PUBLISHED BY THE FAMILY COURT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
January 2005
Unified Family Courts of North Carolina
Family Court
Counties
Durham Family Court Collaborates
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10 WIN IvEllNEK AWARD
Buncombe
Burke
Caldwell
Catawba
Cumberland
Durham
Greene
Halifax
Lenoir
Mecklenburg
New Hanover
Pender
Richmond
Stanly
Union
Wayne
OUR MISSION
To help resolve cases involving
children and families through
combined efforts of the family,
the Court and community ser¬
vices, To approach each case in
a way that is not overly adversar¬
ial or intrusive, but always in a
just, timely and efficient man¬
ner, To be courteous, safe and
accessible and to provide quality
servicetothoseinneed.
WINNING YEAR IN
CASE MANAGEMENT!
Domestic Cases Pending Over
One Year:
Family Court Districts:
23.5%
Non Family Court Districts:
51.1%
For more case management
results, see page 2.
Durham County's award-winning
System of Care has created a
collaboration of service providers
and "customers" that is worthy of the
Ralph W. Ketner Productivity Award. The
North Carolina Association of County
Commissioners acknowledged this effort
with one of only ten awards given
throughout the state.
Since 2003, county expenditures for court-
ordered placements for children who need
specialized services have decreased from
over $700,000 to $7,000 in 2004. The
number of children receiving integrated
mental health, educational, health and so¬
cial services increased 45 percent between
I February 2003 and March 2004, from 600
children to 869 children.
The Durham Family Court personnel have
been instrumental in helping change
"business as usual" from an uncoordinated
morass into an integrated system for the
children in need of multi-agency services.
"The program prevents kids from falling
through the cracks and allows children and
their families to get services earlier and in
a less fragmented manner," says Adele
Spitz Roth, from the Duke Center for Child
and Family Policy.
I Without the advantage of any new or addi¬
tional money, the new delivery approach
emphasizes family strengths and encour¬
ages the family's active involvement in the
design, implementation, and evaluation of
services for children with specialized
needs. The Durham County System of Care
integrates the work of education, juvenile
justice, health, mental health, social ser¬
vices, family court, and other helping agen¬
cies. They work with families through a
team decision-making structures that re¬
quire shared responsibility and accountabil¬
ity to achieve better results for children
and their families.
In the past year, there has been a 52
percent decrease in the number of Dur¬
ham County youth placed in residential
treatment centers, which has resulted in
an increase in the number of Durham
County children and youth who receive
needed services in their homes or in a
therapeutic foster home setting. The
program is structured so that families
and children only have to 'tell their
story' once in order to receive compre¬
hensive and integrated services.
Durham's County Commissioners have
recently reinvested funds originally
budgeted for court-ordered treatment
to provide additional infrastructure
support and expansion of the System of
Care. Durham System of Care and
Community Collaborative Organizations
includes: Durham County
Commissioners, Durham Public Schools,
Durham Center, Durham County Public
Health, Durham County Social Services,
Duke Center for Child and Family Policy,
Durham District Court Administrative
Office of the Courts, Department of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention and Strong Families of
Durham.
For more information on the System of
Care, contact the leadership of any of
the above-mentioned organizations or
Martha Kaufman at 919-560-7215 or
Adele Spitz-Roth at 919-416-7502.
For further information regarding
Family Court contact:
J an Flood,
AOC Court Management Specialist at
919-733-7107