IN THE NEWS, DECEMBER 2014

(MUSIC PLAYS)

(NO AUDIO)
Mark Beutler
Office of Communications

Mark Beutler: Hello, Everyone. I'm Mark Beutler from the Office of Communications. Let's take a look at what's happening in the news.
 
November was National Adoption Month and DHS held many celebrations across the state to welcome children to their forever families and encourage more Oklahomans to choose adoption. Many families finalized adoptions at the Cleveland County Adoption Celebration at the Cleveland County Courthouse in Norman. The celebration continued when more adoptions were finalized at the Canadian County Courthouse in El Reno. National Adoption Day was celebrated November 22nd across the state including an event at the Broken Arrow Baptist Church in Broken Arrow. The final DHS Adoption Celebration for the month was on November 26th at the Oklahoma City Zoo. More than 400 children are currently waiting for adoption in Oklahoma.
 
To help encourage families to foster and adopt, DHS has created a new series of Public Service Announcements filmed at the Oklahoma City Zoo that will be airing on TV and radio into 2015. For a closer look at the year-round focus on adoption at DHS, watch the feature video interview with Program Administrator Deborah Goodman to be released coming up next month, in January.
 
With the state's first snowfall arriving in November, heating costs are a serious issue for low-income families throughout Oklahoma. Starting December 9th, DHS will accept applications for the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program or "LIHEAP," as it's more commonly known. DHS will distribute approximately $8 million in federal funds for the Winter Heating Program. Based on each household's income and assets, many families and individuals receiving public assistance may be automatically authorized for this once annual payment. DHS County Offices will continue processing applications for any eligible households until all the allocated funds are depleted.

The Practice and Policy Lecture Series finished their year by examining another important topic, "Services to the Homeless" December 11th. Guest speaker Tim Knapp of the Bowery Mission of New York City offered suggestions to approach the complex needs of homeless individuals. Attendees were encouraged to bring gloves, hats and scarves to be donated to the Oklahoma City Homeless Alliance. The series is sponsored by the DHS Office of Planning, Research and Statistics and the OU Center for Public Management. The lectures are free and open to the public with the goal of providing the best educational opportunities available in a forum that offers participants an opportunity to question, share and learn from each other. Click the link on the dhs.org homepage for next year's Practice and Policy Lecture Series schedule.
 
Also in 2015, we can expect changes in the usage of state cars. An advisory committee has been looking into the management of the current fleet, and is proposing some new modifications. New vehicles are being purchased to replace older models with high mileage. Additionally, the management of all state cars will be centralized, streamlining the process for obtaining and maintaining vehicles. To date, 22 new vehicles have been purchased and are being distributed to replace the highest mileage cars, and in areas where employee reimbursement are the greatest. The agency plans to ask for more funds to add additional cars to the fleet. Look for more information on this process in the next few months.

A listing of the members of the Fleet Advisory Committee is available on the Infonet. Committee members are available for your comments or questions.

Next, we'd like to share with you images taken by DHS photographer Caroline Miller from the Women's Leadership Conference held in October. DHS sponsored the event for more than 500 participants with a majority of them from state government. The conference featured keynote speakers, panel discussions and breakout sessions to promote career achievement, advancement, and leadership for women. Keynote speakers included Pattye Moore, Owner of Pattye Moore and Associates; Marnie Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits; and Carol Ann Washburn, Life Transition and Team Performance Coach.

Coming up next, we'd like to direct your attention to this month's feature video which captures traditional dance and drum performances from the Native American Heritage Celebration held by the Caddo County DHS office in Anadarko, on November 13th. To celebrate national Native American History Month, the Caddo County Office formed a committee with representation from 13 different tribal affiliations. The event included entertainment, storytelling and traditional food. Anadarko is known as "the Indian capital of the nation" because of the number of Plains Indian tribes that have called it home. Anadarko hosts the yearly American Indian Exposition and is home to the Southern Plains Indian Museum. The video features interviews with DHS staff who coordinated the event and is available on the Infonet.

The holiday season is a very active time for the Office of Community and Faith Engagement. They worked with Lawyers Fighting Hunger and the Regional Food Bank to provide over 5,000 turkeys and food boxes for struggling families in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. For the fifth year in a row, Lawyers Fighting Hunger raised over $75,000 to purchase 25 tons of turkeys distributed to families in Oklahoma City, Norman, El Reno and Tulsa for the Thanks For Giving campaign. 

The Office of Community and Faith Engagement also works tirelessly with community partners to fulfill gift wish lists for every child in foster care in the state of Oklahoma. That's over 10,000 kids. The collection, organization and delivery of thousands of items statewide takes a major warehouse distribution plan as well as hundreds of hours of volunteer service from dedicated DHS staff members. All the hard work will pay off at the end of December when happy kids celebrate the holidays with those special gifts that would not have arrived otherwise. We thank all of those community members, organizations and DHS staff volunteers for going above and beyond to make the holidays merry and bright for so many kids.

We also thank you for the challenging work that you do all year long to help make every day better for Oklahomans in need. Happy Holidays, everyone. We'll see you in January.