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Good News from CSC
August 2016
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Investing in People Across the Lifespan
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Action Camp
A group of homeless service providers and CSC planning personnel from within the Tulsa City & County Continuum of Care known as A  Way Home For Tulsa (AWH4T) gathered together in the CSC offices for some in-depth planning in a day long action camp on June 17th. Led by the Zero:2016 coaches from Community Solutions, Aly Ainscough and Mark Johnston, the 16 stalwarts rolled up their collective sleeves and challenged themselves to improve the processes recently created to build and refine the development of their By-name List (BNL) of homeless veterans and chronically homeless in the Tulsa area. The technical assistance provided by the Community Solutions facilitators led the group through a wide-ranging discussion of the features, benefits and aspects of a "gold standard" BNL protocol as successfully being used by other Continuums across the country. By keeping track of individuals in need of housing assistance by their names and tracking them once they are housed, cities like Tulsa hope to improve the delivery of their services with the shortest possible delay for those so badly in need of housing help.
Also in attendance were the team leaders from AWH4T's Fresh Start group, a body of front-line service providers that meet regularly to  share updates, swap insights and, generally, engage in the kind of effective case conferencing effort that identifies the most vulnerable among the homeless and then prioritizes them for permanent housing. Since AWH4T's enrollment in the Zero:2016 campaign, an initiative geared toward making homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring, Tulsa's agencies that work collaboratively to combat homelessness have successfully leveraged both federal and philanthropic resources to house nearly 400 veterans and over 117 chronic (or the hardest to house and long-term) homeless. With results like these and efforts of the sort displayed in its action camps and countless weekly meetings, AWH4T hopes to continue to make dramatic inroads toward ending homelessness in Tulsa for those struggling with housing issues.
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She's Cool
Cynthia Taffner has coordinated the Tulsa Weather Coalition this  summer arranging for nearly 60 low-income and frail Tulsa residents to be loaned air conditioners. She is seen here with five air conditioners recently provided to the program by a long time donor. The Tulsa Weather Coalition began in 1980 following the death of many Tulsans from heat related illnesses. Heat is Oklahoma's most life threatening weather event! Heat Alerts issued by EMSA and Heat Advisories issued by the National Weather Service in Tulsa are also part of coordinated efforts to save lives and reduce related hospitalizations.
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Kudos Melanie
Melanie Poulter was elected Chair of the national Census Information Center (CIC) Steering Committee
in July in Raleigh, North Carolina.  She has served on the CIC Steering Committee since 2012, serving as Vice-Chair since 2014. As Chair, Melanie will work closely with Census Bureau staff to lead the CIC program in its mission to provide access to and disseminate Census Bureau and related data to underserved populations to help diverse communities achieve their goals. CIC program goals for 2016 and 2017 include providing CICs with adequate opportunities for training to meet core competency expectations, and developing plans for assisting the Census Bureau with 2020 Decennial Census promotion and operations.
The Community Service Council has been a Census Information Center (CIC) since 2006. Operating as the Census Information Center of Eastern Oklahoma, the CIC program is a partnership between the U.S. Census Bureau and 52 select non-profit national and community-based organizations including national non-governmental organizations, minority colleges and universities, research groups and think tanks, minority chambers of commerce, civil rights and social justice organizations, organizations serving children and rural populations, and one Tribal Government The goal of the CIC Program is to provide local access, education, and technical assistance on census data for planning and decision-making by underserved communities.
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A Resource for Help
Child Care Resource Center
was awarded $165,000 for a two-year project from Child Care Aware® of America, Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies as Resilience Hubs. Two other projects were  funded, Child Care Aware of Kansas, Child Care Aware of Minnesota. The goal of this project is to increase the capacity of child care resource and referral agencies (CCR&Rs) to serve as resilience hubs in their communities in the event of emergencies or natural disasters. CCRC's proposal included three goals: (1) Increase preparedness awareness, training opportunities, and resources for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies in Oklahoma and surrounding states (2) Increase preparedness awareness, training, technical assistance and resources for early care and learning providers in the Tulsa Metropolitan Area and (3) Strengthen relationships with the community preparedness organizations throughout Oklahoma. CCRC will provide train the trainer opportunities to other Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies across Oklahoma and surrounding states utilize social media platforms to maximize the number of people reached. An intensive training and technical assistance will be offered to early care and learning programs in the Tulsa Metropolitan Area based on a model developed by Joyce Reynolds, RN, Child Care Health Consultant, which provides supports to early care and learning programs to help them meet the disaster preparedness licensing standards adopted on January 1, 2016. Joyce has provided individual support to 17 different programs, helping them develop appropriate emergency maps and forms. The individual assistance culminates with observing a fire drill and writing recommendations for improving the drills. Joyce found that the programs typically were not practicing fire drills with infants and toddlers and identified many equipment needed to complete the drills safely.
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Stop By Any Time
On Monday June 27, 2016, the COURTS Programs opened their doors for Tulsa commissioners, planners, judges and all other  community partners from 4-6pm. All staff members made their favorite specialty dessert, appetizer or snack and had it set up in his or her office. The fare included delicious dips, fruits and veggies and a wide variety of desserts. Guests were invited to travel from office to office, learning about each staff member and their role in the COURTS programs. Many great connections were made that day and most guests had not been to the offsite branch of CSC, which allowed the COURTS programs to introduce the newly-decorated office to the community. "We want our community partners to feel welcome at our office," Tammy Westcott, Program Director, said, "this open house was an invitation to come by any time."
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Global CSC
Karen Smith had the wonderful opportunity to represent Child Care Resource Center
, Community Service Council and Tulsa Global  Alliance on a Legislative Fellows Outbound Exchange to Pakistan for two weeks in July. The purpose was a Legislative Fellows cultural exchange. Five others participated in this exchange, 2 from Ohio, 1 from Alabama, 1 from Nevada and 1 from the host organization in Washington, DC, World Learning. The team visited the cities of Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore and had opportunities to visit local and national government officials, the Parliament, local non-profit organizations, Universities, and business incubators. The Legislative Fellows hosted in the United States planned the activities and provided updates on the outcomes from their time with us. In addition, Karen presented information about Tulsa's early childhood systems at the Sindh Education Foundation and at a conference at Lahore Women's University.
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he Community Service Council's mission is to provide leadership for community-based planning and mobilization of resources to best meet health and human service needs.
The Community Service Council (CSC) provides leadership for planning and mobilizing efforts that improve the lives of thousands of Oklahomans each day. Since 1941 we have been bringing people together to research, plan, coordinate and mobilize action, and assess progress towards addressing some of our most critical social service, health, education and civic challenges. CSC also facilitates early access to help through varied information services.
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| Links to non-Federal and Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by the Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The Community Service Council is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links. |
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