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Hillsborough County’s new child protector introduced herself to Tampa on Tuesday, pledging to review all active child dependency cases to ensure none have slipped through the cracks. Lorita Shirley is the executive director of Eckerd Youth Alternatives, the lead child protection agency in Pinellas County. Her agency replaces Hillsborough Kids Inc. on July 1. She appeared Tuesday at a news conference with David Wilkins, secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families. The change comes in the wake of nine deaths in the past two years of Hillsborough children whose families were under state supervision. Shirley started her child welfare career with the former Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, working in child abuse investigations and foster care. She also oversaw child welfare services for the DCF in Osceola County.

Although they don’t officially take over the supervision of child abuse cases in Hillsborough County until July 1, Eckerd officials announced a plan Tuesday to send in teams of experts immediately to pore over every open case in the county — more than 1,500 of them — looking for errors and ways to improve child safety.

Last month, Eckerd was chosen to replace longtime lead agency Hillsborough Kids Inc., which has been criticized for having the highest number of child abuse deaths statewide. From 2009 to the present, nine children died while under the watch of HKI and its subcontracted agencies.

By contrast, Eckerd, currently the lead agency in Pasco and Pinellas counties, was in charge when two children died, one in 2008 and one in 2010.

“We wanted to get our arms around the cases in Hillsborough County as soon as possible,” said Lorita Shirley, Eckerd’s newly appointed executive director in Hillsborough. Previously, she served in the same role for Eckerd in Pinellas and Polk counties.

The investigative teams include experienced child abuse investigators, medical personnel, mental health specialists and experts in substance abuse, she said.

They will start with the families most at risk: young single parents with children younger than 6, as well as parents with chronic substance abuse issues and a history of violence.

It’s the first step toward stabilizing what, said Mike Carroll, regional director for the Department of Children & Families, is the state’s most complicated and confusing delivery system of child welfare services.

David Dennis, president and chief executive officer of Clearwater-based Eckerd, said the privately funded nonprofit agency plans other changes as well.

Among them is a plan to upgrade the quality of the frontline workers charged with recognizing dangerous situations for children and doing what is needed to protect them.

The first step is recruiting the right people and paying them according to the difficulty of the job, he said. Second, workers will receive seven weeks of training and a slow introduction to cases.

“These are people who come in wanting to help children but they become overwhelmed,” Dennis said.

Eckerd requires follow-up meetings with new hires at 30 days with their supervisors, at 75 days with human resources and a third meeting after 100 days on the job with their supervisor’s boss.

“It’s a way for us to know if they’re doing OK, feeling confident and using the right judgment,” he said.

Eckerd also offers to pay for employees with bachelor’s degrees to receive a master’s in social work. Caseloads also will be decreased, meaning case managers would be responsible for no more than 18 children at a time. The ideal, according to the Child Welfare League of America, is 12.

The goal is to slow the turnover rate of 40 percent per year; most workers last just short of three years before quitting, said DCF Secretary David Wilkins. Inexperienced workers are the most likely to make mistakes in a field in which experience is critical to saving lives.

Wilkins said that Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the discovery of the body of Nubia Barahona, the adopted daughter of a couple who authorities say beat the girl to death and stuffed her body in a plastic bag. Her battered twin brother was found in a truck along Interstate 95 in Palm Beach County.

“When I went through that tragedy last year, it became apparent that we needed to make radical changes,” Wilkins said. “We’re asking for more money for child abuse investigations. The case managers feel overworked and underappreciated. We have to change the way they do their jobs.”

Shirley said Eckerd, which was begun in 1968, offers a model that has been effective.

“We have 43 years of stability with a corporate infrastructure that allows us to know how to do the job better,” she said.

Over the next four months, Eckerd will conduct community meetings in Hillsborough County, beginning in neighborhoods in which the highest numbers of children have been removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect. Priority will be given to ZIP codes 33612, 33613 and 33610.

The first community forum will be at 6:30 p.m. March 6 at the College Hill Church of God in Christ, 6410 30th St., Tampa.

For information, go to www.eckerd.org/hillsborough.

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY – In the last two years, nine children have died in Hillsborough County who were part of open child welfare cases.

It seems though that changes are ahead for the Department of Children and Families, as a new agency prepares to take the lead on all cases.

Come July, it will be Eckerd’s job to manage the cases of almost 3,000 abused and neglected children.

“For us, those nine child deaths equates to getting our arms around the issues, getting out in the community identifying the lessons learned,” said Lorita Shirly, Eckerd Executive Director.

One way Eckerd is doing that is by assigning a task force to review all active dependency cases.

“We believe that it’s going to provide us with great insight into some of the innovations that currently exist in Hillsborough County and where there are challenges with regard to some quality and safety compliance issues that might be increasing the risk level to the children in the community.”

With almost 3,000 children in the system needing protection, Eckerd is moving forward, focusing on things like safety, quality, accountability and transparency. They say it’s just the beginning of a proactive plan to protect these kids who have nowhere else to go.

TAMPA (February 14, 2012) — Hillsborough County’s new child protector introduced herself to Tampa today, pledging to review all active child dependency cases to ensure none have slipped through the cracks.

Prior to Lorita Shirley being named to lead child welfare services in Hillsborough County, she served as the executive director of Eckerd Community Alternatives, the lead child protection agency in Pinellas and Pasco counties. Eckerd replaces Hillsborough Kids Inc. on July 1. She appeared Tuesday at a news conference with David Wilkins, secretary of the state Department of Children and Families.

The change comes in the wake of nine deaths in the past two years of Hillsborough County children whose families were under state supervision.

Shirley started her child welfare career with the former Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, working in child abuse investigations and foster care. She also oversaw child welfare services for the DCF in Osceola County.

TAMPA, FL (February 13, 2012) — Early last month, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) announced a change in community-based child welfare lead agencies in Hillsborough County, awarding the state’s $65.5 million dollar contract to Eckerd – and on Tuesday, February 14, DCF Secretary David Wilkins and Eckerd Executive Director Lorita Shirley will meet with the press at the Hillsborough Children’s Board offices to discuss their vision moving forward. They will also unveil the details of a plan to immediately begin reviewing 100% of all Hillsborough child welfare cases, even though Eckerd’s contract with DCF will not officially take effect until July 1.  Directly following the scheduled news conference, Secretary Wilkins and Ms. Shirley will address members of the Hillsborough Community Alliance during their regular meeting.

The transition in Hillsborough County is expected to last about six months and will be a true community-based process.  During this time, Eckerd will work to engage the community in assessing what currently works, what is not working well, and what can be done better in order to ensure the best possible outcomes for Hillsborough children, families and communities.  To ensure open and transparent communication throughout the process, Eckerd has launched a transition website (www.eckerd.org/hillsborough) that features regular updates, question/feedback loop, and event calendar for upcoming community forums and other public meetings.

At the press conference, Ms. Shirley is expected to share what will be different moving forward, to include Eckerd’s child welfare philosophy that is proactively focused on Safety, Quality, Accountability, and Transparency.  She will also announce Eckerd’s plan to launch a Quality, Safety, and Improvement (QSI) Task Force who will be conducting an extensive review of all active child welfare cases in Hillsborough County over a four month period.  

WHO:                  Secretary David Wilkins and Eckerd Executive Director Lorita Shirley

WHAT:               Department of Children and Families and Eckerd Joint News Conference

WHEN:               Tuesday February 14, 2012 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE:            Hillsborough Children’s Board / Board Room
                              1002 East Palm Avenue in Tampa, FL 33605

                                *Held in conjunction with Hillsborough Community Alliance Meeting

CLEARWATER, FL (February 8, 2012) – Eckerd is pleased to announce the transition of Central Louisiana into the Coordinated System of Care with the opening of our new Central Louisiana (CenLa) Wraparound Agency, and invites the public to join us for an Open House celebration on Thursday, February 9, 2012, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at 6501 Coliseum Drive, Suite 700-A, Alexandria, LA (next to Wal-Mart on US 28W).  A brief program and remarks will take place at 12:15 pm, and light refreshments will be served. 

Eckerd’s CenLA Wraparound Agency is part of the Coordinated System of Care (CSoC) under the umbrella of the state’s behavioral health managed care program that serves children and adults in Central Louisiana with behavioral health, mental health and addictive disorders.  Services are designed for children and youth who reside in the Central Louisiana parishes of Avoyelles, Rapides, Grant, Vernon, Catahoula, Concordia, LaSalle and Winn and have significant behavioral health challenges or co-occurring disorders that are in or at imminent risk of entering out-of-home placements.

Coordinated Systems of Care are national evidenced-based models for coordinating services in a family-driven manner to ensure more positive outcomes for a defined population and operates from a set of core values and principles that provides an organizing framework for system reform on behalf of children, youth and families.  The model incorporates a broad, flexible array of effective services and supports that is organized into a coordinated network and that integrates care planning and management across multiple levels and systems. Through this coordinated network, meaningful partnerships are built with families and youth at service delivery, management, and policy levels. Services are family-driven and youth-guided, are provided in the home as well as in community settings, and are data-driven and outcome-oriented. Treatment plans are individualized and strengths-based, culturally and linguistically competent, and integrated across all child-serving systems. Strong connections to “natural helping” networks are a key feature of the model.

The Open House event is free and open to the public.  For more information please call (318) 500-9910.

Media Contact: April Putzulu, Director of Marketing and Communications
P (727) 461-1236 / Ext. 3331
C (727) 215-7068
E aputzulu@eckerd.org

With more than 20 years experience in the field of child welfare and over 10 years in a leadership role, Ms. Shirley was a natural choice for the position. As Executive Director of Eckerd Community Alternatives – the Circuit 6 CBC Lead Agency for child welfare services in Pinellas and Pasco counties – she led one of the largest child welfare systems of care in the state and has a proven track record of bringing stability and improved performance outcomes to thousands of Florida’s children and families.

“Under Lorita Shirley’s leadership, Eckerd was able to transform Circuit 6 from one of the worst to one of the best performing child welfare systems of care in the state,” said Eckerd President and CEO David Dennis.

Ms. Shirley achieved this by engaging the community, leveraging and maximizing resources, and ensuring transparency and accountability on all levels. Her commitment to improving services to Florida’s children and families is based on a premise that the community should be engaged in all aspects of the local child welfare system.

Ms. Shirley obtained her BSW and MSW Degrees from Florida State University. She started her child welfare career with the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services where she worked with families on the front end (child abuse investigations) and the back end (foster care). She quickly rose to a leadership role with the Florida Department of Children and Families where she was responsible for overseeing child welfare services in Osceola County – and she has over seven years experience serving in top leadership positions with two Florida CBC Lead Agencies.

Ms. Shirley serves on the Florida Coalition for Children Board of Directors where she advocates for legislative changes statewide in the child welfare arena. Her passion for child welfare and her commitment to communities earned her the 2004 Jim Strayer Leadership Award; 2011 Pinellas Community Advocate Award; and 2011 Administrator of the Year Award through the Florida Coalition for Children. Ms. Shirley is married and a devoted wife and mother to three daughters ages 19, 15 and 4.

Ms. Shirley will be replaced in her role as Eckerd Community Alternatives Executive Director by Judith Warren, Eckerd VP of Operations for National Programs and former Associate Executive Director of Eckerd Community Alternatives – Pinellas and Pasco counties. Ms. Warren previously held such key positions as Chief Executive Officer for Child and Family Connection (child welfare lead agency in Palm Beach County) and Executive Director for Children Home Society in West Palm Beach and Treasure Coast service areas. Ms. Warren has a B.A. in Education from the University of Kentucky, a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Troy University, and is a resident of St. Petersburg, Florida.

In late November, the top administrator of the nonprofit that ran Harbinger House, told the state that the nonprofit was “voluntarily surrendering” the state licensing for the home.

Isabella Cox, executive director of Juvenile Services Program, told the state she would surrender the licenses on the day the last youth living at Harbinger would be “discharged,” which was scheduled for Dec. 1. The state said the boys were moved elsewhere.

Local agencies serving children in foster care spoke to Patch about finding a place for the youths who were residing at the house and the challenges they faced.

Eckerd Community Alternatives, which provides placement services for children in foster care in Pinellas and Pasco counties, said it had kids placed at Harbinger at the time of its closure, according to Eckerd spokeswoman April Putzulu.

“Those youth were transitioned to appropriate placements in their home counties when the facility closed,” she wrote in an email.

Harbinger House was a foster care resource for several community-based care lead agencies and judicial circuits, Putzulu stated.

“Eckerd Community Alternatives makes every attempt to place children in their home county (the county from which they were removed from their parents’ home) whenever it’s safe and appropriate to do so and in order to minimize disruption to the child, such as a change of schools,” Putzulu wrote.

There are two other licensed group care homes in Pasco County, Putzulu said, Hope Youth Ranch and Youth and Family Alternatives’ RAP House.

RAP House, which is in New Port Richey, serves boys and girls ages 10-17 who experience crises like running away, homelessness, foster care and truancy issues.

Andrew Coble, vice president of prevention services at Youth and Family Alternatives, said that his agency did not receive any Harbinger youth to his knowledge.

“Traditionally Harbinger House worked with a more difficult level of youth behavior that would not normally be eligible for our program, but that is not across the board,” Coble stated.

“Undoubtedly, this will increase the level of referrals, however, from ECA and other lead agencies to try and place these youth who can be difficult to place due to behavior issues. … It does place an even greater burden on the current resources and the system to locate appropriate placements for these youth.”

Putzulu said there is always a need for more foster parents in Pasco and Pinellas counties or more information about becoming a foster parent please call the Eckerd Foster Parent Recruitment Line at 1-866-233-0790 or visit www.EckerdCBC.org/foster-parents.

The Florida Department of Children and Families put child welfare in Hillsborough County in uncharted territory last week by replacing its home-grown child protection agency with Clearwater-based Eckerd Youth Alternatives. Communities are best served by local providers, but the deaths of eight children who were under the supervision of Hillsborough Kids Inc. raised enough questions to warrant a drastic change. Eckerd needs to reach out to Tampa-area leaders to build a strong presence. The state should examine whether more central control would bring much-needed accountability to the child safety net.

DCF Secretary David Wilkins said the deaths “definitely played a part” in handing HKI’s $65.5 million annual contract for child protection services to Eckerd, though he was careful not to blame the agency directly or to overlook the good work HKI has done in the 10 years since the Legislature voted to outsource services. But no other agency in Florida has had as many deaths in the past two years, and HKI had been under scrutiny for months. A local advisory group made up of children’s advocates and state officials unanimously recommended a change. The decision was hardly a rush job. HKI should work to make the transition seamless as Eckerd prepares to take over July 1.

With HKI’s future decided, the focus can now shift from saving an agency to better protecting the 2,500 Hillsborough children under the state’s supervision. Eckerd said it will spend the next few months assessing the safety measures in place for children at risk of abuse and neglect. It also will meet with family members and service providers to allay any concerns about interruptions in care. This is an opportunity for Eckerd to introduce itself and to start on sound footing. How well it communicates during the transition will go a long way toward fostering public support for its operation in the Tampa area.

Eckerd and the state also need to recognize that Hillsborough has unique problems when it comes to delivering child safety services. Too many providers — the state attorney general, the county sheriff, a multitude of contractors — have a hand in the pot. The complex system makes for poor accountability and ample opportunity for children to fall through the cracks. The state needs to consider whether a consolidated framework would make the delivery of services more responsive and efficient.

The entire community has a stake in Eckerd succeeding, and if anything, the change should put a spotlight on the need for much more rigorous oversight — both locally and at the state level — of service providers.