2002 Outstanding Award Winners

Child Occupant Restraint Education (CORE) Program
Mecklenburg County

Nationally and locally, injuries for children involved in motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death. In Mecklenburg County, more than 90 percent of all car seats are misused. The misused car seats place children at a higher risk of injury or death in the event of a crash. Mecklenburg is attempting to combat this problem by educating the parents. Parents either enroll in a two-hour parent education class or attend a car seat check-up event. Nationally certified child passenger safety technicians teach the class. Knowledge is measured through pre- and post-tests.

The “CORE” Program uses parent classes as well as car seat inspection clinics to educate parents. Through a partnership with State Farm Insurance, the program offers incentives for a return visit for parents. The return visits are what set this program apart. By utilizing a second interaction with parents, the program can measure the level of knowledge the parents gained during their first interaction through a written test as well as observe the parent’s ability to recreate the proper installation of their child’s car seat.

The “CORE” Program feels that simply installing a child seat for a parent is not enough. Even involving the parent in an installation is not sufficient. They strive to ensure that the parent has gained the necessary knowledge to secure their child properly on each and every ride. The program utilizes multiple interventions to test parental knowledge and skills. By interacting with the parents on several occasions, they reinforce initial education efforts as well as correct any errors.

For more information on this program, contact Paige Sheehan, Public Relations Manager, at (704) 943-6160.

Craven County Asthma Coalition: Breathing Should Be Easy
Craven County

Asthma is a growing epidemic that requires a multi-faceted approach to control. Craven County began a multi-disciplinary approach in July 1999 and formalized the Craven County Asthma Coalition in January 2001.

The primary objective of the Craven County Asthma Coalition is asthma self-management through proper medication, removal or reduction of environmental triggers and education of the patient, family and community. Every asthmatic must know what to do to prevent a full-blown asthma attack. The child, parent, school staff and child-care provider need to know that an asthma attack may be averted by proper medication in accordance with the child’s personal asthma action plan.

The Craven County Asthma Coalition understands that education is vital for asthma control. They have provided area pediatricians with a “Parent Packet” of information, products and environmental interventions. The packet includes an Asthma Action Plan, Peak Flow Diary and an Environmental Referral Form.

Families referred to the Environmental Referral Program attend a class to learn asthma management techniques. Those attending the class are offered a home assessment and environmental interventions. The environmental interventions can include, on an as-needed basis, a vacuum cleaner and heating system filters with allergen filtration, allergen barrier mattress and pillow covers, roach bait, a room air cleaner with HEPA filtration, a dehumidifier and minor home repairs.

The coalition members make the program unique. They have parents, private and public health-care providers, schools, daycare providers, environmental health specialists, health educators, medical equipment suppliers and others all bringing their individual talents to address asthma control.

Although Craven County allows various staff the time to work on Pediatric Asthma, all funding is provided through grants. They received nearly $42,000 last fiscal year in grants from three agencies for coalition development, education and environmental interventions.

For more information on this program, contact Debra Yarbrough, Environmental Health Program Specialist, at (252) 636-4963, ext. 3738.

Use of Television
Caldwell County

In an effort to keep the public as well informed as possible, the Caldwell County commissioners decided in 1998 to introduce television coverage of county government activities. The effort began shortly after the renovation of the commissioners’ meeting room at the County Office Building in Lenoir.

They’ve provided access to two channels – a cable channel, operated by the community college, and a commercial UHF channel in Lenoir. They also installed equipment to make it possible to televise the Commission and Planning Board meetings live, and tape the meetings for delayed broadcast later in the week.

The county produces two hours of new programming each week under the “Caldwell County Today” label. Part of the program involves various county government agencies and boards, such as DSS, the Health Department activities and rabies clinics sponsored by Animal Control.

Caldwell County is doing much more with television and radio than other local governments. They are not dependent on brief clips on commercial television stations to tell their story. The primary difficulty they had to overcome was the availability of money, due to constant budget crisis. However, they have phased in their equipment purchases over three years and their latest project – about $15,000 worth of equipment – was financed with money provided by Charter Cable as part of its franchise agreement.

They have triumphed over other potential shortfalls such as personnel. Human Resources Director David Hill serves as the host for “Caldwell County Today,” and Public Information Officer Bill Kincaid does the taping and editing work, and writes scripts for some of the programs.

For more information on this program, contact Bill Kincaid, Public Information Officer, at (828) 757-1448.

Twelve Most Wanted Non-Supporting Parents Poster
Catawba County

Child Support Agents face the reality that some parents will do everything possible to attempt to evade child support payments. In Catawba County, agents are responsible for more than 500 cases. Collection rates reveal that 65 percent of the caseload is actively cooperating with the agents. The remaining 35 percent include parents who have refused to respond to the agents and have evaded all attempts to be brought back before the court and back in compliance with the existing child support court order.

They are in the community but are able to hide from deputies to avoid service of court orders. These are parents who have no earned income appearing under their social security numbers, no registered cars, and cannot be found in any of the local, state or federal databases that are typically used to locate non-supporting parents.

The “12 Most Wanted Non-Supporting Parents” campaign was crafted to make the community aware of this serious problem. The project began with each agent submitting the name and information regarding a non-supporting parent. Child Support Supervisor Patricia Holcombe established requirements for the selected parents on the poster. The most important requirement was the written consent from the custodial parent agreeing to the placement of their case information on the poster.

The posters were a catalyst for a broad community-wide public awareness campaign. One of the hopes of the effort was to initiate public discussion and support of the Child Support Program. Child Support can only be successful if all citizens of the community truly support the concept that parents should and must support their children.

The posters generated numerous articles in local newspapers, and the press releases generated discussion on local news channels. Support for the project came from all areas of the community. Emergency Medical Services, Landlords and former neighbors have all cooperated.

For more information on this program, contact Patricia Holcombe, Child Support Supervisor, at (828) 695-5634.

Emergency Medical First Response Incentive Program
Catawba County

In 2000-2001, the Catawba County Board of Commissioners established an aggressive goal of four-minute responses for all emergencies medical calls received in the county. Recent expansion by the Board of Ambulance service had accomplished a goal of eight-minute responses with full-time county paramedics and ambulance transport, but volunteer “first responders” were often arriving after the ambulance crew.

Historically, volunteer rescue squads provided this service in Catawba County. However, with increasing demands for work and family, the volunteer squads had reached a point where they were able to respond to only half the calls received, and their average response time hovered around nine minutes. To accomplish the board’s goal, an innovative pilot project was developed and implemented with two rescue squads. In exchange for additional funding – $25 per day, $40 per call responded to, the squads committed to respond with an EMT-D certified person on 90 percent of calls and maintain a response time of six minutes.

After a three-month trial period, response time dropped from over nine minutes to just under six minutes, and more than 90 percent of calls were being responded to by rescue squad members certified to the EMT-D level. Statistics point to the wonderful success of the project, and the anecdotal evidence also indicates that lives were saved and a high level of medical treatment was provided.

When Catawba initially entertained the idea of aggressive medical first response, no other counties in North Carolina had embarked on such an aggressive partnership between volunteers and professional EMS. This program is unique in that it treats the emergency medical first responders as an integrated part of the overall service level and also seeks to compensate volunteers for the time they dedicate to responding to emergency calls.

For more information on this program, contact Mick Berry, Assistant County Manager, at (828) 465-8262.

Child Development-Community Policing Partners
Mecklenburg County

Mecklenburg County’s “Child Development-Community Policing Partners” program, created in 1996, is a collaboration between Area Mental Health (AMH), Department of Social Services (DSS) and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD). The program, a replication of a national model established in 1991 in Connecticut, serves children exposed to violence and at risk of abuse and neglect.

The local program began service in one of 12 police districts and has expanded to four over the last six years. The primary goals include early identification and intervention for children and families exposed to violence, based on 24/7 service provision, capacity-building among police officers to address the needs of children who have been abused, neglected and exposed to violence. They also plan to establish working relationships among police officers, mental health clinicians and social workers involved with at-risk children and families, which result in improved service coordination.

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has recognized the CD-CP as a best practice model and has designated Yale as the National Center for Children Exposed to violence (NCCEV). The Charlotte CD-CP is the only program in the state that follows the national model created at the Yale Child Study Center, and local staff are on the faculty of NCCEV.

The clinic provides trauma response to children who are victims of violence 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are 13 CD-CP mental health-police partnerships nationally, though the Charlotte program is unique in two ways. The partners are multiple government agencies, rather than institutions, and DSS has been included as a partner to address issues of child abuse and neglect.

For more information on this program, contact Sarah Greene, Program Coordinator, at (704) 336-2944.

Systems to Enhance Nutrition Services for the Elderly (SENSE)
Mecklenburg County

The “Systems to Enhance Nutrition Services for the Elderly” (SENSE) program began in October 2001. The demonstration project combines staff from the Department of Social Services in Mecklenburg County and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The three major components of the “SENSE” program are expanding home-delivered meal programs to include specialized meals based on health and nutrition needs, integrating an inter-disciplinary team to better meet the needs of seniors, and determining the specific nutrition interventions needed to meet the needs of older adults in Mecklenburg County.

Prior to “SENSE” no senior citizen dietary program had involved the services of a registered dietitian for nutrition intervention with homebound clients on such a basis. Mecklenburg County was able to transition 19 percent of its clients from homebound settings to congregate meal programs by combining the efforts of social workers, home aides and registered dietitians. An additional 14 percent of “SENSE” participants no longer qualify for homebound meals and are not attending a congregate site.

Social workers and in-home aides have observed improvements in weights, blood pressures and the reduction in the number of required medications for some clients.

For more information on this program, contact Dr. Carol Baker, Services for Adults Director, at (704) 336-3258.

Community Social Work
Mecklenburg County

The “Community Social Work” (CSW) program seeks to enhance community development by building upon assets, providing minimally invasive intervention and assisting with the implementation of holistic initiatives that foster community independence.

Making less informed residents aware of community resources and systems is one way of working toward their goal.

The program, which is currently staffed by numerous professional social workers, began in 1989 with one Department of Social Services (DSS) social worker out-stationed in a fragile urban housing complex.

The program does not receive state or federal funding and relies completely on county dollars to fund the staff’s salaries, benefits, materials and training budget. There are no county funds that go directly toward “CSW” community projects or programs. Instead, the Community Social Workers collaborate with like-minded community stakeholders when funding is required to implement programming.

“CSW” is the only community-based, macro-level social work program sponsored by a county DSS agency in North Carolina. The depth of the “CSW” program is great, in that it has proven results that positively affect life quality within its given community parameters by addressing three tenets of Mecklenburg County’s Balanced Scorecard approach – social, education and economic opportunity, effective and efficient government and community health and safety.

For more information on this program, contact Megan Palmer, Community Social Work Supervisor at (704) 336-7841.

Integrated Collaborative Assistance Network (ICAN)
Caldwell County

In 1998 the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners requested that the county’s primary providers of education, health and human services increase the level of collaboration among the different county departments and service organizations.

The group became the Integrated Human Service Delivery Committee (IHSDC). The committee eventually identified gaps and overlaps in service and also determined any barriers that existed while identifying a software system that could unite the entities.  The goal of the project became to improve the experience of families seeking health and human services and provide shared data to the core partners to assist in the integration and coordination of services they provide.

In May 2002 the IHSDC became the Caldwell County Integrated Collaborative Assistance Network (ICAN). The Network consists of five partners – Caldwell County Government Department of Social Services, Health Department, Blue Ridge Community Action, Foothills Area Programs and Communities In Schools/Smart Start of Caldwell County.

In July 2002 the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners negotiated with software developer Client Referral Network to develop a business model that would allow host counties or other entities with available server capacity to become Application Service Providers (ASP). Community Development Specialists, Inc. was formed in September 2002 to partner with Caldwell County to implement a successful grant application from the Rural Internet Access Authority to provide this data sharing technology to a minimum of seven western North Carolina counties.

The “ICAN” program represents the development of a public/private partnership between Caldwell County and Community Development Specialists, Inc. The collaboration allows the project to be affordably replicated in other counties while providing income to sustain the “ICAN” project locally. It also allows participating agencies and organizations to coordinate case management and wrap individuals and families in the service they need.

For more information on this program, contact David Hill, Human Resources Director at (828) 757-1325.

Be Nice University
Randolph County

“Be Nice University” program is a two-part program in good customer service. The program is designed specifically for county government services. The program allows leadership to recognize the kind of service that is exceptional while outlining behavior that is unacceptable.

Department heads wrote guidelines and policies for good customer service and made it clear how poor service would be corrected. Department leaders then examined areas within their departments that were target areas for improvement. They also devised a system for measuring good customer service in order to monitor problems or reward good actions. The Health Department loaned an employee with good customer service skills and good communication skills to provide training in each department.

The training programs are specific to the service area when possible and are fun and interactive. All employees have or will be expected to participate.

The underlying belief is that treating customers as the employee would like to be treated makes the experience more pleasant for all.

The project made excellent use of available resources. Department heads developed the policies and procedures internally. This program required no funds.

For more information on this program, contact MiMi Cooper, Health Director, at (336) 318-6217.

Buncombe County Landfill Bioreactor Project
Bumcombe County

The “Buncombe County Landfill Bioreactor” program is a highly innovative approach to solid waste management that promises to save the county $20 million and add 12 years to the landfill’s life by recirculating leachate, the water that trickles through the landfill waste, while using an alternative liner. In 2000, it became one of two bioreactor programs that used alternative liners to be designated as an Excellence in Leadership Program (Project XL) by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is considered to be a worldwide model.

The alternative geosynthetic clay liner, the first of its kind to be used in North Carolina, was installed in 1998 because of the lack of onsite clay. It saved the county $980,000 and offers 50 percent more protection to the underlying aquifer than the traditional clay liner.

The bioreactor system can collect the leachate from the collection pool and recirculate it through the waste. This accelerates waste decomposition and increases the landfill’s waste capacity. The pipe system flow reverses itself to collect the methane gas created during the decomposition process, which allows for a more predictable flow of landfill gas that is used for energy recovery and decreases gas emissions into the atmosphere.

In addition to conventional landfill construction cost, the bioreactor budget includes a landfill gas flare and recovery station at $500,000, a pipeline for the life of the project at $750,000, a monitoring program set-up cost of $100,000, an annual monitoring cost of $10,000, and an engineering cost for the life of the project of approximately $750,000. The project is self-sustaining because it largely operates off landfill tipping fees.

For more information on this program, contact Jon Creighton, Assistant County Manager, at (828) 250-4001.

Rain Barrel Sale
Guilford County

Guilford County is a county without a replenishing water source. There are three reservoirs – Lake Higgins, Lake Brandt and Lake Townsend – that provide 36 million gallons of water. North Carolina has been battling a drought since 1998, and the city’s water customers were using the capacity of water supply.

Water became scarce in the fall of 2001. The city was operating under a deficit, and it became necessary to purchase piped water from outside the county. Residents were disturbed by the lack of rainfall and nervous about losing landscape investments. In recent years, the Extension Service worked with the City of Greensboro to conserve water. Both groups decided to introduce rain barrels and promote community involvement.

The city purchased 300 barrels to initiate the process. Selling the barrels proved to be no problem. The city sold all 300 barrels in two hours and 200 more signed up to get barrels during the next delivery. A Website was also established for the placement of orders.

They eventually bought and sold over 1500 barrels, while establishing a permanent fixture that will continue to help with water conservation.

For more information on this program, contact Karen McNeill, Agricultural Extension Agent, at (336) 375-5876.