Small Town News

First 5 Plumas charts an impressive record

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The Board of Supervisors approved the First 5 Plumas County Children and Families Commission's five-year strategic plan last month after hearing a presentation from Director Ellen Vieira.

Chairwoman Sherrie Thrall said she took the item off the previous meeting's consent agenda because she thought it was important for the two newest supervisors to hear a report on the program.

Vieira began by telling the supervisors, "Research shows that a child's brain develops most dramatically in the first five years of life."

She added that 85 percent of brain capacity develops in that span.

"So anything that caregivers and parents can do for kids to optimize that, it's extremely important for positive outcomes, health and education," she commented.

The director explained that First 5 received funding from Proposition 10, a 50-cent-per-pack tax on tobacco products.

Vieira also mentioned that Plumas First 5's seven-member commission received $400,000 per year.

She went on to tell the board that the strategic plan focused on four goals: children are healthy, families are strong, children are ready for school, and service systems are integrated and of high quality.

Vieira said the last goal in the list represented the aim that First 5 funding would be used to permanently change systems of providing care so that programs would be improved even after First 5 stopped helping them.

She elaborated on this point, "The commission takes a strategic approach to funding programs for children 0 to 5 by avoiding duplication, strengthening existing organizations, supporting practices that are proven to be effective, and promoting the wiser use of our existing resources."

The director said that First 5 has brought nationally recognized programs into Plumas County like Parents as Teachers, a curriculum used by all the home visiting programs in the county that work with new parents, and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, which works with Social Services, child gare agencies and home visiting programs to help parents identify children with special needs.

She also told the supervisors that certain programs targeted Portola and Indian Valley, which First 5 identified as economically disadvantaged communities.

Vieira explained that First 5 spent most of its funds helping other organizations do their jobs better, rather than creating separate programs.

"All the work of the commission is designed to leave a legacy of systems change rather than a new bureaucracy.

"I'm the only employee of the commission. We contract through the county for fiscal and other administrative services."

"It's actually extremely unique. It's a really great partnership I think between government and community based organizations and other providers.

"Plumas County has the fiscal expertise and the audit expertise so that we don't get in trouble that way. Our audits have always been clean," she said.

The director indicated that programs funded by her commission served averages of 544 children and 603 parents per year over the past five years.

Citing approximately 1,100 children who are under 5 or haven't yet attended kindergarten, she reasoned that First 5 had served approximately half the eligible children in the county.

Vieira also listed services provided by the commission over the last five years as: providing 3,742 home visits, 1, 168 classes for parents, 506 oral health and developmental screenings, and 474 Early Learning Bags.

Next, the director gave presentations on three programs launched by the commission.

Healthy Smiles

Vieira said the Plumas and Sierra county commissions worked with the health department and county hospitals to establish this program, which offers comprehensive oral health education, screening and treatment for children 0 to 12.

She went on to mention that the California Endowment contributed a grant that allowed children 6-12 to be served in addition to those already covered by First 5.

The director explained that this program was an example of First 5's strategy of starting programs that will later exist without the commission.

She said that First 5 funded this program for three years and now a Bright Smiles Grant from the Sierra Health Foundation has taken over with no additional help from the commission.

She added, "In 2007/08, 123 children 0 to 5 were screened; 9 percent had serious tooth decay, 11 percent had moderate decay, 23 percent had early decay and 57 percent had no tooth decay."

Early intervention

Vieira said Plumas Unified School District works with the commission on this program to help children with special needs ages 0-3.

The director said that the commission got a grant to fund this program in 2000.

She explained, "This project involves highly skilled professional assessment of children with special needs, home visits and referrals to speech services, occupational and physical therapy."

Vieira argued that when children get help early on they sometimes don't need special education classes by the time they get to school. "Infants had improved educational outcomes when served earlier."

The director said the commission was able to demonstrate to schools that contributing to this program added up to a huge savings if problems could be addressed before children got to kindergarten.

She also pointed out that funding for the program from the commission was cut in half this year compared to the previous one and the program will continue without First 5 funding next year.

Raising a Reader

Vieira told the board that this nationally recognized program had already made a huge impact on the county with the number of parents who reported never using the public library dropping from 66 percent to 35 percent and parents visiting the library three or more times a month increasing from 6 percent to 31 percent since the program began.

The director said Plumas County administered the program with some funding help from First 5.

She also said that half of the parents involved had a reading routine with their children at the beginning of the program, with two-thirds reporting a routine now.

Vieira ended her presentation by explaining that her commission had also worked extensively to strengthen the connection between kindergarten teachers and early care providers so that information can be exchanged and children can have a smoother transition into school.



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© 2009 Westwood PinePress Westwood, California. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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