In the News - December 2015

♪Music♪
 Hello, everyone.
I'm Mark Beutler from the Office of Communications.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Let's take a look at what's happening in the news.
Turning 18 is a big moment in the life of any person,
especially for the 300 youth who age out
of the foster care system each year in Oklahoma.
DHS will be able to expand and enhance the services available
to this group as they transition to adulthood,
thanks in large part to a 4.8 million donation
by Sue Ann Arnall and the Arnall Family Foundation.
$2.8 million is designated to expand the Youth Villages'
YVLifeSet Program.
DHS initiated the program with the Memphis-based Youth Villages back
in July with a group of seven participants in Oklahoma City.
With the gift from the Arnall Family Foundation,
YVLifeSet will launch in Tulsa in January 2016,
with a goal of statewide access with service bases in Enid
and Lawton by 2018.
By the fifth year it is projected that YVLIfeSet
will serve 192 youths per day statewide
with DHS contributing 64 percent of the program costs
using targeted federal funds,
while private funders contribute 36 percent.
Participation in LifeSet is voluntary for foster youth
approaching 18 up to the age of 22.
The program provides a one-on-one connection
with a specialist who is available
24 hours a day for guidance during this vulnerable time.
Meeting two or three times a week,
they work on life skills relating to education,
employment, physical and emotional health,
managing resources, and building and maintaining strong
relationships.
Arnall also designated $2 million to grow the Intercept Program
piloted in Tulsa by DHS and Youth Villages
in October 2014.
Intercept is an intensive in-home services program
that provides effective alternative treatment for children and youth
who otherwise would be placed in foster care,
residential treatment, or detention centers due to mental
or behavioral health issues.
Youth Villages CEO Patrick Lawler
and State Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger participated
in the public announcement event in November,
and DHS Director Ed Lake presented Sue Ann Arnall
with a Partner Award for her generous support of children
in foster care.
Visit YVLifeSet.org for more information
about how the programs help young people meet their goals.
Governor Mary Fallin and DHS have partnered
on a new initiative called Oklahoma Fosters setting forth a goal
of securing 1,000 new safe,
loving foster families statewide by the end of next June.
The campaign unites state, tribal and local governments,
businesses, nonprofits and the faith-based community
to end the foster care crisis in Oklahoma.
With nearly 11,000 children in foster care in the state,
the push from the Governor's office will hopefully raise awareness
and recruit the needed families for fostering
and adoption.
Governor Fallin and Director Lake held a press conference
at the Oklahoma History Center to introduce the initiative.
Jacque Hensley, the new Indian Affairs Liaison for DHS,
and other community representatives spoke at the launch
including former Assistant Attorney General,
Tom Bates who was recently appointed by the Governor
as Special Adviser on Child Welfare and the Pinnacle Plan.
The event was a moving call to action,
especially the story told by Marissa Reyes about the trauma
in her life that resulted in DHS finding her a caring foster family
who adopted her at the age of 17.
We'll share some of that with you now.
Marissa Reyes: But one day I was as I was going
into the restroom...
I looked at myself and I just questioned myself.
Is this who you really want to be?
Look at yourself.
There has to be something more in this life other than
just doing druges every day.
Doing the same thing every day.
I didn't want to drop out of school
I didn't want to work minimum wage jobs the rest of my life,
the way my mom did.
I wanted to do better than them.
And so out of nowhere I just cried and I prayed out to God
because growing up my aunt would say stuff about God
and I never really understood it,
but I knew that I didn't have anywhere else to go.
So I prayed to him,
and I was like please send me back home to my family.
I want to go back to Oklahoma.
Because at the time we were in Texas.
And so later on we do move back to Oklahoma
and it was about during the 9th grade,
my freshman year that we go back to Oklahoma,
and we stay there for some months until my mom
and my brother get arrested.
And from there I get placed into foster care.
So I was initally placed into a kinship placement.
But they weren't able to take care of me.
Over the next year and a half I was bounced around
between foster homes and shelters.
I lived about seven months in a youth shelter due to the lack
of foster homes.
I then I met the Reyes.
We slowly built a relationship by calls by visits and over nights
and then I finally moved in.
And from there I got adopted.
Two years ago I would have never imagined having three brothers,
one adopted baby lovely sister, two dogs, and a loving mother
and father.
We still foster to this day,
and I'm so thankful to have an impact on the child's life
on every child's life every children's life that come
into our home.
Whether they stay a day, months, or years.
We also got to sit down with Governor Fallin
and Director Lake to learn more about Oklahoma Fosters.
That feature video is available now on the InfoNet.
The Governor's Office recently honored some exceptional people
with The Governor's Disability Employment Awards of Excellence
in October at the Governor's Mansion,
the awards recognize employees with disabilities who excel
at their work, and employers who take special interest
in hiring individuals with disabilities.
Special recognition is also given to members of the media
who promote visibility.
The event is sponsored by DHS Developmental Disabilities Services,
the Governor's Office, the Department of Rehabilitation Services,
and the Oklahoma Association of Persons in Supported Employment.
The awards highlighted that independence and success are possible,
setting a great example for workers and businesses alike.
KOCO-TV anchor Paul Folger reprised his role as emcee
as well as being honored himself.
Here we have both Director Lake
and Director of Developmental Disabilities Services JoAnne Goin
speaking at the event.
Ed Lake: We’re here today to recognize you though not
for the disabilities,
or overcoming disabilities
but because you are talented individuals,
you are people who I think most powerfully inspire others
to achieve their full potential in life.
And I think that’s one of the most important things that we can do
in our lives.
So congratulations and I’m looking forward to a fun ceremony.
Joanne Goin: We know and I’m sure you share the view
that employment is more than about work it’s
about establishing your respected role in your communities as adults
and it’s through employment that you develop friendships
and relationships that allow you to fully celebrate your life
in the community.
Thank you all today for celebrating with us as we achieve
another momentous day for employment in Oklahoma.
As you can see by the smiling faces,
the guests of honor were happy to be recognized.
The annual tree lighting at the Capitol is a festive event
to usher in the holiday season.
This year one special family in attendance is celebrated
their first Christmas as a forever family.
Cory and Lana Ingram immediately fell in love
with Anthony, Shannon, Patric, Liam and Brooklyn when they met
at a DHS-sponsored adoption party.
DHS Adoption Specialist Morgan Dye can't imagine a better fit
for this sibling group whose adoption was finalized July 31st
of this year. 
During fiscal year 2015,
DHS found permanent homes for 2,015 kids.
Sixty-four percent, or 1,404 children,
of those adopted were sibling groups.
Togetherness is a wonderful gift the Ingrams are sharing
this year and all the years to come. 
January will give all of us a renewed opportunity to focus
on our own health.
Your six, yearly professional visits will refresh as part
of the Employee Assistance Program.
You and your household members can receive help and support
with a wide range of issues from financial and legal
to substance abuse and emotional health.
Provided through the Integris Corporate Assistance Program,
the sessions are cost-free and confidential.
You can also request a self-care workshop for your area.
It's an insightful and fun way to explore and maintain life balance
through physical, emotional and social health.
Human Resources Management can help you connect to both
of these opportunities.
December is a busy time for the Office of Community
and Faith Engagement and for many of you
who help fulfill gift wish lists for kids in foster care
throughout the state.
Even with the upgraded digital tracking system
and major commitment from our community partners;
the collection, organization and delivery of thousands
of items statewide requires a major warehouse distribution plan;
as well as hundreds of hours of volunteer service
from DHS staff members.
All this hard work brings the magic of the holidays
to happy kids who are delighted with their gifts.
It certainly makes it all worth while.
We want to thank you for making the holidays brighter
for all the Oklahomans we serve.
Thank you for making other people important all year long
with your dedication to challenging work.
Happy Holidays, everyone.
We'll close today with some of the favorite holiday memories
and traditions your DHS colleagues have shared with us
throughout the year.
Gaila Smalley: One of my favorite holiday traditions is Thanksgiving
with my family.
After we stuff ourselves until we are completely miserable.
We've cooked it obviously together and spent hours doing that.
Everyone eats and gobbles it down so that we can throw like,
three games of Scrabble on the big,
dining room table.
We don't use the boards.
We just use the pegs,
and we call it fast Scrabble.
And we all grab our tiles and we start.
Somebody says go,
and we have a bunch of them
in the middle,
the extra tiles.
As long as you grab seven,
and you can make a word,
and you make your own little Scrabble tiles right in front of you.
You're own little board right in front of you,
and we call it fast Scrabble,
and someone says go,
and you have to draw two more tiles.
You keep playing until there are no more tiles,
and whoever has the most words at the end is the winner.
It's crazy.
It's nuts.
Everybody's fierce, and mean, and almost clawing you
with their fingernails,
but it's the greatest fun.
I'm no good at Scrabble and everybody loves to play with me
because they know I'm not good at it because invariably I come
up with words that are not in the dictionary
that aren't even words but they sound good to me.
Just spending time with family and laughing and hoo-hawing.
That's the best thing I can do as a family.
Thanksgiving is my favorite time to do that.
There's no stress.
It's just eating and fun. 
Karen Jacobs: My family,
as far as Christmas is concerned,
has changed a little bit in the past few years
as they all participate,
and they help out and volunteer with me at DHS
distributing all the Christmas gifts statewide.
And so, we kind a have a little family thing.
We come up, and we sort, and we bag,
and we have fun in the warehouse.
So, that's become a little tradition that they
automatically look forward to...
To come helping and volunteering.
Shannon Rios: My favorite holiday memory,
I was a child and my dad bought a gift for my mom that really
stuck with me.
Financially, things were very tight,
you know, when I was young.
So, the financial struggle was always part of it,
and of course my parents had to save,
and save, and save to be able to do Christmas. 
There was a Christmas when my mom really wanted a new camera.
And so she had kind of negotiated with my dad to get her gift early
She wanted a new camera,
and she wanted it early so she could use it
for all of our Christmas gatherings and activities.
And so, she got her gift,
what she thought was her gift,
a few days before Christmas.
Which was very telling of my mom because she always
put herself last.
You know, her gift was a camera for the family.
You know it wasn't something personal for her.
And, she was very thrilled to get it.
And then she thought she wasn't going to have anything to open
on Christmas morning,
and my dad had surprised her,
and he had bought her a diamond bracelet.
Which was a huge deal at that time,
very huge.
And, he had wrapped it in an old shoe,
and he was just trying to fool her.
He didn't want it to look like jewelry.
So, he had hidden the package,
and he had wrapped it up all mean kind of jokingly mean,
and her reaction to that...
That was something was very extravagant at that time.
She did not expect to get a gift at all,
and she got that.
And there is...
I can't even imagine the sacrifices that my dad had
to make to be able to afford that that year.
And so just for me that spirit of giving...
I learned that spirit of giving
from a very young age just watching that interaction.
It's always stuck with me,
how she responded and getting
to see her experience that when she was always the giver
and never the taker was very, very meaningful to me.
Diane Haser-Bennet: Wow!
I'm a holiday person,
and I'm from Wisconsin.
So, I go home to Wisconsin as often as I can,
so I can have that white Christmas because my staff hears me
singing "White Christmas" from Thanksgiving on.
I just have lots of wonderful memories of family playing
in the snow, skiing, building snowmen.
And, we've had the opportunity to do that in Oklahoma.
Actually, the storm...
The big storm we had about five years ago
probably was one...
And I was the last person to get out of this
building that year because of the storm,
and unfortunately we did have a few staff that spent Christmas Eve
in this building that year.
But, I remember my son from San Francisco was home,
and he thought he was going to be home alone because no one
was able to get there.
We got there,
and we just had a wonderful time because we built snowmen,
and we built Wisconsin-style snow forts,
and these are all grown-ups.
So, it doesn't matter what age you are you can
have a wonderful time,
and it's really all about family for me.
I like snow at Christmas.
Ed Lake: I grew up in Rochester, New York.
My dad was with Eastman Kodak,
and he would get the latest cameras.
They would let him fool with the new cameras,
and he would get the stuff developed free.
So, Christmas morning was quite the production for our family.
We of course...
I had two sisters younger than I am,
and we would wake up early,
like all kids do when they're young like that.
The door to the living room would be closed where Santa
had come.
And, then my dad...
They would get up,
and he would have to come and spend 25 minutes setting up
bright lights to get the indoor shots,
and the camera,
and all the stuff while we're fidgeting on the stairs.
And then, there was the grand throwing open of the door.
As the oldest, of course, I would get in front of the line,
fly through there only to be blinded by the lights.
And then, I remember getting through the blinding of the
lights to get through to into the whole Christmas thing and
see what Santa brought.
So, that's an enduring memory.
I remember even a picture my dad took of the three of us sitting
on the stairs,
one above the other,
waiting to charge in on Christmas.