Goal 1A. Health/Nutrition 113. Substance Abuse

Anticipated Input:

2 Foster Grandparent volunteers in the day care at the Women’s Residential Treatment Center at the Center for Drug Free Living will provide 2088 hours of service to the children of women in residential drug treatment.

Actual Input:

3 Foster Grandparents were placed at the Women’s Residential Treatment Center at the Center for Drug Free Living. These Grandparents provided 1038.5 hours of service. 2 of the 3 Foster Grandparents placed at the Center for Drug Free Living retired during the first quarter.

Anticipated Impact:

Station staff through an annual evaluation will provide data demonstrating that children have received needed individual attention and stimulation necessary for improved development.

Actual Impact:

At the Women’s Residential Treatment Center at the Center for Drug Free Living, Foster Grandparents care for the toddlers of women who are enrolled in the residential substance abuse treatment program at the center. Often, the children are addicted to controlled substances and, consequentially, experience developmental disabilities.

Staff reports that Grandparents stimulate children by providing “individual attention to the children’s developmental program.” “Our Grandparents”, the site liaison explains, “are genuinely interested in the children. This is clearly demonstrated by their overall attitude. They respond quickly and effectively to the children’s needs and notice any changes in their health and behavior.”

Goal 1B. Human Needs Services 205. Homeless

Anticipated Input:

We will place 1 Foster Grandparent volunteer at Anthony House and 1 Grandparent in the Head Start at the Coalition for the Homeless. Each Grandparent will provide 1044 hours of service per year. Anthony House provides one meal per day and Head Start provides two meals per day.

Actual Input:

1 Grandparent provided 512 hours of service at Anthony House prior to retiring. 1 Grandparent provided 898 hours of service at the Head Start at the Coalition for the Homeless. In addition, 1 Grandparent was placed at the Coalition for the Homeless Nursery during the fourth quarter and provided 76 hours of service. Anthony House provided one meal per day, Head Start provided two meals per day, and the Coalition for the Homeless provided one meal each day.

Anticipated Impact:

Station staff through annual evaluations will provide data on the children’s successful transition into regular classrooms as their families find permanent housing out of the shelter.

Actual Impact:

At the Anthony House, a Foster Grandparent serves homeless children whose families are seeking transitional housing through the center. Staff reports that the Foster Grandparent volunteer serves as a “familiar, stable figure” who provides each child individual attention. The Grandparent often assists the children with reading and other educational activities. Other times, the Grandparent serves as a friend who listens and responds to the concerns of the children.

The site liaison indicates that 100% of the children served by the Foster Grandparent have made a successful transition into a permanent classroom.

At both the Head Start and Nursery at the Coalition for the Homeless, Foster Grandparents serve children whose families are seeking transitional housing and other services through the Coalition. Grandparents serve as a stable, elder figure for the children, providing each child with individual interaction. At the Head Start, the site liaison reports, “The children come into class asking for Grandma everyday because she is a stable safe person.”

Staff indicates that 100% of the children served by the Foster Grandparents at the Head Start and Nursery have made a successful transition into a permanent classroom.

Goal 1B. Health/Nutrition 212. Teen Pregnancy/Parent Support

Anticipated Input:

We will place 2 Foster Grandparent volunteers at each of 3 Orange County Health Department Clinics prenatal programs. Each volunteer will serve 1044 hours of service per year. The Health Department provided 30 hours of specialized training. The Orlando Magic Youth Foundation has provided the funding for the gifts for the mothers and babies.

Actual Input:

2 Foster Grandparents provided 984 hours of service at the Orange County Health Department at Central Avenue and Winter Park. During the first quarter, the 3 centers were closed by Orange County due to budget constraints.

Anticipated Impact:

The goal is to reduce the number of unwanted repeat pregnancies to these girls by 50% and to have 75% of them return to the clinic for the baby’s six-week checkup. This will be documented through clinic records.

Actual Impact:

At 2 Orange County Health Department Clinics, Foster Grandparents provided guidance to pregnant teenagers seeking health services through the clinic. Lynda Miller, RN, site liaison for the clinics, reports, “During the initial visit, Grandparents promote prenatal care to the mother and provide referrals to affordable health services. They remain in contact with the teen throughout the pregnancy, encouraging the teen to seek medical attention and providing the teen information regarding services available in the community.”

75% of the girls did not report to the clinic with an additional pregnancy. 85% of the girls reported the clinic for the baby’s six-week checkup.

Goal 1C. Education 301. Pre-Elementary

Anticipated Input:

We will place 33 Foster Grandparents in day care and pre-school programs to improve the quality of early childhood development, including social behavior, reading readiness, vocabulary, and to assist the children to adjust to the structured setting of a classroom.

Actual Input:

23 Foster Grandparents were placed at 5 day cares and pre-school programs. Foster Grandparents provided 19,969.5 hours of volunteer service at these centers.

Anticipated Impact:

The goal is to have 100% of the children receiving the attention of Foster Grandparent volunteers “graduate” to the next appropriate level in their training. This data will be provided by the childcare and preschool centers.

Actual Impact:

Foster Grandparents served infants and toddlers at 5 centers in nursery settings. Grandparents provide each child individual attention, interacting with the child through reading, singing, talking, playing, and other activities. Grandparents also comfort the children when sad, angry, or irritable.

At First Presbyterian Infant Care, Amada Files has volunteered as a Foster Grandparent for eleven years. The teacher with whom she works reports, “Grandma Files spends time with any child that needs that extra attention for the day such as if they are not feeling well or are upset about something that happened at home.” By providing children “that extra attention”, Foster Grandparents positively impact the development of the infants and toddlers they serve.

100% of the children receiving the attention of Foster Grandparents were promoted to the next appropriate level of training.

Goal 1C. Education. 311. Special Education

Anticipated Input:

Place 60 Foster Grandparents volunteers in special education classrooms to improve the educational achievement of physically, emotionally, and mentally challenged children. The volunteer stations will provide one meal per day, ongoing training and supervision.

Actual Input:

92 Foster Grandparents were placed in special education classrooms and provided 66,821 hours of volunteer service. Each volunteer station provided Grandparents one meal per day, ongoing training and supervision.

Anticipated Impact:

By the end of the school year the professional staff will report that 100% of all students served by Foster Grandparents will have demonstrated improvement in targeted areas; including academic skills; social skills; motor skills; verbal communication; and cognitive skills.

Actual Impact:

Foster Grandparents assisted children in 92 special education classrooms in Orange, Seminole, and Osceola Counties to improve the educational achievement of physically, emotionally, and mentally challenged children.

Juanita Scott has volunteered as a Foster Grandparent with Kindergarteners at Lake Weston Elementary for three years. Tracey Thomas, the teacher whom she assists, reports, “Grandma Scott genuinely takes a keen interest in each of the students. She sits down with them at their tables and helps them with their assignments. The children confide in her and tell her things they do not feel comfortable telling the teacher…The Children have been able to learn to read and write because Grandma Scott excites the children to learn and to come to school.”

Grandma Scott and 91 other Foster Grandparents impact physically, emotionally, and mentally challenged children in 23 schools throughout the community each day. As a result of the interaction of Grandparents with these children, school staff reports that 80% of the students served have demonstrated improvement in target areas; including academic skills; social skills; motor skills; verbal communication; and cognitive skills.

Goal 1C. Education. 312. Tutoring

Anticipated Input:

Place 4 Foster Grandparents for five 4 hours days in 2 ESTEEM sites to provide after school tutoring and service learning. During the summer 4 additional volunteers will be placed in the 2 sites to maintain the gains made during the school year. The volunteer station has agreed to seek further funding in order to share additional costs in the future.

Actual Input:

4 Foster Grandparents served 3308 hours of volunteer service at 2 ESTEEM sites. 4 additional volunteers were not placed at the ESTEEM sites during the summer because coordinators for both programs assessed that no additional assistance was needed.

Anticipated Impact:

The improved school performance will be measured by report cards. Improved social skills will be measured by professional staff reporting.

Actual Impact:

Foster Grandparents served 125 low-income students at ESTEEM sites in after school/out-of-school programs. Grandparents take an interest in the lives of the children they serve to establish a mutual relationship and utilize the relationship to mentor the children. Often, the Grandparent provides the child direct assistance with homework and other special projects that they would otherwise not receive.

Staff indicates that 93% of the children served by the Foster Grandparents either improved or maintained satisfactory grades. 73% of the children demonstrated improved performance in at least one subject area. 80% have improved study habits. 67% of the children served have demonstrated improved social skills.

Goal 1C. Education. 333. English as a Second Language (ESL)

Anticipated Input:

Place 6 Foster Grandparent volunteers in 3 schools and Head Start centers to assist children for whom English is not their primary language. Each volunteer will serve 20 hours per week. The volunteers will have at least ten hours of special training prior to placement. The schools provide one meal and Head Start provides two meals daily.

Actual Input:

6 Foster Grandparents provided 4603 hours of volunteer service with ESL children at 1 school and 2 Head Start Centers. Each Volunteer received ten hours of training prior to placement. The schools have provided one meal and Head Start has provided two meals for each volunteer daily.

Anticipated Impact:

100% of the students will make a transition into regular classrooms based on reporting by the teachers.

Actual Impact:

Foster Grandparents worked with ESL students who are struggling to learn academic concepts while learning a second language at 3 schools and Head Start centers.

Gladys Rivers is one of the Foster Grandparents who volunteers with ESL students and has served for 5 years at Spring Lake Elementary. The teacher with whom she works, Michelle Vaughn, reports, “Mrs. Rivers works tirelessly to help children succeed and is very excited when they master new skills. She works in small groups or with individual students to remeditate skills they need.” Ms. Vaughn comments further, “I would not be able to do many of the enrichment activities I can do when I have her help.”

At the 3 schools and Head Start centers at which Foster Grandparents serve ESL students, staff indicate that 100% of the students served have made a successful transition to a Non-ESL classroom.

Goal 1C. Education. 335. Head Start

Anticipated Input:

Place 42 Foster Grandparents in 15 Head Start Centers to help prepare the children with reading readiness and to develop appropriate social/behavior skills to prepare them for success in school. The volunteer station provides two meals per day for each volunteer. Head Start pays for thirty hours of mandated state training.

Actual Input:

49 Foster Grandparents provided 37946 hours of volunteer service at 15 Head Start Centers.

Anticipated Impact:

The children will show a greater desire and enjoyment of reading or being read to; the pre-schoolers will have begun learning proper phonics or pre-reading skills; those with speech/language disabilities will have improved in their ability to speak. The long term anticipated impact is that each of these children will learn to read on grade level by the third grade.

Actual Impact:

At 15 Head Start Centers, Foster Grandparents prepare children for school, promoting basic phonics and pre-reading skills and assisting the children to develop appropriate social/behavior aptitudes.

James Carter and Eddie Williams are Foster Grandparents and volunteer with children at Denton Johnson Head Start. The site liaison at Denton Johnson, Olivia Ballard, reports that perhaps the most profound impact the Grandpas have is that they simply talk with the children each day. Ms. Ballard continues, “Talking to a kid may seem basic consideration. But, for most of the kids, there is no such interaction at home. When the Grandpas talk to the kids, the kids know they are loved.”

As a result of the love of 49 Foster Grandparents, 86% of the children at 15 Head Starts have begun to learn phonics and pre-reading skills. In addition, Head Start staff indicates that the desire of the students to read has improved greatly.

Goal 1C. Education. 336. Literacy

Anticipated Input:

Place 27 Foster Grandparents in 11 schools to assist remedial reading students read at their assigned grade level by the time the student reaches the end of grade 3. The schools will provide: orientation to the academic program; at least ten hours of ongoing site specific training; daily direction to the volunteers; supervision; a daily meal; and documentation.

Actual Input:

42 Foster Grandparents provided 27,771.5 hours of volunteer service with remedial reading students. Schools have provided orientation to the academic program; at least ten hours of ongoing site specific training; daily direction to the volunteers; supervision; a daily meal; and documentation.

Anticipated Impact:

The professional staff will report that 90% of all students served by Foster Grandparent volunteers will demonstrate improvement in targeted academic areas, including reading level, mathematics skills, spelling skills, and written and verbal communication skills.

Actual Impact:

At 11 schools in the community, Foster Grandparents assist remedial students to improve targeted academic skills in small work groups. In these groups, Grandparents mentor children to read, to develop mathematical concepts, and to improve written and verbal skills.

At Dream Lake Elementary, Ida Moore, a Foster Grandparent, reads with children who are struggling academically. “These children desperately need someone to read to them and to listen to them read,” Kaye Harris, site liaison, reports. “Grandma Moore also rotates through the class reading 1 on 1 with every child- so each child receives specific attention.”

The specific attention Grandparents provide remedial students has impacted their performance. Staff for each of the 11 schools reports that students have demonstrated great improvement in targeted academic areas, including reading, mathematics, spelling, and written and verbal skills.

Goal 1D. Public Safety. 802. Offender Rehabilitation

Anticipated Input:

Place 2 Foster Grandparents at the Grove Counseling Center with level 2 and 3 offenders. Each Grandparent will generate 1,044 hours of service per year. The Grove will provide ten hours additional training specific to their site and daily supervision.

Actual Input:

1 Foster Grandparent provided 1006 hours of volunteer service at the Grove Counseling Center. Due to limited residency, an additional Grandparent was not needed at the site. The Grove provided ten hours of additional training for the Foster Grandparent assigned to the site.

Anticipated Impact:

100% of those residents served by Foster Grandparents will return to their families. Of that number, 60% will stay out of trouble and will not return to the juvenile justice system. Reporting will be by the Grove professional staff.

Actual Impact:

1 Foster Grandparent volunteers with young men at the Grove Counseling Center. These youth are juvenile offenders and are seeking court-mandated treatment for conduct disorders and/or substance abuse.

Mary Hall, the Grandparent assigned to the site, talks with the youth and advises them on issues of concern. In addition, Grandma Hall tutors the young men to improve academic skills. Site staff remarks, “Ms. Hall is a ray of sunshine in our youth’s days. They desperately need someone like Ms. Hall to model good skills for them.”

85% of the youth Grandma Hall has worked with have returned home to their families, and, of that number, 100% have not become involved with the Department of Juvenile Justice again.

Goal 1D. Public Safety. 803. Child Abuse/Neglect

Anticipated Input:

Place 2 Grandparent volunteers at the CHS Crisis Nursery. CHS staff provides additional training specific to the special needs of the children. The volunteer station has agreed to seek further funding in order to share additional costs in the future.

Actual Input:

3 Foster Grandparents provided 1954.5 hours of volunteer service at the Crisis Nursery.1 of these Grandparents retired during the first quarter.

Anticipated Impact:

Grandparent volunteers are going to ease the trauma and assist with the transition to permanent placement.

Actual Impact:

Last year, Foster Grandparents served 300 children at Crisis Nursery. Station staff indicate that Foster Grandparents ease the trauma of the child during transition to a permanent placement by providing each child individual interaction, including “reading, listening, and talking with the children”.

Goal 1D. Public Safety. 803. Child Abuse/Neglect

Anticipated Input:

Place 2 Foster Grandparents at the Family Support & Visitation Center. Each volunteer will serve 20 hours per week, a total of 2088 hours each year. Family Support & Visitation Center provides 10 hours of training specific to the assignment. The volunteer station has also agreed to seek further funding in order to share additional costs in the future.

Actual Input:

3 Foster Grandparents provided 2217.5 hours of volunteer service at Family Support & Visitation Center. 1 of the assigned Grandparents retired during the first quarter. Family Support & Visitation Center has provided 10 hours of additional training specific to the assignment.

Anticipated Impact:

Foster Grandparents will enable 30 more visits per week to occur at the Visitation Center.

Actual Impact:

Foster Grandparents facilitate court-mandated visitations between parents and children who have been removed from their homes due to emotional, physical and sexual abuse and/or neglect. As a neutral facilitator, Foster Grandparents create a non-threatening atmosphere for the visitation that eases the anxiety of both the children and the parents.

Prior to the incorporation of Foster Grandparents at Family Support & Visitation Center, the center conducted approximately 45 visitations each week. Staff reports that with the assistance of the Foster Grandparents, the center is now able to conduct a minimum of 75 visitations weekly

Goal 1D. Public Safety. 803. Child Abuse/Neglect

Anticipated Input:

Place 3 Foster Grandparents volunteers in the Devereux Residential Treatment Center. Two volunteers serve in the school and one in the after school activities program. The volunteer station provides one meal per day and ongoing training and supervision. Often the Foster Grandparent is the first adult the child learns to trust.

Actual Input:

3 Foster Grandparents provided 3104 hours of volunteer service at Devereux Residential Treatment Center.

Anticipated Impact:

The 47 children/youth will learn there are adults that can be trusted not to abuse them. They will also learn how to control their frustration and anger and/or to release it through appropriate channels. The children will return to their families.

Actual Impact:

Foster Grandparents volunteer with youth in a residential mental health and developmental disability treatment program. As compassionate mentors to the children they serve, Foster Grandparents assist youth to develop social skills. Often, Grandparents play games with the children or engage the children in other social activities. Other times, the Grandparents nurture the youth, listening to the concerns of the kids.

Devereux staff report that the children have demonstrated greater control over their frustration and/or anger and are better apt to resolve problems through verbally addressing the issue. 40% of the children have returned to their homes.

Goal 1D. Public Safety. 818. Safe Children and Youth

Anticipated Input:

Place 9 Foster Grandparent volunteers at 5 Boys & Girls Clubs in after school programs. Place an additional 5 Foster Grandparent volunteers at 5 Boys and Girls Clubs during the summer. Each volunteer will serve 20 hours per week. Boys and Girls Clubs provide twenty hours of specific training. United Way has provided support funding for the Boca Club volunteers.

Actual Input:

15 Foster Grandparents provided 9672.5 hours of volunteer service at 5 Boys and Girls Clubs.

Anticipated Impact:

The youth through organized positive after school activities will stay busy and productive. They will stay out of the juvenile justice system.

Actual Impact:

Foster Grandparents provide constant guidance to assist youth at 5 Boys & Girls Clubs to improve their lives by building skills and values. Often, the Foster Grandparents are the most stable influence in the lives of the children they serve.

Danny Griffin has served as a Foster Grandparent at Pine Hills Boys & Girls Club for 12 years. George Zigler, the site liaison at the club, reports, “Mr. Griffin has watched the kids grow-up. Given the circumstance of the children and staff turnover at the club, Mr. Griffin has been the most stable influence in their lives.”

96% of children served by Foster Grandparents at the Boys & Girls Clubs have not become involved with the juvenile justice system.

Goal 1D. Public Safety. 899. Other Public Safety

Anticipated Input:

Two limited income volunteers will serve 4 hours per day for five days per week at A Place For Children. The Foster Grandparents will each provide 1044 hours per year. CHS has arranged parking downtown for the grandparent who drives. This has a value of $8 per day per volunteer.

Actual Input:

3 Foster Grandparents provided 1647.5 hours of volunteer service at A Place For Children. 2 of the 3 Grandparents were assigned to the site during the fourth quarter.

Anticipated Impact:

According to the Chief Judge, the judicial system will function in a more orderly way and the children will not see “how silly adults can be” at times.

Actual Impact:

At A Place For Children at the Orange County Courthouse, Foster Grandparents care for children while their parents attend to judicial business. By sheltering the children from complicated legal affairs, Foster Grandparents empower the judicial system to interact with parents more efficiently. The staff at A Place For Children, report that Foster Grandparents cared for 3118 children who otherwise would have been exposed to the judicial system without due assiduousness, providing an unnecessary impediment for the courts.