HomeMy WebLinkAboutFamily Services Advisory Committee - Minutes - 7/10/2018
BAYFIELD COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
FAMILY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
Courthouse Conference Room A
Tuesday, July 10th, 2018 at 4:30 pm
Committee Members Present: Dale and Nancy Johnson, Jeremy Oswald, Bev Lindell, Lona
Schmidt and Beverly Patterson (arrived 4:50pm).
Committee Members Excused: John Blahnik.
Committee Members Not Excused: Susan Davis
Others Present: Cheryl Hanson (Family Services Section Manager), Mary Anich (Family
Services Juvenile Justice Social Worker) and Nina Bucher (Support Staff).
Call to order: Lona called the meeting to order at 4:30pm and introductions were made.
Public Comment Opportunity: No public comment.
Teen Court and Delinquency Cases Presentation: Mary Anich introduced herself as the
Juvenile Intake worker (now called Youth Justice) for Bayfield County. Mary receives referrals
from law enforcement for alleged Bayfield County youth offenders under the age of 17. She
explained that she meets with the child and parents to assess the many facets of the situation,
then makes case recommendations to the DA which may include teen court (a jury of their
peers), a deferred prosecution agreement, dismissal, or petition to open a court case. The DA
makes the legal decision, and has agreed with Mary’s recommendations to date. The current
referral trend has been 12-14 year-olds who have not been appropriately supervised or guided
to make good decisions and have not been Teen Court appropriate. The cause is usually
neglect and time with an appropriate adult is what is usually needed.
FSAC Handbook: Cheryl handed out the newly created binders and gave a brief overview.
The reference books are to be returned when a member leaves the Committee. An updated
listing of County Board Supervisors and Human Services Board will be provided.
Program updates: UW Stevens Point social work student Allie Bochler is interning with
Human Services, spending half time with the Aging & Disability Section, and half time with
Family Services. She is set up to work with each Family Services social worker for a week, and
is interested in Youth Justice and working with teens.
Minutes Approval: Bev L. made a motion, seconded by Dale to approve minutes from
the 4/10/18 FSAC meetings as written. Motion passed unanimously.
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The Red Cliff Tribal Court has approved their Customary Adoption Code that allows a native
child to have legal permanency with another family without the parental rights being
terminated. Gretchen Morris (the Director of Red Cliff Indian Child Welfare) is working on
locating children placed out of the tribe to bring them back.
On June 20th Cheryl attended an Act 78 Mapping-Systems Change meeting in Rhinelander.
These bimonthly meetings involve managers and directors of children protective services
getting together to study/assess an actual event (child grievous injury or death) to see what
different actions may have been taken to prevent it.
Three children will be/have left expensive placements and will be placed with family or foster
families in the County.
Informational Items: “Hear The Music Live”, a non-profit organization dedicated to
providing foster children live music experiences, has offered Big Top Chautauqua tickets to
Bayfield County Foster families.
Family Services staff have applied for $35,000 Foster Care grant to help attain and retain
foster care families in Bayfield County.
Cheryl reflected back on her first year as Family Services Manager saying she is feeling more
up to speed and knows that she will never know everything but relies on having
knowledgeable people around her to rely upon.
Future Meetings: The last 2018 meeting date is scheduled for 10/9/18.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:40 pm.
Minutes respectfully submitted by,
Nina Bucher
Nina Bucher