauma Group
a. A place for ER staff to talk about what happens in their jobs.
b. Once a month, it is a drop in, open format counseling session.
c. Recommendations are made to the program manager to continue and enable self care.
11:15am – 11:50am
General Information and County Updates
1. County Updates
a. San Mateo
 Currently hiring social workers
 Welcome to Mieke Bryant!
 PQCR is scheduled for next week.
 Loc Nguyen is scheduled to start 1 July 2012.as the new Child Welfare Director
 Currently doing a training needs assessment.
 Investigation on visitation: Some observation has been done in other counties and some
internal changes are being made.
 Emergency and Referrals are now two completely separate units.
b. Marin



c.
In need of a new program manager
Had their first SOS training and AB12 last week.
They have very few AB12 youth.
Santa Cruz
 Hiring social workers soon
 They are now contracting out for visitation with Parent Center
 They are working with Parent Center to hire more supervisors to cover visits.
 Combining ER and DI beginning September 1st.
d. Sonoma
 They have hired BAA’s Cyndia Cole as a new supervisor.
 There will be one more supervisor position open soon, along with two other management
positions.
 Currently adapting to new learning management system: Training Partner
 Changing up training assessment, asking what are organizational issues and what is training’s
role in that.
 Just rolled out a pilot mentoring program.
 In the process of planning After 18 Summit in partnership with the community. So far there are
30 community based organizations participating along with about 100 attendees.
e. Monterey
 Just hired four new social workers and an intern
 Will be conducting interviews on July 6th for a new supervisor.




f.
Emily Nichols joins the ER side as a new program manager.
SOS training received a great reception.
AB12, most youth have chosen to stay in.
Engaging Youth After 18 training was very successful
CalSWEC
 IVE program will be hosting a symposium for staff development people and possibly some
supervisors.
 New website is much more user friendly.
g. Santa Clara
 Starting SIP work groups.
 New director for agency, Bruce Wagstaff, will be starting sometime early July.
 Currently have 20+ open positions in CW.
 Currently scheduled for CAPP and SOS trainings.
 They have a full AB12 unit

Providing a two day training on reflective practice for supervisors, including one day for staff.
h. San Francisco
 Preparing for 12 new interns in the fall, re-tooling entire intern program.
 Huge focus on SOP and FTM.
 Erika has done a great job with implementation science.
 Moving forward with fostering connections and rolling out some additional training around racial
sobriety.
 Focus on ER trauma.
 There has been an increase in morale around foster parents because of all the positive things
PPC has accomplished.
i.
Contra Costa
 Still working on layoff list.
 Four supervisors have retired.
 Piloting the use of iPads among staff.
j.
Alameda
 LBGTQ training was very well received and implementation of recommendation is happening.
 Going from program to program mentoring and coaching.
 Hired Michael Sanders for engagement with youth.
k.
Solano
 In the process of training three units on SOP, currently in the second phase.
 Just completed PQCR.
 There is a heavy focus on permanency.
l.
San Benito
 There is a focus on SOP, just did an overview training followed by a great discussion.
 Doing coaching, starting with early adopters.
m. Napa



Working with BAA on adoptions mentoring.
Focus on SOP training and coaching and mentoring.
Beginning in August, all adoptions will be in house.
11:50am – 12:00pm
Closing
Summary of Action Items
a. Mary to send safety and risk assessment forms to Judith who will distribute.
b. Renee and Maggie to present PPC at next meeting, including an article for the newsletter.
Calendaring of future meetings/adjournment
 NEXT TAB DATE: September 21, 2012