Understanding Systems of Programs and Services that Affect Families

A Forum — May 16, 2003

Forum Summary

Working as an advisor to the Los Angeles Country Children’s Planning Council, Margaret Dunkle developed Understanding LA Systems That Affect Families, a slide show that illustrates how more than 40 public programs might affect one hypothetical poor working family in the LA area. She recently presented this show in Sacramento to the Little Hoover Commission as part of its initiative to reform human services programs in California. At this American Youth Policy forum, she presented the slide show to an audience on Capitol Hill.

According to Dunkle, looking through the eyes of this family presents a “vivid picture of just how the many public programs and systems we have might touch the members of one family. It gives a common point of reference as we think about ways to make programs and systems work better for families and communities.” Dunkle’s presentation has us take on the perspective of a family from the L.A. area, however, the programs and services that serve this family and the family’s needs are not unique; they are similar to those that exist in other communities across the United States.

Dunkle asked the audience at the forum to imagine that this family has six members: a mother born in Central Mexico who is now a U.S. citizen, a dad with a drinking problem who was born in San Diego and who worked as a gardener recently until he was laid off, and three boys (including a very active nine-year-old, a five-year-old with a broken arm, and a one-year-old with possible autism). The mother’s 15-year-old pregnant sister is living with the family, and the sister has a boyfriend who has had problems with drugs and run-ins with the legal system. The sister’s citizenship status is uncertain.

The family has set goals that reflect the five outcome areas of the L.A. County Children’s Planning Council. These general goals are similar to those shared by many families, though the specifics might vary from one family to another. The goals include: 1) good health (get insurance; find out why the youngest isn’t talking anymore; and have a healthy baby); 2) safety and survival (keep the kids away from drugs and the sister’s boyfriend; keep the family together, even though the father drinks too much and sometimes loses his temper now that he is out of work); 3) economic well-being (have the husband get back to work; have the wife keep her job; and get training for better jobs); 4) social and emotional well-being (help the sister through her pregnancy and stay in school in the meantime); and 5) education and workforce readiness (help the nine-year-old do better in school and figure out the problem with the one-year-old, who has started to talk but then stopped).

To achieve these goals, the family seeks help through a variety of social services. The family is receiving or may be eligible to receive services from five different types of agencies or programs: Education, Health and Food Programs, Social Services, Child and Family Services, and Mental Health and Probation. More specifically, the family is eligible for services under the following programs:

• Education: ESEA Title I; the School Lunch and Breakfast Program; IDEA and Early IDEA, after-school programs, textbook funding, and GED.
• Health and Food Programs: MediCal, Healthy Families Parent Expansion, Child Health and Disability Program, Expanded Access Primary Care, HIV prevention and education, Food Stamps, and WIC.
• Social Services: TANF, Earned Income Credit, GAIN, CAL Learn, and CalWORKS.
• Child and Family Services: Child Care and Development Block Grant, Social Services Block Grant, 21st Century Learning Centers, Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program, Foster Care, and Adoption Assistance.
• Mental Health and Probation: MediCal mental health counseling, Cardenas-Schiff Legislation, Health Care Thru Probation, Mental Health Evaluations, and Juvenile Hall.

The family is eligible for numerous other programs and services as well, including section 8 housing, earned income tax credit, Supplemental Security Income, Unemployment Insurance, and drug and substance abuse programs. Although this list of programs is already extensive, it does not even include the non-governmental programs or supports that the family may or may not take advantage of, such as those available from non-profit, community, or private organizations. If we examine the specific programs that serve each family member, we see that each family member is served by or is eligible to receive services from multiple sectors, and the family as a whole is served by a confusing, tangled, spaghetti-like web of services and programs.

Discussion

Dunkle asked the audience to react to the presentation and the graphic representation of the services that touch this family. Audience members agreed that she had provided an accurate description of the complex web of programs serving low-income families. They observed that navigating this web is an extremely difficult process. Families and individuals with limited English proficiency, poor literacy skills, low income, and other types of problems will have an even more difficult time than others trying to determine which programs they are eligible for, deciphering the requirements of the various programs, filling out the paperwork, and traveling to required meetings. One member of the audience observed that the family needed their own full-time account manager just to help them navigate through the complex web of services. The audience also noted that:

• The family is in a sense held hostage to fluctuations in social services; there may be a lack of consistency in funding, funding for various programs may be cut, and the family does not know who or what they can count on. This exacerbates the family’s existing problems.
• Most of the information about the various services will come to families through the schools but schools do not themselves currently have the capacity to help families manage or negotiate through these services. Families are left on their own.
• There is a need for a common database so that anyone from a social service agency can see which programs the family is currently part of and what interactions the family has had with the system previously. This might help in the development of a more coherent web of services to help the family. At the same time, such a system should be designed so that it does not place an undue burden on the family.
• There is a very important need for early intervention for children who may be in need of special health and education services. Currently, there do exist inexpensive and uncomplicated screening tools to identify children with potential problems in the early childhood years. It must become a common practice for pediatricians to use these tools.
• Currently, there is little incentive for long-term planning and problem-prevention. Politicians and the social service system are thinking in short sighted ways. To improve the social service system and better meet the needs of families, this needs to change.
• Part of the problem is fragmentation. The family is served by multiple programs, each having its own set of definitions and requirements. For instance, there is no uniform definition of what counts as a “child” or “poverty” across programs. There needs to be a serious effort made by the Executive Branch, and at the state and local levels, to unify or standardize programs. Funding is needed to conduct and disseminate research to determine which programs are most effective in meeting the needs of families.

American Youth Policy Forum   1836 Jefferson Place NW,  Washington DC 20036
Telephone 202-775-9731      |      Fax 202-775-9733      |     Email aypf@aypf.org