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Downeast Safe Start
Washington County, ME
Lead Agency: Maine Department of Human Services
Co-applicant: Washington Hancock Community Agency
Co-applicant: Regional Medical Center at Lubec
Safe Start Staff:
- Laurie Gildart, Contract Administrator, Downeast Safe Start Initiative
- Sandra Prescott, Project Director, Washington Hancock Community Agency
- Michel Lahti, Evaluation Services,
Institute for Public Sector Innovation
University of Southern Maine
Organizational Chart (gif)
For more information, please visit Washington County's Safe Start website
at http://www.childrensafedowneast.com.
Project Purpose:
The mission of Downeast Safe Start is to reduce the impact of young children's
exposure to violence in Washington County. We envision a child-centered
community responsible for and dedicated to eliminating the violence that
impacts all children ages 0-6 in Washington County. We recognize that
violence is not a private matter, and that it is the responsibility of
all who live with and serve young children to provide safe, thriving,
and nurturing environments that support the optimal development of all
young children.
Project Goals:
To realize our vision, we will build a diverse, committed collaborative
that will achieve the following goals using a structured, facilitated,
inclusive planning and implementation process:
- Create a successful, countywide collaborative planning body whose
main objective is to facilitate system, administrative, policy, fiscal,
technological, and organizational change from within the system
- Develop and implement integrated, cross-disciplinary, comprehensive
intervention and prevention services and programs that reduce the impact
of children's exposure to violence
- Sustain coordinated intervention and prevention services and programs
that reduce-and seek to prevent children's exposure to violence
The core values
and guiding principles that inform this initiative include, but are not
limited to:
- Establish and maintain a child-centered approach that actively seeks,
values, and utilizes participation of and input from families with children
ages 0-6 (i.e., consumers)
- Commit to a culturally sensitive, appropriate, and congruent process
where all stakeholders can participate equally
- Use a data-driven, outcomes-based, best-practices, strategic planning
process that results in rational decision-making, is based on consistent,
reflective evaluation and feedback, and which does not presuppose implementation
strategies and/or funding decisions
- Believe that change must come from individuals within the system,
and honor then manifest this belief through a collaboration that achieves
change at all organizational levels (i.e., executive/administrative,
middle management, and front-line/first responders)
- Recognize, value, and build on the informal nature of interagency
partnerships that are present in Washington County and state organizations
and agencies, and codify these chaordic (order-in-chaos) relationships
to create an effective, sustainable system of integrated services and
supports for children ages 0-6 who are exposed to family and community
violence
- Use results-based performance measures and indicators to evaluate
the impact of the initiative on children ages 0-6 in Washington County
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