I made an announcement about the Peer Parenting Program and wanted to make sure everyone was informed of the upcoming changes. Without going into the history of why these changes are occurring as I did last night, for those of you who were not there, you may call me and I can explain at further length.
As of July 1, 2013; the Peer Parenting Program will be going contracted. Basically this means that a provider in the community may bid for the contract and through the bidding process may receive this contract. Once the contracted is awarded, the contractor would then be responsible to hire, train, and pay peer parents. Peer Parents would receive referrals from this provider and would send their documentation to this provider and the caseworker. I will be meeting with the contractor and giving them contact information of the peer parents that would be interested in working for them. I feel very confident that they would use my existing peer parents, because you are all trained and have experience in the program. I will not give out your contact information, if you do not wish to work for this contracted agency. So when the contract is awarded, I will be emailing you to ask if you are interested in applying for the peer parenting positions with this contracted provider. If I receive a response from you, I will then give your information to this provider.
If you have cases that you are currently working on during the transition to the new provider on July 1st, those will remain with DCFS. The provider will only take over peer parenting cases that start July 1 and beyond. Again, current cases that end after July 1st will stay with me and you will continue to send documentation and billings to me until the case closes.
As for the Strengthening Families Program, this will remain the same; however, I will be shifting this program solely to Cassie Beck. She will be responsible for collecting your documentation, billing, and training you. If you would like to work with this program or are currently working with this program. You will need to let Cassie know that you would like to continue or start. The current session will remain the same, you will continue to send your documentation to me and your billings to me. Once the new session starts, you will then start sending everything to Cassie.
I know this may be confusing and you may have a lot of questions, so please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Also, here is the handout for the training last night:
