 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Problem solvers Association salutes nine winners of Outstanding County Program Awards for 2005 Also see: Nine programs from almost 60 nominations were selected in April to receive 2005 Outstanding County Program Awards. The presentations were made to the winning counties during boards of county commissioners meetings in May. “The purpose of this awards program is to highlight some of the outstanding work that is going on in North Carolina counties,” said NCACC Executive Director David F. Thompson. “As the demands being placed on county governments become more complex, counties are forced to find new solutions to old problems. This awards program is a way to bring attention to excellent solutions to problems that other counties might want to emulate.” The awards program was started in 1991 by the NCACC Board of Directors. The intent of the awards program is to recognize and share information with other counties about programs that involve a uniquely innovative process, solution or idea to address a county or multi-jurisdictional issue and/or to prevent a future problem from developing. Three winning entrants were selected in each of three categories – General Government, Public Education and Human Services. HUMAN SERVICES CATEGORY Economic Literacy Class
Over the past several years, a restructuring of Caldwell County’s economy caused the unemployment rate in the county to increase more than 200 percent. In September 2000, 40 percent of the employed population in Caldwell County was engaged in manufacturing, with furniture manufacturing the primary employer. An economic downturn caused the county’s unemployment rate to go from 2.4 percent in 2000 to 8.9 percent in 2002. On Oct. 26, 2000, a task force of community leaders met to begin developing Caldwell County’s Electing County Work First Block Grant plan for July 2001 through June 2003. “Electing County” plans allow counties greater flexibility in administering Work First Family Assistance, a federal program aimed at providing assistance to families while they seek and maintain employment and self-sufficiency. Task force members advocated creating a new Department of Social Services position that would, in part, lead an “Economic Literacy” class for Work First recipients. The class is open to Work First recipients as well as anyone the agency serves with income at or below 200 percent of the Poverty Income Level. Social workers may sign up any of their clients to take the class. The first Economic Literacy class was taught Jan. 4, 2002. From 2002 through late 2005, the three-hour course was held from 6 – 9 p.m. on Monday nights and from 9 a.m. – noon on Friday mornings at the agency. From that first class through November 2005, 2,380 individuals were referred to the class, and 969 successfully completed the course. For more information, contact Andrew Beal, Caldwell County special projects/public information coordinator, at (828) 426-8254. Catawba Tax Link During the 2003 tax year, more than 2,700 Catawba County families who were eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) failed to file for it. With many Catawba County families facing major financial difficulties as a result of plant shutdowns and layoffs, Catawba County Social Services staff wanted to make sure that these citizens in particular were not paying too much in income taxes or fees to file their taxes. Staff learned that many low-income citizens paid tax preparers hundreds of dollars each year to file their tax forms. Others didn’t know about the EITC or didn’t understand their potential eligibility for it, and still others paid significant fees just to get a rapid refund when they filed their taxes. After consulting with the IRS, a handful of DSS staff committed to establishing a VITA (Volunteers in Tax Assistance) site to provide free tax assistance for low-income families. The first planning session was held in late October 2004. The VITA site needed to be up and running by Jan. 25, 2005, but the county had no money to support the project, nor did the staff members have the necessary professional expertise. The group decided to enlist business staff/students from Catawba Valley Community College and Lenoir-Rhyne College’s Phi Beta Lambda to create a volunteer tax team. In its first year, the Catawba Tax Link provided free tax assistance to 134 low-income families and individuals. Twenty-eight members of the partnership invested 762 hours in the effort, generating tax refunds of $191,693 for local families, including more than $65,000 in Earned Income Tax Credits. This service was offered to the entire community, not just DSS clients. The team of volunteers included several bilingual persons who were available to translate when needed, and bilingual signs were posted around the county advertising the free service. Catawba Valley Community College allowed the volunteers to use the Job Link Center during nights and weekends, when the center was normally closed. For more information, contact Jo Sloan, program manager for Catawba County Social Services, at (828) 695-5667. Prescription Assistance Program
Columbus County’s Prescription Assistance Program represents the best of both worlds – a program that provides needed assistance to citizens at no or little cost to the citizens or government. The CCPAP was begun in July 2003 and was initially funded through a three-year expansion grant from the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission. In addition, two grants totaling $25,000 were received from BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina. The CCPAP works with patients, doctors, pharmacists, families and caregivers to improve the health of patients by providing information, education, and professional care and assistance. Many of the patients the program serves cannot afford their medications. The CCPAP helps patients identify prescription drug coverage options from private and public programs and helps the patients apply for free, discounted or low-cost drugs through various prescription assistance programs. The program is available to all qualified citizens in the county, and the county does not charge for the service. The program has saved Columbus County residents more than $1.6 million in prescription costs since its inception. For more information, please contact Serena Sellers, Columbus County prescription coordinator, at (910) 640-6602. PUBLIC EDUCATION CATEGORY Operation Evacuation Registration The hurricanes that wreaked havoc along the southeast coast in 2005 prompted officials in Pasquotank and Camden counties to assess their region’s ability to handle an emergency that required a mass evacuation of citizens. As a result, the Pasquotank-Camden Emergency Management Department came up with Operation Evacuation Registration. The program’s purpose was to identify which citizens might need special assistance in the event that an evacuation was ordered. Additionally, the program also solicited citizens with special skills, such as foreign language interpreters, who were willing to volunteer their services in the event of an emergency. All of this information is then stored in a database. Many outside organizations contributed to the success of the program, called “Be Ready – It’s Everyone’s Responsibility.” The offices of Joint United States Air Force JRROTC (NC-937) and USAFA Civil Air Patrol (NC-805) helped disseminate information to citizens about the program. Volunteers from those organizations manned an information booth at a local shopping mall and distributed information to the citizens. In addition, public service announcements were prepared for local media, and local newspapers wrote articles highlighting the effort. Numerous other civic and community groups also helped spread the word or volunteered their organizations to assist during an emergency. As a result of their efforts, emergency management officials in Pasquotank and Camden counties are much better prepared if a large evacuation is ordered in the event of a natural or manmade disaster. For more information, contact Christy Saunders, Pasquotank-Camden County emergency management coordinator, at (252) 335-4444. Feed the Bin
The “FEED THE BIN” program is an innovative approach to educating school-age children about the importance of recycling. FEED THE BIN teaches children in the Wake County Public School System to reduce, reuse and recycle paper, newspaper, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and Styrofoam. The program offers a hands-on tool for teaching students about the environment, personal responsibility and environmental stewardship. Students, rather than custodial staff, are responsible for moving the material through the school. This provides the students with a sense of program ownership. Wake County implemented the FEED THE BIN school recycling and environmental education program at 58 schools in the 2004-05 school year. About 25 schools are to be phased in per semester, with all Wake County public schools participating in FEED THE BIN by 2007. During the 2004-05 school year, FEED THE BIN schools recycled 330,576 pounds of paper (the equivalent to the weight of 11 school buses), 226,920 pounds of newspaper (seven and a half school buses), and 94,000 pounds of aluminum cans and plastic bottles (three school buses). Wake County Solid Waste Management hired a full-time environmental educator to conduct student recycling presentations at each school and develop lesson plans based on solid waste topics. During the 2004-05 school year, staff gave 93 presentations to 16,833 students and faculty. For more information on the FEED THE BIN program, please contact James S. Reynolds, director of Solid Waste Management, at (919) 856-5520. Durham Faith Web What do you get when you combine local government professionals devoted to their community with a faith community willing to assist those in need? The Durham Faith Web attempted to answer that question, and the efforts earned the county a 2005 Outstanding County Program Award. The “Durham Faith Web” program is a volunteer program designed to help connect citizens with unmet needs with the faith community. The purpose of the Durham Faith Web is to enable members of the faith community to “touch” one family at a time by providing an online tool to link concrete resources and support to children and families who have unmet needs. It also gives front-line workers the opportunity to link informal resources (Faith Partners) to child and family teams when the family requests spiritual, emotional or other resources from community faith partners. The Durham Faith Web was developed through the work of Durham’s Community Collaborative, a community-wide group of private providers, public human service agencies and citizens who work together to help children and families succeed. The Community Collaborative is one of the important parts of Durham’s System of Care, which is a framework for organizing and coordinating services and resources into a comprehensive and interconnected network. The Faith Web is a volunteer operation. Human services agency professionals and Durham citizens who are interested in the System of Care and members of the Faith Community volunteer their time and expertise to make the Durham Faith Web a success. For more information, contact Martha Kaufman, system of care development specialist, at (919) 812-5345. GENERAL GOVERNMENT CATEGORY Primary Care Center for Employees and Dependents Moore County was faced with a dilemma – find a way to combat soaring health insurance premiums without cutting benefits for employees. As a result, Steve Wyatt – then county manager – proposed creating an on-site primary care center for employees and dependents. Since opening in March 2005, the center has provided basic primary care for employees and dependents enrolled in the county’s health plan. The center treats employees’ workers’ compensation claims, performs drug testing and does pre-employment assessments of new hires. Employees and their dependents can get complete physicals, including all blood work, EKG tests, pap smears, vision and hearing tests and PSA exams. The county contracts with a local provider to staff the facility. During the first six months of operation, the primary care center produced a savings of more than $100,000, and the county realized a 17.45 percent decrease per employee in medical claims costs. For more information on the Moore County Primary Care Center for Employees and Dependents, contact Joyce McGehee, Moore County personnel director, at (910) 947-6362. Performance Contracting Project The Pitt County Performance Contracting Project was born out of necessity to upgrade the heating and cooling systems serving the Pitt County Public Health and Mental Health Center. The system was very inefficient, causing the building to experience hot and cold areas and high humidity in the warm months. In addition, the building was either slow to warm up or cool down after the temperatures were set back at night and on the weekends. The estimated cost of renovation was so high that the project was not going to get funded, and trying to accomplish the work in stages over several years was not an option due to the nature of the work. With limited funds available, Pitt County decided to see if the project could pay for itself through the savings in energy costs that would occur if the building’s heating and air conditioning system was improved. The county solicited proposals to perform an energy audit of county buildings, and the contract was awarded to SIEMENS Building Technologies, Inc. The energy audit verified the feasibility of the project. As a result, the design phase began, third-party financing proposals were received, contract documents were prepared and signed, and approvals were obtained from the required agencies, including the North Carolina Local Government Commission as required by statute. Construction began in August 2005. In addition, the indoor air quality of the affected building will provide a more comfortable work environment. The project is valued at approximately $2.7 million and construction was expected to take six months. The guaranteed savings backed by a letter of credit is $308,000 per year. The savings will be used to pay off the loan within 12 years. For more information, contact Pitt County Deputy County Manager/Public Services Phil Dickerson at (252) 902-3170. Thinking Outside the Box for Strategic Technology Funding In recent years, Randolph County has had so many capital needs related to its school system that the county has neared the limit of its borrowing capacity. As a result, the county has been unable to fund many of the internal capital needs relating to information technology (IT). In 2003, the county hired a consultant from the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to conduct a comprehensive countywide IT needs assessment. The year-long study identified more than $7 million of IT needs representing more than 50 different projects. After the study was completed, the county had to decide how to fund the projects. The county formed a Technology Policy Team, made up of all department heads, to decide technology policies, guidelines and standards and to prioritize the needs identified by the survey. The IT staff worked up a recommended list of viable projects for the calendar year 2005. The Technology Policy Team approved the list and sent it to the Board of Commissioners. The Board of Commissioners received the request in January, immediately after the annual audit report was given. The report recommended that commissioners fund the projects by reinvesting a portion of every dollar gained in fund balance from the previous year. This process is repeated each year. By waiting until January to approve the recommendations, commissioners have a better understanding of the county’s financial health and how much money will be available. This funding method encourages department heads to improve efficiency and performance so that there will be funds available for the needed IT projects. For more information, contact Randolph County IT Director Annette Crotts at (336) 318-6320 or alcrotts@co.randolph.nc.us. |
