The headline indicators that Circlebuild seeks to impact are rates of homelessness and the rate of grandparents raising grandchildren.

Homelessness for Kent County public school students reached 5% during the 2016-2017 school year. Housing is a serious challenge for Kent County residents facing any of the following barriers: bad credit, unstable employment, criminal record, and poverty.  The barriers are compounded due to limited stock of rental properties in Kent County– most opportunities depend on word of mouth and personal connections with land lords. Housing instability and racial disparity is also evident through student mobility rates – while white students remain in the 10% range, African American and Latino Students reach 20 to 30 percent mobility. National research shows that a family with an incarcerated father nearly doubles the risk of homelessness, and families are more transient after the incarceration of either parent. In FY18 four of the families in the Circlebuild program lacked a stable night time residence. The four families encompass 39% of individuals enrolled.  

KCLMB convened a housing forum in February 2018. Board members and 17 partner organizations attended to look at prior initiatives, local strengths and challenges, and to identify priorities. Major contributing factors include serious gaps in the continuum of care (especially emergency and transitional housing options), barriers to finding available rental options that include discrimination, and a lack of affordable housing.

In FY18, Kent County had the third highest rate of grandparents raising grandchildren in Maryland, after Somerset and Dorchester counties. With a base line around 15%, followed by two years of very high rates, the trend line is gradually improving. During the planning retreat in June 2017, KCLMB contributed substance use, incarceration, economic instability, and abuse and neglect to this indicator.

• Worthmore Equestrian Center
• Eastern Shore Land Conservancy
• Compass Regional Hospice
• Kent County Public Schools
• Kent County Detention Center
• Kent County Local Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council
• Kent Family Center

• Customize Caretaker Workshops for Stress Reduction or what items the caretakers have identified that they would like to complete.
• Improve the process with receiving an increase in the amount of Satisfaction Surveys completed to reveiw caretakers awarness of resources in the program and review if the caretakers feel they are supported by Circlebuild Staff.
• Enhance Partner Development for resources for families that are low to no cost.

Circlebuild addresses the Maryland Child Wellbeing Result of Families are Safe and Economically Stable by working intensively with families to meet basic needs, engage within their community, and reduce stress and trauma. The headline indicators that Circlebuild seeks to impact are rates of homelessness and the rate of grandparents raising grandchildren.

Homelessness

• The program works with families to stabilize living arrangements well before a crisis and they are on call if one does emerge. This consists of mediating among family members (when families are doubled or tripled up), identifying resources and supports to work towards longer term housing goals, serving as advocates and navigators, and ensuring that entitlements are established and maintained.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

• Circlebuild seeks to address the indicator ‘Grandparents Raising Grandchildren’ by providing the community supports and connections to ensure better outcomes for them and their grandchildren. This is implemented through community engagement strategies and stress and trauma reduction work.
  • Reduce stress and trauma: Parents who have been incarcerated, their children, and their child’s caregivers can feel devalued and disempowered. Circlebuild is meeting them where they are by building a community of peers, making accessible mental health and therapeutic experiences, and checking in with them through regular home visits.
  • Community engagement is a strategy to improve feelings of belonging and self-worth among caregivers. Involvement in civic activities and understanding their experience within a larger social context creates a sense of community and purpose that can help bend the curve towards stability and improved outcomes.

Activities for FY19

Home Visiting

• Due to limits of transportation the Case Mangers travel to the family’s home to role model parenting skills, coordinate schedules and activities, and advise of resources. They meet with the family once a week and more frequently depending on the needs of the family.

Child and Youth Group Activities with local partners

• ESPS partners/sub contracts with local providers including Eastern Shore Land Conservancy/Sassafras Environmental Education Center (bi-weekly weather permitting), Compass Regional Hospice (three times), local Yoga professionals, and Equestrian Assisted Psychotherapy (weekly).

Child and Adolescent Therapeutic and Activity Groups

• Youth and children meet on a weekly basis, and caregivers on a monthly basis, with Circlebuild staff for a combination of facilitated dialogue and varied activities. (ie: pro-social community events, recreational activities at the community center, or groups in the townships where participants live) 

Circlebuild serves guardians, kinship care, and biological parents impacted by incarceration, and their children ages 5-16.