Q&A
Efforts to shift culture and address community concerns in ACS
0:20:50
ยท
3 min
Council Member Stevens inquires about Commissioner Dannhauser's efforts to change the culture at ACS, particularly in addressing concerns from black and brown communities. Commissioner Dannhauser discusses various strategies including training, engagement with young people, and building skills to change the culture.
- Emphasis on training foster care provider staff and case planners in motivational interviewing and empathetic engagement
- Implementation of programs like Fair Futures to support and engage with youth
- Creation of multiple avenues for young people to express concerns and seek help
Althea Stevens
0:20:50
But I just wanna start off, one, by just saying, you know, I know coming into this role, you came in with a lot of ideas on trying to right some of the wrongs that a lot of communities felt, especially black and brown communities.
0:21:07
Can you talk a little bit about how you're also trying to shift the culture and some of the challenges you might be facing?
0:21:13
Because even in our last hearing, you talked about, like, a lot of the vision and stuff that you were working on.
0:21:19
But then we often have families who are still feeling some of the old repercussions of some of the issues that we're trying to that we're trying to address or you're trying to address at the top.
0:21:29
So how are we ensuring that the work that in your vision that's happening and plans that you're implementing are actually happening?
0:21:37
And what safeguards are we putting in?
0:21:39
Because, again, I had a foster care roundtable with young people, and some of the things that I heard were very upsetting.
0:21:46
And so it's not matching up from, like, the things that you talk about and, like, how it's being implemented and understanding you can't be everywhere and do everything.
0:21:56
And so how are you shifting the culture with people who might have been there, you know, not might have been who've been there longer than you and have a way of doing certain things.
0:22:06
How are you shifting the culture?
Jess Dannhauser
0:22:07
Yeah.
0:22:07
Thank you, council member.
0:22:10
In a variety of ways, obviously, a lot of the things that I spoke to about training did not include some of the training we do for foster care provider staff.
0:22:20
Fair Futures coaches are trained by the Center for Fair Futures.
0:22:25
They do a lot of work around motivational interviewing, how to be empathetic.
0:22:30
We're also building that on for foster care case planners who are trained in motivational interviewing to really start where that young person is, to start where that family is, and to try to understand what they are hoping for and then build plans around that.
0:22:46
For too long, there's been sort of cookie cutter plans that we say, here's what we need you to do without sort of stopping seeing the human being in front of us and making sure we're meeting their needs and engaging with how they would like to get there.
0:23:01
A lot of it is how we engage with with young people to make sure that our providers are engaging with young people and listening to them.
0:23:08
Any and that that young people know there are many avenues to express their concerns, whether that be the work in any committee that they have at the Children's Center, the youth committees, whether that be our office of advocacy, whether that be their attorney.
0:23:25
To change culture, we have to build skills.
0:23:27
We have to value the right things.
0:23:30
You know, when I came into this work, young people told me, how can you expect us to trust you if my 20 birthday is the last time you're gonna do anything for me on my birthday?
0:23:42
And so we've set out over the years to change that culture, and we're doing that with Fair Futures.
0:23:47
We are not all the way there yet.
0:23:49
I want young people to know, and they often have my number, call me, reach out to DC Mendez, but reach out to a lot of folks in their continuum that there's a lot of options for help, that we can pause, bring people together.
0:24:03
So it's a multifaceted strategy, but I'm never I'm never satisfied until every young person feels like they are heard and they have what they need.