Muskie School of Public Service

Join the Children, Youth, and Families program, Maine Youth Transition Collaborative, and community partners in recognition of National Foster Care Awareness Month. During the week of May 14 – 18, engage in discussions, learn from presentations and panels, and view artwork, photographs, and other visuals that reflect the true stories of youth in transition from foster care. All events will be held in the Wishcamper Center, 34 Bedford Street, USM Portland Campus.

Display: Stories of Youth in Transition from Foster Care
May 14 – May 18
Wishcamper Center Forum

Starting Monday, May 14, the Wishcamper Center’s Billings-Nicoll Forum will be the site of a week-long display that showcases the many faces of youth transitioning from systems of care, as well as some of the community partners around Maine who are dedicated to improving the successful transition of these young people to adulthood. The display, sponsored by the Maine Youth Transition Collaborative (MYTC), will feature posters, photographs, and youth artwork.

Community Forum and Youth Panel Discussion
Special Presenter: Dianna Walters
Tuesday, May 15, 2:00 p.m.
Lee Community Hall (Rm 133)

Join the Maine Youth Transition Collaborative at the USM Wishcamper Center on May 15 at 2:00 p.m. for a community forum and presentation by Dianna Walters of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. The talk, The Adolescent Brain: New Research and Its Implications for Youth People Transitioning from Foster Care, will be followed by a youth in care panel discussion.

An alumna of Maine’s foster care system, Dianna worked closely with the Youth Leadership Advisory Team and served as a Foster Youth Intern for Senator John Kerry, raising awareness of critical issues facing foster youth and informing policy on both a state and national level. Dianna’s presentation and youth panel discussion will give an excellent overview and opportunity to discuss the emerging findings on adolescent brain development and what it means to Maine youth in transition. Dianna is also a spring graduate of Muskie’s PPM program.

Click here to register.

Film: Ask Us Who We Are
Friday, May 18, 7:00 p.m.
Lee Community Hall (Rm 133)

On Friday, May 18, at 7:00 p.m., the documentary film Ask Us Who We Are by Vermont filmmaker Bess O’Brien will be shown in the Wishcamper Center’s Lee Community Hall.  The film deals with youth in foster care and the search for belonging. A panel discussion will follow the screening with O’Brien, one of the young people from the film, and several Maine youth in care. A $5 donation is suggested. For more information, contact Beth Simmons at 878-9663.

The Muskie School of Public Service and USM’s Department of Applied Medical Sciences (AMS) have received funding to evaluate a Maine Office of Child and Family Services project resulting from a federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Expansion grant.

Maine will use funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration to expand and enhance Maine Families, an evidence-based home visiting program designed to improve maternal and child health, reduce child maltreatment, and increase school readiness. The Muskie School and AMS have been funded at $1.69 million over four years for their evaluation. A mixed method approach will be used to evaluate whether program fidelity is maintained throughout the expansion, whether health and wellness outcomes are achieved, and whether successful collaboration improves service provision to high-risk families.

Brenda Joly, assistant research professor in the Muskie School’s public health program, will serve as co- evaluator. Other lead staff in the Muskie School include Barbara Poirier, manager of public health programs, and Diane Friese, research associate in the school’s Population Health and Health Policy research program.

In a recent report prepared for the Maine Long-term Care Ombudsman Program, researchers at the Muskie School of Public Service captured the first-hand experiences and input of long-term care supports and services consumers,  family members, workers, advocates, and community members so that their voices might become an integral part of state-wide planning for  such services and supports.

Personal Experiences with Long-Term Care Services and Supports reflects data  from both state-wide listening sessions in eight distinct Maine communities, as well as a comprehensive survey of home care service users. A total of 238 people from throughout the state, including consumers and their families, state legislators and community leaders, attended the local listening sessions;  755 service users completed surveys.

Report findings from the listening sessions demonstrate collective concerns around access to affordable home services, easy-to-understand information, and transportation, among other issues.  Survey respondents, individuals who are low-income but not eligible for MaineCare services, provided feedback regarding assistive technology, satisfaction with services and workers, transportation, social isolation, care management, and unmet needs.

In light of shrinking resources and a rapidly expanding aging population, Personal Experiences provides the state of Maine with critical data needed to shape long-term care service planning in the state.

Find the full report here: 

http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/Publications/DA/PersonalExperiences2012.pdf

Report Summary:
http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/Publications/DA/PersonalExperiencesSummary2012.pdf

Personal Experiences with Long-Term Care Services and Supports was funded by Maine Health Access Foundation and the Bingham Foundation

The New Americans project, a collaboration between the USM Muskie School and Oldham Innovative Research, has released its final report, New Americans: Child Care Decision-making of Refugee and Immigrant Parents of English Language Learners, an in-depth exploration of two cities whose experiences with immigration reflect those of the country as a whole.

The study, co-authored by Helen Ward and Julie Atkins of the Cutler Institute’s Children, Youth & Families program, focuses on new American communities in Denver, Colorado, and Portland, Maine: Mexican immigrants in the former and Cambodian, Somali, and Sudanese refugees in the latter. With the help of a diverse advisory committee, project staff sought to identify and understand the factors, both across and within cultures, that influence the child care decisions of refugee and immigrant parents.

“It is critical to include the voices of these parents when considering policies that will affect their children and families,” the authors note. A better understanding of the child care experiences and concerns of these parents, along with an enhanced capacity to serve these families in a culturally sensitive and welcoming way and greater access to high quality programs, are important components of efforts to boost the school readiness of children from refugee and immigrant families.

Findings from New Americans will help inform policy making as well as the practices of child care providers and local, state, and private nonprofit agencies in both meeting the child care needs of the refugee and immigrant communities, and enhancing the later school success of young ELL children. In addition, the authors hope this study will help establish the groundwork for future examination of these issues, particularly as they apply to communities with multiple cultural groups, an increasingly common reality across the United States.

To read the full report and find other information about the New Americans project, please visit: http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/newamericans/index.html.

This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth and Families, Office of Policy, Research and Evaluation.

The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement (NRCOI), housed at the USM Muskie School, recently introduced a new online resource, the Supervisor Training Project, after months of data collection on how states train and support child welfare supervisors.

Staff reached out to child welfare training staff representatives in all states to participate in a one-hour phone interview, which covered topics like pre-service training, ongoing training, professional development, and supports for supervisors. A total of 34 states took part in the process, and overall the NRCOI received very positive feedback.

Information on the current approaches taken by these states has been compiled on the project website, along with available curricula and materials. The NRCOI hopes both state agencies and the Children’s Bureau T/TA Network use this information to generate training ideas and to understand how other States approach supervision training and support.

For more information on the project, please visit: http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/helpkids/supervisionproject.htm

The Muskie School’s Justice Policy Program (JPP) within the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy has received a Legal Assistance for Victims grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women. The $400,000 award will fund the Tri-County Advocacy Partnership (TCAP) in its efforts to enhance and expand the availability of holistic legal representation and advocacy for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking in Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford Counties. TCAP also provides an opportunity for the Muskie School and its partners to prioritize the expansion of civil representation and advocacy for sexual assault, rural victims, and immigrants/refugees, three traditionally underserved populations.

The TCAP collaboration includes the University of Maine School of Law Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project, the Sexual Assault Crisis Center, Rape Education and Crisis Helpline, Sexual Assault Victim Emergency Services, Safe Voices, and United Somali Women of Maine. Alison Beyea, Muskie School research associate and adjunct professor of law, and Deidre Smith, associate professor of law and director of the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, will lead this initiative.

2011 Maine Crime Victimization Survey

On October 3, the Maine Statistical Analysis Center released the 2011 Maine Crime Victimization Survey Report, conducted to raise awareness among Maine policymakers, practitioners, advocacy organizations, and the public of crime victimization trends in Maine. The report includes data on identify theft, stalking and property crime, public perception of safety and law enforcement, and crime victimization trends. Unlike standard reported data at a state or local level, the MCVS report includes comprehensive victimization totals that reflect unreported crimes and characteristics of victims and offenders.

On October 6, the Muskie School of Public Service will host a community forum, during which time Muskie’s Mark Rubin will present findings and engage respondents in discussion. Forum respondents include

• Maine House Rep. Anne M. Haskell
• Jane Carpenter, Assistant Complaint Examiner, Maine Attorney General’s Office
• Elizabeth Ward Saxl, executive director of the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault
• and Lois Reckitt, executive director of  Family Crisis Services

The forum is free and open to the public. A second forum will be held in Bangor on October 24 at 1 p.m. at the Miller Square on Harlow.

For further information regarding report findings, please contact Mark Rubin, USM Muskie School of Public Service, 207-780-5843 or mrubin@usm.maine.edu .

The National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI), a partnership between the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, the National Indian Child Welfare Association, and eight universities throughout the nation, has been awarded the 2011 Quality Award by the National Staff Development and Training Association (NSDTA).

Given annually in recognition of outstanding performance in the field of training and development, the award recognizes the ground-breaking development and implementation of the NCWWI Leadership Academy, including two innovative, comprehensive approaches to workforce training: the Leadership Academy for Middle Managers (LAMM) and the Leadership Academy for Supervisors (LAS).

The LAS, offered online, and the LAMM, a hybrid of online and residential learning, build the capacity of the nation’s child welfare workforce at two distinct levels and support organizational transformations that lead to improved outcomes for children, families and communities. Offered at no cost to organizations and individuals, the academies serve as powerful professional development opportunities for those seeking leadership roles within the field to effect change.

The Muskie School’s Freda Bernotavicz, LAS team leader, said of the academies, “Working on the NCWWI Leadership Academy has been a wonderful professional experience for us all.  We are privileged to be part of a national network of people committed to improving outcomes for vulnerable children, youth and families.”

Funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Children’s Bureau and Administration for Children & Families, the NCWWI is part of an overall national systems reform effort to build leadership capacity at all levels of the child welfare system. In addition to the Leadership Academy, the Institute provides online resource libraries, assessment services, and peer networking sites. The Leadership Academy team at the Muskie School includes Freda Bernotavicz, Sue Eberseten, Crystal French, Lee Lauritsen, DeeDee Reardon, Gretchen Robbins, Marshall Soloway and Laura Woods-Vachon.

The 2011 Quality Award will be presented at the NSDTA Annual Conference in Madison, Wis., this October.  To learn more about the NCWWI, visit http://www.ncwwi.org/.

2011 Baron recipients Diane Gout, Kyle Radke, and Sun Young Yoon

On August 5, the USM Muskie School of Public Service staff and faculty gathered in the Wishcamper Center to celebrate this year’s Catherine A. Baron Endowment award recipients: Sun Young Yoon, Kyle Radke, and Diane Gout.

Created in 2006 in honor of former Muskie senior staff member Catherine Baron, the Baron Endowment supports the professional development of Muskie classified and professional staff. Each year, the Baron Endowment Committee selects a recipient or recipients based on the personal narratives of applicants and recommendation of their supervisors.

This year’s recipients will use their awards to support personal and professional growth, engaging in new learning opportunities within their fields.

Dean Joseph McDonnell and new Cutler Institute director Richard Birkel with Freda Bernotavicz of Muskie's Children, Youth, and Families program

Kyle Radke, administrative assistant within the executive director’s office, will apply his award toward textbooks and materials for two food systems courses during the 2011-2012 academic year. Diane Gout, manager on the ViolenceAgainst Women Measuring Effectiveness Initiative, will be presenting as part of a panel of experts on intimate partner violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women at the 16^th International Violence, Abuse, and Trauma Conference in San Diego, and using her award to partially cover conference expenses. Sun Young Yoon, also a research associate within the Justice Policy program at Muskie, will use her award to attend the 73^rd Annual National Council on Family Relations, where she will present “The Role of Child Maltreatment and Trauma in Adolescent Relationships.”

Executive Director Mark Lapping emceed the event, and said of the ceremony and recipients: “They are outstanding members of the Muskie School community. Their dedication and drive is entirely consistent with the goals of the Baron Endowment, and I think that Cathy Baron would be very pleased with the projects that each recipient intends to pursue.”

Academy participants engage in workshop sessions on patient safety

On Monday, August 1, 115 health professionals gathered at the Muskie School of Public Service for the 2011 Patient Safety Academy, hosted by the Maine Critical Access Hospital Patient Safety Collaborative and supported by the Maine CDC Office of Rural Health and Primary Care. The day-long event included two presentations and a variety of workshop sessions offered by innovators and experts within the field.

In all, 27 hospitals from both urban and rural systems throughout the state were represented.  Participants included professionals from long-term care facilities, EMS, ambulatory care, primary care, state agencies, provider organizations, researchers, students, academics, and consumers.

Roger Swartz addresses positive deviance at the 2011 Patient Safety Academy

David Browning, co-director of the Patient Safety and Quality Initiatives at the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice and author of Talking with Patients and Families About Medical Error, kicked off the day with “Disclosure and Apology with Patients and Families: What’s at Stake.” Later in the afternoon,  Roger Conrad Swartz, executive director of the Positive Deviance Initiative at Tufts University, challenged the audience to think outside of the box with “Positive Deviance: Innovation from the Inside Out.”

Ralph Gabarro and Lynne Gagno of Mayo Hospital served as workshop leaders

Workshop leaders included Lynne Gagnon, director of Patient Services, and Ralph Gabarro, CEO, both of Mayo Hospital; Peg Shore, HAI Prevention Coordinator for the state of Maine; Stephen Sears, Maine’s state epidemiologist; Elizabeth Hart, medical director at the Maine Hospice Council; Jennifer Hunt-MacLearn, director of Professional Development & Performance Excellence at Spring Harbor Hospital; and Davis Balestracci of Harmony Consulting, LLC.

Educational materials were provided throughout the day-long event

The Academy is an opportunity to advance the dialogue on patient safety on a broad level. Participants who attend each year bring educational materials, case studies, and best practices back to their own institutions and systems to improve patient safety throughout the state. “We know the only way to increase our level of expertise in the relatively new science of patient safety is to work and learn together,” said Judith Tupper, managing director of Population Health and Health Policy at the Muskie School’s Cutler Institute.

Click here to view additional photos from the 2011 Patient Safety Academy.