INSIDE OKDHS - IN THE NEWS SEPTEMBER

(music plays)

Mark Beutler: Hello everybody. Thanks for joining us for this month’s news. I’m Mark Beutler from the OKDHS Communications Office. Let’s take a look at some of the recent happenings within the Agency.

No Audio: Montage of past speakers for the Practice and Policy Lecture Series.

Mark Beutler (continues): The Practice and Policy Lecture Series is in full stride and the next lecture continues looking at Early Childhood Development. The last lecture presented an overview of our state’s Early Childhood initiatives. On October 12th, Dr. Diane Horm and Annie Koppel Van Hanken will co-present, “Using Research to Inform Best Practices in Early Childhood Education: Tulsa Educare.” 

Tulsa Educare has seen much success in working with families with young children to provide optimum learning environments. Through a consortium of agencies, foundations and the Tulsa School District, this program works with families to better prepare children to learn. 

Dr. Horm works through the George Kaiser Family Foundation and OU to run the Early Childhood Education Institute that provides education to parents and children plus operates state of the art child development centers. 

Annie Koppel Van Hanken oversees the Kaiser Foundation’s early childhood education and common education initiatives. Plan to attend this lecture to find out how Tulsa has vastly improved opportunities for young children to grow and learn. 

The lecture will be held at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City at noon. You’re invited to bring a lunch or purchase one at the museum. 

Continuing on the benefits of Early Childhood Education, the OKDHS funded Smart Start Program held their first conference in August. The conference, entitled “Champions for Children”, brought members of the private business sector together with public servants and policy makers to discuss the economic impact of Early Childhood education.

No Audio: Montage of several snapshots from the Champions of Children conference.

Mark Beutler (continues): Communities with strong Early Childhood programs foster a population that does better in school and finds success in adult life. This event furthered the dialogue between our state leaders regarding the wellbeing of our citizenry. Former Governor Brad Henry and former First Lady Kim were honored for their work for children in Oklahoma through Smart Start and through their own initiatives. We’ll be hearing more from the Smart Start program in the future as they work toward creating a positive educational environment in Oklahoma.

No Audio: Photos of David Robinson.

Mark Beutler (continues): This is David Robinson, a devoted single father and one of the subjects to be highlighted in this year’s OKDHS Annual Report.

Each year OKDHS publishes an Annual Report to summarize and highlight the work of the last year.

While numbers and statistics tell part of the Human Services story, changed lives, like that of Robinson and his family, tell the rest of the story. David’s devotion to his children makes it hard to believe that he recently had to spend time in jail for non-payment of child support. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to support his kids, he just couldn’t find work and got behind on his payments. 

With help from OKDHS, he is successfully working and caring for his family. By telling David Robinson’s story and four other OKDHS clients’ experiences, we are better able to tell the tale of our agency’s impact on Oklahoma. There are lots of success stories in our files and most of the time people just need a little help to turn their lives around. The interaction between citizen and OKDHS always has the potential to improve quality of life for families AND save tax dollars in the long-run.

As in the past, the 2011 OKDHS Annual Report will be released in print form and through the videos.

No Audio: Short video clips of children enjoying group activities.

Mark Beutler (continues): We’ll be showing the videos to you on this webcast so be sure to watch for them. They’ll also be available on okdhs.org. We’ll let you know when the videos are posted. 

Our own Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was busy in August reaching out to the private business sector. “Barriers and Bridges, Reframing your Corporate Culture” was a chance for business owners and executives to learn about hiring ex-offenders who’ve paid their debt to society and are seeking employment. All aspects of hiring a person with a prior conviction were discussed.

No Audio: Montage of snapshots from Barriers and Bridges conference.

Mark Beutler (continues): Incentive programs, bonding programs, hiring practices and background checks were covered in an effort to help employers understand the hidden barriers of the low-income workforce. The Moore-Norman HIRE Program partnered with Robin Jones and her OKDHS Faith-Based Office and numerous other state agencies to enlighten the business world about a potentially untapped workforce. It’s through these types of collaborations and alliances that we are able to make some headway against a growing population of people with a need for assistance.

As we hear about more of these kinds of events we’ll bring them to you. It’s our hope that the types of programs we discuss on this webcast might be a resource for your Office or Human Services Center as YOU look for ways to bridge the gap between need and self-reliance.

Before we leave, we need to remind you of the Volunteerism Conference coming up on September 27th and 28th. This year’s theme is "The Wave of Change" and will be held in Oklahoma City at the Clarion Hotel. This conference is a great resource for anyone who works with volunteers. OKDHS employees pay no registration and it’s recommended for all State Charitable Campaign coordinators. 

The Office of Volunteerism reminds us that they will be gearing up for Thanksgiving food distribution and will be accepting food donations at the event. If you want to find out more about the Thanksgiving food drive and the upcoming Christmas gift collection check with the Office of Volunteerism at okdhs.org or on the Infonet.

And that’s it for this September. We’ll be back with more news next month and we’ll also bring you a look at the September Human Services Commission Meeting. Thanks for watching.