A Guilford County department and a large county division have begun working closely together to improve the lives of the county residents who are helped by those two services.
The Guilford County Family Justice Center and the Division of Social Services are now communicating better with one another and coordinating efforts more in order to provide more effective service and reduce duplication.
The two have begun collaborating on investigations in the effort that’s also meant to reduce staff turnover and burnout by redistributing some duties that can also involve intake support.
Since the start of 2022, there have been more than 20 multidisciplinary meetings and 240 cases of collaboration between the two.
Based on comments provided to the Guilford County commissioners recently, the plan seems to be working well.
Pam Bright, a DSS FJC Team Supervisor, in a written statement to the board, said, “The collaboration with our partners improves response times, the timeliness of vital information getting shared, and helps to ensure the safety of [the] community and our workers.”
Guilford County Family Justice Center Navigator Ashlyn Nelson stated, “Having a DSS investigator available to talk with families when they come to the Family Justice Center in High Point for help is a game-changer,” adding that the partners had been joining together to “streamline processes.”
She also stated, “The social workers are kind, patient, and so collaborative. We can connect survivors to DSS immediately, taking the stress off the survivor and creating positive interaction in a supportive environment.”
Sonya Desai, a Family Justice Center manager in the county’s Greensboro office, said that the coordinated effort has helped the center deal with complex cases and has led to innovative solutions.
“This is how it should work!” she wrote. “Our community is safer because of this new collaboration with DSS. We are thankful!”
From the looks of things, this should be a real humdinger!
Want to know what is wrong with DSS & Family Justice Center? Look at the picture you used!!
Certainly not representive of the racial “make up” of Guilford County; but then calling that out
is being a racist!
White Folks Need NOT Apply!!!
What is the Family Justice Center? What is the need for a justice center? What exactly do the employees do? Do the employees respond to complaints about an injustice? What kind of injustice? There are many, many injustices something or other. Why do I think that 100% of the justice seekers are Blacks? For Blacks, there is always an injustice hiding around every corner. So wearisome, and so costly to the taxpayers.
Would someone define “family justice” for me? I have my own definition, but perhaps I am wrong.
Why should it take two agencies to do what one cannot do? People think about it!! Waste of money put into the wrong hands.
Two interesting things about this are that the original information on the Family Justice Center says it was to work with the Guilford County Dept. of Health and Human Services which oversees the Division of Social Services in 2015 at its inception. I find it curious that it’s taken 8 years to figure out that they need to find a way of “communicating better with one another and coordinating efforts more in order to provide more effective service and reduce duplication.” It shouldn’t have taken the drama of three kids dying in a house fire for that to become apparent.
Also, the duplication of services isn’t just with these two groups. The Women’s Resource Center is another group that provides similar services. The FJC is a coordinating group that refers one to services available but doesn’t actually provide services, but the “No Wrong Door” or “No Closed Door” or whatever it’s called policy of Guilford County agencies means that when someone calls for services the person advising the caller does questioning in a manner that other services are recommended to the caller or are advised to contact the caller so they are linked with the services they need. This makes the FJC redundant if County employees are trained and doing their jobs. This is a policy that the County has endeavored to fulfill since the early 1990s.
To fund the FJC as well as the Women’s Resource Center, Social Services, the Sheriff’s Department, and the courts, as well as contribute to the other non-profits that these groups partner with seems wasteful especially when the funds to administer all these programs could be put to better use going directly to the victims and people who are contacting the programs for assistance.
But that’s just my opinion.