Opinion

This year has been an eventful one. There has been so much happening that I thought I would take two columns to recap some of the projects in which I have been involved:

Children and Families: There are now nine Family or Community Resource Centers (FRCs) active in Siskiyou County that work collaboratively in a cooperative network. They are located in Happy Camp, Scott Valley, Yreka, Montague, Tulelake, Weed, Mount Shasta, Dunsmuir and McCloud. The Montague Hub now has a satellite presence in Hornbrook and the Scott Valley FRC also serves the Salmon River area. Four of the FRCs have qualified among a handful of northstate applicants for technical assistance in organizational sustainability.

Every FRC now provides “core services”: drop-in availability; resource and referral; life skills; nutrition education; car seat and helmet distribution; Healthy Families insurance enrollment assistance; child development activities; peer-to-peer support; and parenting education. FRC staff will be trained in the PIPE parenting education curriculum, used by Public Health. Train-the-trainer workshops have already been held for “Parenting Now” parenting classes. In addition, the Ford Family Foundation has just awarded a $200,000 four year grant to bring a full menu of evidence-based parenting classes and resources to Siskiyou County. Scott Valley, Happy Camp and Yreka FRCs will be involved in the pilot program.

We now have a Friday Night Live Mentoring Program for youth up and running in Scott Valley at the Junior High and High School. There is a renewed effort for the Happy Camp Coalition with plans to introduce a year round program that includes mentoring and substance abuse prevention for youth. The Substance Abuse Prevention Work Group has received a grant from Cal Endowment to initiate a pilot family-based recovery program at the Yreka FRC. If this is successful, it will be made available to other FRCs.

Our brand new juvenile hall will be dedicated on January 10. There are plans to turn the classroom at the old juvenile hall in Yreka into a Community School. This will allow some youth that are currently placed outside the county to return home to Siskiyou.

Family Violence: A seminar on family violence was held at Palm Springs and the Quartz Valley Coalition of Understanding was invited to speak on its leadership in working collaboratively. This past fall, the courts sponsored a Family Violence Summit, bringing together all the individuals and groups that work on these issues. Siskiyou County Human Services has also received approval to implement a “differential response” program, drawing upon voluntary referrals to the FRCs to provide preventive education, help and support to families having difficulties before they fall into the court system.

Economic Development: The Siskiyou County Economic Development Council has just hired a dynamic new Executive Director, Tonya Dowse. She has already been to Sacramento to support our Enterprise Zone designation and is applying for grant funding.

Prop. 40: Funds have been passed through the County to the cities of Fort Jones and Etna. Grants went to display cases for the Fort Jones Museum; lighting and sound for the stage at the Fort Jones City Hall; improvements at the Etna City Park for the Bluegrass Festival; improvements at the Etna swimming pool; and a covered batting cage building (a contractor is needed.) Also, a grant went to the Fort Jones Lions Club for developing a park area at the Fort Jones monument on Eastside Road.

Emergency Services: Citizens Emergency Response Training (CERT) will begin in January with a pilot group. A train-the-trainer course will follow to get the program out to everyone who has shown an interest. The County is currently reviewing and updating its emergency response manual. Training sessions, table top exercises, and a field exercises are being planned for spring of 2006. Fire Departments throughout Siskiyou County are benefiting from a FEMA grant to acquire radios to make the shift from wide to narrown band frequencies. I am extremely pleased to note that all of the residential land in my district west of I-5 is now covered by one of several local Fire Safe Councils. Many have already started fuel reduction projects and the difference is very noticeable! The Countywide group continues to work on its Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Mental Health Prop. 63: Local plans have just been released for the new Mental Health Services Act community-based services and support program to be funded by Prop. 63. This will include an outreach effort; short-term (90 day) support for folks in crisis – including help in filling basic needs and finding resources, long term services for those with advanced mental health needs, and recovery - including help finding employment.

Next week – a recap of what’s happening in natural resources.