Like a professional athlete calling it a career at the top of their game, Pinellas County Schools (PCS) Superintendent Dr. Michael A. Grego announced he is stepping down from his role after 10 years of leading the district.

Grego announced Thursday that after serving 42 years in Florida public education, and the last 10 as Pinellas County’s superintendent, the 2021-22 school year would be his last. His retirement officially begins on July 1.

Grego told the Catalyst that in light of the district’s recent successes, and with a clear path to build on that momentum moving forward, he felt the time was right for the sun to set on a long and fulfilling career.

“I just think it’s a good time where things are clicking, and every aspect of our school district is moving in a positive direction,” said Grego. “What better time to hand off the baton to the next person.”

Academically, Grego said PCS is second to none. He meant that literally, as PCS announced Wednesday that its graduation rate set a new record. The county’s graduation rate is also the highest among Florida’s 10 largest districts and tops every district in the Tampa Bay region.

Grego found it difficult to name his proudest achievement. He had several options.

During Grego’s tenure, the graduation rate improved from 70% to 92%. The graduation rate amongst the county’s Black students rose from just 56% to 86.3%, and the Hispanic graduation rate improved from 63% to 92%.

When Grego took the helm, the graduation rate for non-English speaking students was just 40%. Today it is just under 84%.

Grego also noted that enrollment in Advanced Placement courses jumped 79% over the last 10 years.

“Which is an unbelievable statistic,” said Grego. “We have over 13,000 students engaged in some level of college-level courses.”

Grego said PCS has also eliminated over 20 D and F-rated schools, and there is no longer a school with an F grade in the district.

“We came in, and we collectively teamed to really try and hit every single factor in our school district,” he added.

Grego said modernizing the district’s facilities was another major focus during his tenure, and every school under his purview has undergone enhancements. PCS invested over $750 million updating its schools, he said – and for Clearwater and Largo High Schools and Pinellas Park Middle, modernization required building completely new facilities.

“We’re leaving things in great shape,” said Grego. “We’ve built so many systems and all of our divisions – our human resources and finances are in very good condition – it’s a very healthy district. We’ve hit every chord.”

While PCS has realized drastic improvements during hiss tenure, Grego also had to navigate the district through incredible challenges. He said that societal issues permeate public education, which was clear during the last two years of the pandemic. He said it was also evident with the Great Recession and the current affordable housing crisis.

Grego said societal challenges are ubiquitous in their impacts on public education, but education is also a stabilizing force that brings a sense of normalcy to the surrounding community.

“Our district’s done a great job to keep pushing forward, and nothing has fallen backward,” he said. “It’s the nature of educators – they are complete overachievers, and they do a remarkable job.”

Grego said he has no specific retirement plans yet and looks forward to his last six months with PCS. He said he wanted to give the district enough time to conduct a thorough and transparent search for his successor. Grego said he would work with the school board in any way possible to ensure the district never takes a step backward and noted the trust and strong relationship he built with the board over the years.

“I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what it takes to be an effective superintendent. But ultimately, it’s their decision.”

Grego said the one thing he has tried to impress upon students and faculty is to “dream big.” He said he tried to create a school system to foster those dreams and prepare every student for college, or more importantly, life. He said he is a firm believer that if you challenge students, they will rise to the task.

“If there’s a message, it’s centered around expectation and a belief in yourself that you can be and do anything you want to do. Just continue to work hard for it, and it will come your way.”

Read the full article at https://stpetecatalyst.com/pinellas-schools-superintendent-mike-grego-announces-retirement/

A Pinellas Park family got a big gift this Christmas, one they could share with their neighbors.

The Juvenile Welfare Board Mid-County Community Council and City of Pinellas Park teamed up to put on a parade in the Arias family’s honor. Every year the Council selects a family to adopt during the holidays. This year it was the Arias family, who stood by their son’s side as he fought cancer. 

Shortly after his first birthday, Rey Arias started getting sick. By the time he was 18 months old, they learned he had lymphoma. His mother, Kenia, had to quit her job to care for him and their family of six. 

“He’s doing well. Last year it was a different story, but this year he gets to stay home with us,” said Kenia. While Rey’s cancer is now in remission, the family lives with the uncertainty that it could come back as they struggle with piling debt.

But, this Christmas, they got some help. The Council helped Santa get them gifts and a tree to put them under. They topped it all off with a parade featuring the City of Pinellas Park Fire and Police Departments, City officials, and Santa Claus. Rey even got to take a ride around the block on the fire engine and wear his own hard hat. 

The celebration went through The Lodges at Pinellas Park. It’s an affordable apartment complex offering homes for lower-income families, free literacy tutoring, job training classes, and more. 

In addition to holiday gifts for the Arias family, JWB also gave away free books to all Lodges’ children who attended the parade.

To view the news story, visit https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/pinellas-park-parade-little-boy-in-remission/67-6141e31a-782a-40fd-ad31-981c3cbfa312

Fresh off a fiscal year during which St. Pete Free Clinic (SPFC) distributed a record 20.4 million pounds of food throughout Pinellas County to address rising food insecurity, the organization is poised to push through the holiday season and into a new year responding to ongoing increased demand for basic needs.

Over the last year, the cost of housing, groceries, healthcare, transportation and daycare have increased by double-digit percentage points, making the basics unaffordable for Pinellas County’s “asset limited-income constrained-employed,” or ALICE population (a coin termed by the United Way), a population that was already living paycheck to paycheck pre-Covid. Inflation coupled with wage stagnation, which widely persists even amid labor shortages, means that many individuals and families are facing impossible choices like paying their increased rent or putting food on the table.

To meet sharply increased and persistent community needs, SPFC has significantly stepped up its efforts to provide nutritious food for triple as many Pinellas County residents as it was pre-Covid, as well as has increased by more than a third its number of new patients being seen in the organization’s Health Center, which provides primary care, dental care and no-cost prescription medication for uninsured adults.

Just two years ago, SPFC, which also operates one of the county’s largest food banks, distributed 11.3 million pounds of food throughout St. Petersburg and surrounding areas. Now, distributing double as much food, thanks to increased funding from the Juvenile Welfare Board (JWB), SPFC leaders do not see a slowdown coming any time soon.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2021, hourly wages in the US increased by 3.6%. However, current rates of inflation gave the average worker a 2% pay cut. The reality is that nearly 50% of our neighbors in Pinellas County – our teachers, baristas, hospital support professionals, security guards, restaurant servers – work hard every day, sometimes holding more than one job, and still have to make tough choices each month, like whether to pay the utility bill or put gas in the car to get to work.

SPFC wants to be sure our neighbors don’t need to make those kinds of choices. We provide nutritious food, no-cost prescription drug support, healthcare and housing for those recovering from substance use, to help people fill gaps, stay healthy, and ease the stress of untenable circumstances.  

JWB CEO Beth Houghton shared, “Families were struggling before Covid, but the pandemic has created a tsunami of unprecedented need. Ensuring children have adequate and nourishing food is one of our top priorities. Without it, they cannot learn, grow, or thrive, and their physical and mental health suffers. The JWB Board understands this, and has supported increased investments to ensure no Pinellas child goes hungry.”

JWB provides funding for Pinellas nonprofits, including SPFC, who serve tens of thousands of children and their families annually. Over the past two years, JWB’s investments and collective efforts, through the Pinellas Childhood Hunger Initiative, have provided five million nourishing meals to children.

In addition to expansions in its distribution of nutritious food, prescription support and healthcare, because of an unexpected and sizable donation, SPFC is gearing up to deliver major relief to women in need of feminine hygiene products and families who need diapers. Considered “luxury items,” feminine hygiene products have become so unaffordable that women and girls often skip school or work because they do not have these products on hand and cannot afford to acquire them.

Further, the increased cost of diapers means that one in three families cannot access this basic need for their infants and toddlers. No diapers means no capability to drop children off at daycare, which means a parent skips work and skips getting paid.

It’s an impossible cycle. The cost of basics like feminine hygiene and diapers contribute to women not being able to join or re-join the workforce, yet if they’re not able to secure and maintain employment that pays them a living wage, they continue not to be able to afford these critical supports, let alone put groceries on the table or pay their rent.

With the support of generous donors, funders like the Juvenile Welfare Board, and other community partners, SPFC is prepared to steadily serve Pinellas County’s neighbors in need during the holiday season and beyond.

For more information about SPFC or to donate to our Give Hope campaign, please visit www.thespfc.org 

Read the full article at https://stpetecatalyst.com/community-voices-st-pete-free-clinic-provides-for-basic-needs/

Back in 2007, the Jacksonville region’s child welfare district had many of the same problems that now vex the foster care system in Pinellas and Pasco counties.

More than 2,100 children were living in group homes or with foster parents or relatives because investigators believed they weren’t safe at home. Case managers struggled to manage heavy caseloads and find beds for every child.

The high number of children living in out-of-home care also ate up the agency’s budget, leaving little to pay for the social services that could have kept families together.

Jacksonville’s lead agency, Family Support Services of North Florida, took action to solve those problems — and that could serve as a blueprint for when it takes over the troubled Pinellas and Pasco child welfare system in January.

The agency obtained $2 million in state and national grants to set up robust social services programs to help families in Duval and Nassau counties whose children were at risk of removal because of issues like substance abuse, domestic violence and extreme poverty.

By 2009, the number of children in out-of-home care there had plummeted to below 700 and today remains below 1,000.

Family Support Services will take over the $80 million annual contract to run foster care in Pinellas and Pasco on Jan. 1. Its leader believes that same model can work here, where more than 2,600 children are currently separated from their families in what is the biggest child welfare district in Florida.

“That is the hard place a lot of agencies find themselves in,” said president and CEO Jenn Petion about Pinellas’ and Pasco’s high number of children in care. “When we were able to cut the out-of-home care population in Duval by more than 50 percent, that created a financially stable system for us.”

Family Support Services is taking over from Eckerd Connects, which learned in November that the state will not renew its contract after receiving reports from Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri that a child was injured and another overdosed while they were staying overnight in an unlicensed agency office.

Eckerd Connects is also walking away from its $87 million contract to provide child welfare services in Hillsborough County, which expires in June 2022.

For years, the Clearwater nonprofit has struggled to find long-term beds and homes for Tampa Bayteenagersin its care, who instead end up sleeping in offices.

Reducing the number of children in the system’s care won’t be easy. Pinellas and Pasco ranked first and third respectively in the state for how many investigations resulted in the removal of children alleged to be the victims of abuse or neglect.

More than 1,200 children were removed from their families in the two counties from October 2020 through September 2021. Pinellas and Pasco are among seven Florida counties where child protective investigators are trained and supervised by the local sheriff’s office. In other communities, investigators work for the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Petion said the removal rate is something that “does need fixing.” She has met with Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office officials, who she said want front-end services that can trust if they decide not to remove children and leave them at home.

The approach means that even children considered at high risk of abuse can be left in the home — provided those families have a safety net of social services and are frequently monitored by certified case managers and others.

“If we did not provide intensive services, those children would all be candidates to be removed,” she said.

A former case manager herself, Petion said she understands the instinct to be cautious and take a child away from a potentially harmful situation. But too often, she said, the trauma children suffer by being removed from their parents is just as bad.

“So we’re all going to get comfortable with some level of risk,” she said. “Knowing that we’re able to do a lot to safely wrap services around that child, and once we know that system is in place, that is going to be strong and sound, it’s not going to feel as risky.”

The decision by Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris to appoint a Jacksonville agency to run foster care in Tampa Bay for the next five years raised some eyebrows. Florida’s privatized child welfare model is intended to put control of foster care in the hands of local agencies that know their community.

Roy Miller, president of Tallahassee nonprofit American Children’s Campaign, said Family Support Services may have succeeded in north Florida because it fit the model of a local agency running a small child welfare district.

That won’t be the case once it takes over the Pinellas-Pasco district, where three other agencies have struggled to keep vulnerable children safe before losing their contract. That includes Eckerd Connects, which mostly provided services to children in the juvenile justice system until it was appointed lead agency in 2008, Miller said.

“DCF’s contracting is changing the model; they’re growing larger and larger (agencies) that have fewer ties to the area,” Miller said. “Where they have changed the model, they have not met with success.”

Petion, who grew up in Pinellas and graduated from Northside Christian School, said local leaders will be asked to join her agency’s governing board to give the community more say in how foster care is run. Her agency is working hard to meet leaders of local agencies, case management organizations and other key players in the child welfare arena, such as Beth Houghton, executive director of the Juvenile Welfare Board.

Houghton’s agency has committed to spend $28 million of its $92 million budget on programs and services aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect. That includes programs where nurses and social workers make home visits to families with children and expectant mothers, and a program that provides support for family members who agree to care for children rather than see them placed in foster care.

“While it will be a significant challenge to stand up the new child welfare lead agency on such a short time frame, the Juvenile Welfare Board and our partners remain committed to providing our support,” Houghton said in an email.

New lead foster agencies typically have months to plan an orderly transition. Petion’s was given one month.

The agency’s first step will be to try to reduce caseloads by finding permanent homes for several hundred children who are close to exiting the foster care system either through reunification or adoption but are just lacking final paperwork, Petion said. That should take the pressure off case managers and allow them to focus on their more difficult cases.

Her agency is also in the process of hiring case managers, supervisors and other staffers, many of whom were already working in the system and are familiar with the children in their caseload. Eckerd Connects sent more than 230 notices to employees on Nov. 2 informing them that their employment will be terminated on Dec. 31.It was not known how many may end up working for Family Support Services.

Petion said taking the contract was not about expanding her agency, but instead about answering a call for help. She is proud that even though the state recognizes that her agency is underfunded, it has never asked for so-called risk-pool money, a fund intended to help agencies that run up a shortfall or face an influx of foster kids.

“We were completely willing to just be a partner from afar and share our model that we believe works in preserving families, strong collaboration, innovation,” she said. “But when the community really wanted us to play a bigger role, we said we’d do our due diligence and see what we could do.”

To view the full article, visit https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/2021/12/14/jacksonville-agency-believes-it-can-fix-pinellas-pascos-child-welfare-woes/

Florida’s privatized child welfare system is supposed to put control of foster care in the hands of local agencies who know their community.

But after terminating Clearwater nonprofit Eckerd Connects, the Florida Department of Children and Families seems set to choose a provider from outside of Tampa Bay for the $80 million contract to run foster care in Pinellas and Pasco.

The department has not released the names of the agencies that bid for the contract, but none of the three that made presentations Wednesday to Secretary Shevaun Harris and other department officials at a meeting in Largo are local.

The presentations were made by Kids Central, based in Wildwood, Fla., Family Support Services of Northeast Florida, which runs foster care in Duval and Nassau counties, and Lydia Home, an agency headquartered in Chicago.

Of the three, Kids Central can claim the closest geographical tie to Pinellas and Pasco, which are administered as a single child welfare circuit. Kids Central serves as the lead foster care agency for a five-county circuit that runs from Marion County south to Hernando on Pasco’s northern border.

The state announced Nov. 1 that it would not renew Eckerd Connects’ contract after receiving reports from Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri that a child was injured and another overdosed while they were staying overnight in an unlicensed agency office. The nonprofit has faced criticism for a handful of high profile deaths of children under its watch and struggled to find long-term placements for teenagers who ended up sleeping in offices. It has since announced it will not ask the state to to extend its $86 million Hillsborough contract.

The Clearwater nonprofit’s contract was set to expire Dec. 31, leaving the state facing a time crunch. On Nov. 5, it announced an emergency bidding process for a five-year contract that gave interested parties just a week to respond.

This has alarmed some child welfare experts who fear the state will award a long-term contract without adequately vetting applicants and without giving stakeholders and the public enough time to provide feedback. Representatives of some local social services agencies were surprised on Wednesday when they were given only three hours’ notice about the Largo meeting.

Under Florida law, the state could appoint a receiver to administer the foster care system on a temporary basis. Another option would be for the circuit’s Community Alliance, a group that includes the Juvenile Welfare Board and other stakeholders, to work with the state on an alternative model to run the system.

Roy Miller, president of Tallahassee nonprofit American Children’s Campaign, said he understands that the state feels it needs to move quickly, but said it would make sense to take more time for such a critical decision.

“The speed in which this is happening is shocking,” said Miller.

The appointment of Eckerd Connects to its Hillsborough contracting 2014 was done at the end of a nine-month process, said Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of Florida’s Children First, a statewide advocacy group. The community needs time to look at how well agencies have performed, she said, and the one chosen should reflect the community’s priorities for how often children are placed in group homes and how much the agency prioritizes reunifying families over finding adoptive parents.

The state’s decision not to announce the names of the bidding agencies is also disappointing, she said.

“This secrecy where they’re not publicly releasing the names before they’re announcing who is getting the contract is the antithesis of transparency,” she said.

Department officials did not respond to a phone call and email requesting comment. The Tampa Bay Times has made several requests under public records law for a list of bidders.

Lydia Home, while based in Chicago, has a Florida connection. It is the parent organization of Safe Families for Children, which provides social services to families at risk of having their children removed. It has seven offices in Florida with roughly 25 employees and more than 400 volunteers, said Communications Director Cheri Jimenez.

“Safe Families is well established throughout the state,” she said. “We have worked very closely with thechild welfare system.”

John Cooper, the chief executive officer of Kids Central, said his agency is best suited of the three applicants to run foster care in Pinellas and Pasco under the community-based care model.

He said he has relationships with several key social services providers in the two counties. If selected, he would appoint an executive director and governing board local to Tampa Bay.

“I’m not going to be making decisions,” he said. “I would have a leader on the ground in (the circuit) being engaged and being visible.”

Officials from Family Support Services of Northeast Florida confirmed they had bid, but declined to comment further.

It’s unclear whether the Jacksonville agency would be eligible to win the contract because it serves as the lead agency in the Jacksonville area. Florida law states that a lead foster care agency should be no bigger than two contiguous judicial circuits, a stipulation intended to stop bigger agencies from winning multiple foster care contracts across most of the state.

In the more than two decades since the state privatized its foster care system, half a dozen agencies have expanded by winning a second contract with the state, a trend that goes against the principle of local control, said Miller.

“DCF is appointing these larger conglomerates that are going to struggle to provide consistent quality services,” Miller said. “As the conglomerates grow, they are more and more removed from the community.”

To view the full article, visit https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/2021/11/19/rush-to-appoint-foster-care-agency-in-pinellas-pasco-could-backfire-child-welfare-experts-warn/

Suicide affects people across socio-economic groups, races, ethnicities and ages. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared it a serious public health problem.

Still, it’s not something that’s readily and openly discussed. Not like the coronavirus, or gun violence, each on its own a public health crisis. 

In Pinellas County, behavioral health and other health care providers are endeavoring to bring discussion of suicide into the open and have formed a collective to add heft to suicide prevention efforts.

Key will be a series of townhalls organized by Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas. The programs are designed to get people talking about a subject often avoided because it is both complex and devastating.

“We all believe that when it comes to suicide, one is too many,” said Kristin Mathre, chief operating officer of the Suncoast Center.

“Many people think that the only people that think about killing themselves are people with a mental illness and that’s absolutely wrong. We want to reach out to all the other places that these people may appear. We want to wrap around everyone. We want people to talk about it, practice what to do and know how to help.”

She told me that Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas is a subgroup of the Pinellas Behavioral Health System of Care, an alliance of about 100 members representing roughly 45 agencies throughout the county. The group got its start in 2019 and includes 211 Tampa Bay Cares, BayCare Health System, Boley Centers, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Pinellas, and Personal Enrichment through Mental Health Services (PEMHS).

Crisis Lifeline calls in the area – made by people who called the suicide prevention hotline – this year totaled 19,774 through September. According to the Wellness Connection, a community collaborative to improve access to behavioral health services, organizations were able to stabilize or reduce self-harm in 63 percent of adults and 69 percent of children who used their services during that same period.

Zero Suicide Partners believes the best intervention is a safety plan, described as “an individualized clinical intervention that results in a written reference list of coping strategies and sources of support for the personal use of the individual addressing their suicide thoughts and behaviors.”

Those working in behavioral health had been concerned about pandemic triggers. But, “because we had built some of these safety nets ahead of time, we believe that our area did not have as much of an increase as other areas,” Mathre said.

“From January through September, our group together did 15,118 safety plans. I think something that we are all missing is that it’s had a large impact on our community. In the Baycare emergency room, they are doing screenings for everybody. The school system is doing some screening, as well, and some of our health care partners and our behavioral health partners.”

There was relief a few days ago, when the CDC released a report showing that the number of deaths by suicide didn’t increase during 2020, the height of the pandemic. Instead, suicide deaths in the U.S. were 45,855, 3 percent less than in 2019.

But there is growing alarm about minority youth.

“There is an actual trend of Black and brown youth completing suicide,” said Dr. LaDonna Butler, a licensed mental health counselor and certified addictions professional in St. Petersburg.

“The fact that numbers are rising is something we should be screaming from the mountain tops right now,” she said. “In the beginning of the pandemic, we saw a rise in anxiety and depression from youth, especially from high school youth. We saw those numbers triple. We are a year and a half in and we are seeing the suicide rate go up. We should be having intentional connections and engagement of youth, especially Black youth and others of color, because their lives matter.”

Butler is the founder of The Well for Life, which offers mental health counseling, wellness and self-care resources, with an emphasis on minority adults and children.

As a member of Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas, Butler said her work is focused on engaging those who need help, especially in coping with trauma.

“It is important that we are having recovery centers that address the impact of crime, especially on individuals who are Black and brown,” she said. “Reaching intentionally marginalized populations is going to be critical if we are going to address the issue of suicide in our community.”

Other groups are also vulnerable.

According to the CDC, the highest rates of suicide are among American Indian/Alaska Native and non-Hispanic white populations. The agency says other groups with higher than average rates are veterans, people who live in rural areas, and workers in certain industries and occupations such as mining and construction. Additionally, the agency says, “Young people who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual have a higher rate of suicidal ideation and behavior compared to their peers who identify as straight.”

Loved ones and friends can help. Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas offers warning signs and ways to help. The group says its town halls will address the crisis and offer hope through tools and connections. The programs will include conversations about actions that can be taken to save lives. The first town hall, which will be virtual, will take place on Nov. 30. It will focus on the LGBTQ+ community. Nate Taylor, division director of community initiatives for Metro Inclusive, will be the moderator.

A session for veterans will take place in February and one for youth, to be held in conjunction with the Juvenile Welfare Board’s Children’s Mental Health Initiative, will take place in spring.

“We are concerned about the whole community. Any community that has an extra dose of trauma,” Mathre said.

“With the Covid pandemic, we have all been in points of overstress. Everybody’s stress level is over the top. Those that are newly homeless, those that have lost a job, those that are, for any reason, overtaxed by what life demands, whether it is parenting, or school, or working three jobs to keep a home. Many people will think of groups along racial or ethnic lines, but for us, it’s along stress and coping lines. If your coping skills are overtaxed, it’s bad.”

Joe Bohn, who holds a Ph.D. and MBA and whose titles include director of community engagement and deputy director of the DrPH program at University of South Florida Health, is lending his considerable expertise to help lead the new outreach effort for the partnership.

“Our behavioral health and health care providers and organizations are all doing their part on this issue of suicide prevention,” he said.

“This initiative is, in part, about seeking ways for how we can engage the rest of the community in suicide prevention.”

To get help

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255; contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741; or chat with someone online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. 211 Tampa Bay Cares can be reached by dialing 211, or by going to the website, 211tampabay.org

 Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas Town Hall

The first suicide prevention town hall, focused on the LGBTQ+ community, will take place virtually, 6 to 8 p.m., Nov. 30. To register, go to https://suncoastcenter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0qce6rrjkiGdQbbkRlL_-eTHq_iqGKSYKE

To view the full article, visit https://stpetecatalyst.com/waveney-ann-moore-aiming-for-zero-suicides/

Through a task force or legislation, lawmakers pledged to protect the county’s at-risk youth.

It has been a rough and uncertain week for at-risk youth in Pinellas County. But the county’s legislative delegation promised Tuesday issues will be addressed.

First, the Department of Children and Families fired Eckerd Connects last week. It’s a private organization contracted through the state to offer foster and child care services in Pinellas and Pasco counties.

DCF notified Eckerd it will not renew its contract at the end of the year.

Eckerd responded by saying it was quitting and would not seek a contract renewal. It also said it’s pulling out of pending contract negotiations in Hillsborough County. Eckerd accused the state of underfunding the agency for years despite repeated asks for more money.

But just weeks before the separation, state investigators accused Eckerd Connects’ leader of splitting his contract in two, pushing his salary over the state-mandated limit.

Rep. Chris Latvala spoke to Florida Politics after Tuesday’s meeting of the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation.

“Overall, child welfare needs more resources,” the Clearwater Republican said. “But that doesn’t excuse what happened to these kids. Their community-based care person that heads that in our area was making well more than the state allowed. When it comes to their executive salaries, they’re certainly not hurting for money.”

Latvala said no appropriations bills have been filed so far. But he said child protection has been close to him during his time in the legislature, especially following the death of 2-year-old Jordan Belliveau in 2018. The young child died of head trauma caused by his mother. Warning signs had been missed by child welfare services. Latvala filed legislation in response that reduced case managers’ workloads, streamlined communication between agencies and increased training for parents, caseworkers, and law enforcement.

But the Eckerd Connects issues have gone beyond the monetary melee. Issues with Eckerd Connects have led to a criminal investigation from Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gauliteri.

Last week, Gualitieri said children in Eckerd’s care were in “disgusting and deplorable conditions,” often worse than those from which they were removed. Some children have gotten possession of firearms and been hospitalized with injuries.

Rep. Michele Rayner, a Democrat who represents parts of Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties, said these problems have existed for years.

“This is kind of the worst kept secret in Pinellas County,” she said.

Rayner said there’s no reason legislators shouldn’t prioritize protecting vulnerable children immediately. She’s hoping her role on the Health and Human Services Committee can help. She said it’s a “sounding alarm” for the whole state, not just Pinellas.

“We as a Legislature have got to make sure we put safeguards in to protect these children and that the organizations we’re going to entrust these children to are going to have proper oversight and have the bandwidth to be able to make sure that our most vulnerable, the most precious gifts that we have, are protected,” Rayner said.

She said whether its through a task force or legislation, something tangible needs to emerge from the problem.

DCF has launched an emergency bidding process to replace Eckerd in Pasco and Pinellas counties by Jan. 21. The Hillsborough contract expires in June.

But Beth Houghton of the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County said child welfare in the county has been in crisis for sometime. She said she worries DCF will rely on other community organizations that already have full plates and little child welfare experience to step in. That, she said, will not do. Despite disputed high-dollar executive salaries, she said folks at the bottom are over-worked and underpaid or inexperienced.

“We need, and really DCF needs, to hold those organizations accountable, whoever they choose to do that work,” she said. “But we really need to change the trajectory in this circuit, get better people.”

To view the full article, visit https://floridapolitics.com/archives/471895-pinellas-lawmakers-say-eckerd-connects-child-welfare-issues-will-be-legislative-priority/

The announcement that the major foster care provider for Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties will pull out of Tampa Bay has sent county officials scrambling to come up with alternatives for managing their already-overburdened foster care programs.

In a news release issued Monday, the nonprofit Eckerd Connects Community Alternatives Board of Directors said it voted on Oct. 26 to discontinue its contracts with the Florida Department of Children and Families to provide child foster and welfare services in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties.

The foster care provider has been criticized by state officials in recent years following the high-profile deaths of three children whose cases weren’t sufficiently monitored by Eckerd Connects staffers.

Eckerd Connects board chairman V. Raymond Ferrara said the decision to pull out of the three counties wasn’t made lightly. He said the board arrived at the decision “after a thorough assessment of current state funding levels and the growing needs of children in the three counties.”

“Our focus in this region and throughout the state of Florida has always been on what is best for children and families,” Ferrara said. “We have repeatedly expressed concerns to state officials and legislators about the mismatch between inadequate funding levels and the growing needs in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. We regret that it has come to this, but we simply cannot continue under the current circumstances.”

Ferrara said both the Hillsborough and Pinellas-Pasco child welfare contracts are woefully under-funded.

He said Hillsborough County serves nearly 1,500 children more than Miami-Dade County, but receives $20.3 million less in state revenue. Pinellas and Pasco counties serve 1,745 more children than Miami-Dade and receive $27.4 million less from the state.

In the past two years, Eckerd Connects’ has experienced a 40 percent increase in the number of children being removed from their homes by law enforcement in the three counties, without the necessary increase in money to properly serve them, Ferrara said.

He said the agency will work for a smooth change to a new foster care provider, but that wasn’t much comfort to Hillsborough County commissioners.l

“Eckerd Connects is our primary provider of children’s services,” Commissioner Kimberly Overman said. “With drug and domestic violence issues on the rise due to the pandemic, our foster care system is more stressed than ever. It’s important to make sure we have a smooth transition to another provider.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, Overman made a motion to ask staff to put together a report on the repercussions of Eckerd Connects ending its contract and possible actions the county can take to ensure it continues providing the necessary foster care and children’s services.

The commission approved the motion unanimously.

At Thursday’s Pinellas County Commission meeting, Commissioner Karen Williams Seel, who sits on the Juvenile Welfare Board, said the board met Thursday morning with Dennis Miles, the southeast regional managing director for the Florida Department of Children and Families, who will oversee the transition to a new foster care agency.

Seel said he spoke at length about his determination to not only make sure there’s a smooth transition but to rectify any ongoing problems in the county’s foster care system.

Eckerd Connects has an $80 million contract with Pinellas and Pasco counties, which fall under the same judicial system, and an $87 million contract with Hillsborough County. Ferrara said the news shouldn’t come as a surprise to state officials.

In 2016, Eckerd Connects warned DCF that funding for services in Pinellas and Pasco counties was falling short of the needs of children and families. In 2018, another letter from the Eckerd Connects board to the state agency sounded the alarm about insufficient funding in all three counties, warning that “the extreme underfunding in Tampa Bay” is “causing tragic consequences for children and families.”

Ferrara said Eckerd Connects’s decision to end its contracts in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties will not affect the services it provides for other Florida counties and in 20 other states.
Additionally, he said Eckerd Connects will “work closely with the Department of Children and Families to help ensure a seamless transition to a new social services provider.”

Before Eckerd Connects made the announcement that it was pulling out of Tampa Bay, Shevaun Harris, who was appointed secretary of the Florida Department of Children and families in February after serving as acting secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, said she had already decided not to renew the state’s contract with Eckerd Connects for Pinellas and Pasco counties when it expires Dec. 31. The contract dates back to June 9, 2014.

In a Nov. 1 memo addressed to Rebecca Kapusta, vice president of Eckerd Cares based at 9393 N. Florida Ave., Tampa, Harris said actions and inactions on the part of Eckerd Connects “have jeopardized the health, safety and welfare of the dependent children under your care.”

She specifically called into question the agency’s “history of placing youth in unlicensed settings for extended periods of time” and “repeated failure to secure appropriate and stable placements for all children in Eckerd’s system of care.”

In a special investigation, WFLA News Channel 8 uncovered numerous incidents in which children were sleeping in Eckerd Connects offices because of a lack of foster facilities while others waited for hours in cars in gas station parking lots while the foster service searched for a home for the children.

WFLA reported that, on Oct. 26, Largo police were called after three children in the foster agency’s care were found climbing a ladder late at night behind the Eckerd Connects office on Ulmerton Road.

Police said they’ve received 22 calls to the Ulmerton Road office. Eckerd Connects sent a statement to WFLA News admitting there were times youth spent the night at Eckerd Connects offices when the agency wasn’t able to find a foster home for them.

Harris told Kapusta that DCF will transition to a new provider for Pinellas and Pasco counties in the next 60 days and ordered her to transfer “relevant data and files, as well as property funded or provided pursuant to this contract to the next contractor.”

“The department is committed to ensuring the safety, well-being and permanency for all children in this system of care and will take all appropriate steps to meet these aims,” Harris told Kapusta. “I trust that you and your team will work collaboratively with the department over the coming days/weeks to develop a transition plan that will support an orderly transition to the next provider.”

The Hillsborough County contract runs through June 2022, however, Harris did not address the Hillsborough contract in her memo to Kapusta.

A History Of Problems

Eckerd Connects has drawn state scrutiny in following the deaths of 8-month-old William Hendrickson III of Largo, 2-year-old Jordan Belliveau of Largo and 11-year-old Julian Carter.

The 8-month-old baby was found dead in a sweltering mobile home in Largo in July 2017 after he and his 2-year-old sister were left in the care of their father. The children’s mother, Elizabeth Rutenbeck, had been arrested and was in jail when her baby died. Eckerd Connects was responsible for monitoring the children at that time.

DCF concluded the baby’s case manager, who visited the home a day before the boy’s death, failed to take necessary action to protect the child.

A year later, Largo police investigated the death of another child under Eckerd Connects’ supervision.

Jordan’s body was found in a wooded area at Lake Avenue Northeast and McMullen Road in Largo in September 2018 after his mother, Charisse Stinson, reported him missing.

Shortly after his body was found, Stinson was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of her son. She told police she struck the little boy across the face and he hit his head against the wall and began having seizures.

Instead of seeking medical help, she told police that she took Jordan to the woods and left him to die.

Days after Stinson confessed, Patch learned that Stinson lost custody of Jordan in January 2017 after it was determined he was living in a dangerous environment that included drugs and guns. His father, Jordan Belliveau Sr., was a known gang member, according to police.

The todder was placed with foster parents Sam Warren, a member of the Coast Guard, and his wife Juliet, who hoped to adopt him.

But on May 31, 2018, a family court judge ruled that Stinson had met the conditions to have her son returned to her after she moved out of the toxic environment she shared with Jordan’s father, was actively seeking a job and attended counseling sessions.

Despite red flags such as Stinson refusing a case worker entry into her home in August, Stinson’s failure to get a job and receiving an eviction notice from her apartment, she was allowed to retain custody of the little boy. A month later he was dead.

When questioned about the agency’s failure to protect the child, Dr. Chris Card, chief of community-based care for Eckerd Connects, admitted mistakes were made.

“The system is under a lot of stress. We can always do better,” said Card.

Nevertheless, Eckerd Connects and the nonprofit Directions for Living, a contractor for Eckerd Connects, recommended Stinson be reunited with her son. Jordan’s volunteer guardian ad litem was the lone voice objecting to the reunion.

A DCF investigation found Eckerd Connects and Directions for Living missed warning signs, failed to make home visits and said nothing when Jordan’s mother lied in court about completing mandatory counseling classes.

Equally heartbreaking was the story of 11-year-old Julian Carter of Pinellas County, who died two years ago on Aug. 12 after overdosing on blood pressure medication.

He’d attempted suicide twice before, according to his mother, Chera Nyerick.

Nyerick said Julian suffered from behavioral and mental health problems. He’d been hospitalized under the Baker Act 44 times. Mental health professionals recommended long-term residential treatment 20 times.

But when Nyerick sought help from the child welfare system, she said Eckerd Connects never got her son reatment.

A report by DCF said the agency failed to follow policies and procedures that might have gotten the child the help he needed.

A Look At The State’s Foster Care System

Eckerd Connects was founded in 1968 by Clearwater philanthropists Jack and Ruth Eckerd as an outdoor therapy program for youth.

In 1982, the state asked Eckerd Connects to operate its first private juvenile justice program under a new community-based care initiative. Prior to that time, foster services were handled by the state.

Eckerd Connects is the largest foster care provider in the state, handling 5,108 cases. The second largest is Embrace Families, which handles 1,830 cases.

In addition to Eckerd Connects, other foster care agencies currently under contract with DCF include:

• Families First Network of Lakeview, serving Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties
• Partnership for Strong Families, serving Duval, Nassau, Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwanee, Taylor, Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties
• Kids Central Inc., serving Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion and Sumter counties
• Embrace Families, serving Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties
• Child Net, serving Palm Beach and Broward counties
• Citrus Family Care Network, serving Miami-Dade and Monroe counties
• Children’s Network of Southwest Florida
• Citrus Health Network
• Communities Connected for Kids
• Community Partnerships for Children
• Family Integrity Program
• Family Support Services of North Florida
• Heartland for Children
• Kids First of Florida Inc.
• Northwest Florida Health Network
• Safe Children Coaltion
• Brevard Family

As of Sept. 30, 23,345 children in Florida were receiving care through DCF after being removed from their homes. Of those, 51.7 percent were placed in licensed foster care facilities. Others were placed with approved relatives and non-relatives, group homes and in residential treatment.

According to the DCF, 47.94 of the children removed from their homes are age 5 years and younger.

Counties with the largest number of children in foster care:https://e127d6ed2a6ba24a7f1200144bbc3d0a.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

• Hillsborough County – 2,455 children
• Pinellas County – 1,667 children
• Broward County – 1,128
• Orange County – 1,044
• Polk County – 994
• Pasco County -986
• Miami-Dade – 971
• Lee County – 915 children
• Duval County -903
• Palm Beach -909
• Volusia -853

To view the full article, visit https://patch.com/florida/clearwater/foster-care-provider-pulls-out-pinellas-hillsborough-pasco

Florida’s Pinellas County is looking for a firm to develop and launch an early childhood public awareness campaign to educate parents and caregivers of kids from birth to three about critical developmental milestones in their lives.

The goal is to take advantage of everyday opportunities to help “build a baby’s brain,” according to the RFP.

During the first 1,000 days, the brain grows more quickly than any other time of a person’s life. Eighty percent of brain growth occurs by age three.

The selected firm will promote the importance of things such as face-to-face interactions between adult and child for bonding; responding to “baby talk” with real words, exaggerated tone of voice, higher pitches; and incorporating songs, stories, reading, play during diaper changes, meals and bath times.

The ultimate goal of the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County is to give children a level playing field so they enter kindergarten ready to learn and prepared for lifelong learning.

The PR contract will run for four years, with a $125K budget set for Year One.

Proposals are due Nov. 30 at rfp@jwbpinellas.org.

To view the full article, visit https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/17033/2021-11-03/florida-co-seeks-pr-for-early-childhood-development-push.html

The Pinellas County Commission will join community partners to host a free produce and food distribution event on Friday, Oct. 15, in Clearwater. The Farm Share event will begin at 9 a.m. in the parking lot of the Juvenile Welfare Board, 14155 58th St. N., Clearwater.

The giveaway will feature drive through distribution of fruit, vegetables and other nutritious food. The event is scheduled to run until 11 a.m. or while supplies last.

Anyone needing some groceries is welcome to attend.

Farm Share is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the distribution of nutritious foods to those in need. It serves as a link between farmers with surplus produce and social service agencies in Florida and throughout the southeastern United States. Last year, Farm Share served more than 6 million Florida households and distributed 40 million pounds of food to needy families. For more information on Farm Share, visit www.farmshare.org.

For more information about the upcoming produce giveaway, contact Pinellas County Communications at 727-464-4600.

To view the full article, visit https://www.tbnweekly.com/pinellas_county/article_1bcf436c-26ba-11ec-a990-af9095f06e85.html