Stacey Gillette (DCYF) and Joanna Kuang (Third Sector)
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” - Albert Einstein
The Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) is excited to announce the release of its first Request for Application (RFA) for Early ECEAP (Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program).
As a new leader in the child welfare space, I thought it would be worth my while to do some listening before I made any big changes. So I went on a tour all over the state of Washington. I talked to caseworkers, foster parents, birth families, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and anyone else I could find who had an opinion. I got an earful.
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) was selected as one of nine recipients of the Community Collaborations to Strengthen and Preserve Families grant, administered by the Children’s Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Children, Youth and Families.
In September 2019, DCYF licensed its first outdoor, nature-based preschool program: Kaleidoscope Forest School on Orcas Island.
I wanted to give you a brief update on our DCYF decision packages submitted to the Office of Financial Management last week. The DPs are publicly available on OFM’s website. Here is the link: https://abr.ofm.wa.gov/budget/agency/requests. It only works in Chrome, Edge or Mozilla but is public so feel free to share.
Former youth of Green Hill School (GHS) return to encourage community and agency leaders to continue their work for better and improved reforms in the juvenile justice system. At this year's Pursuit for Change panel, youth shared powerful stories of troubled past overcome by a will to transform their lives, some who had as recently as six months ago were released from GHS.
The Everett field office received four perfect scores during their recent case review.
Everett rated higher than the state average on items 1 through 16. Permanency outcomes were also exceptional. Eight additional reviews had two or less areas needing improvement.
The Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) is working with communities across the state to gather and summarize existing information, data and experiences to create a statewide early learning needs assessment. This will help us identify where the current system has opportunities for improvement as well as areas of success and promise.
The Department of Commerce has released the 2019-21 Early Learning Facilities (ELF) program grant guidelines for eligible organizations who currently provide Working Connections Child Care (WCCC