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CONCERNED CITIZENS
A walk down memory lane
1979: A group of parents of children with
developmental disabilities came together to form a support
group. Parents and grandparents were Karen Wittenborn, Joyce
Whitfield, Robin Schostak, Lucy Lester, Paula Moriarity,
Mary Lausche, and Linda Middleton. They met in the back of
Northwestern bank and discussed their dreams and heartbreak.
They learned how to be advocates so that their children
could get the special care to meet their needs in their own
community. They discussed Doctors, hospitals, physical
therapy, their hopes and dreams and their frustrations with
how little the world, and specifically Forks had to offer
their children. They supported each other in a time when
parents with children with special needs had very little
support. They raised $1,570.32 and spent $1,419.92.
1982: The group of parents grew and needs were
identified. Parents were tired of sending their children 120
miles round trip to Port Angeles to go to preschool. They
were tired of driving them and tired of putting them in
foster care for eight months a year so they could go to
school. They started a preschool for special needs children
in the basement of the Baptist church for five
developmentally delayed preschoolers, and met the county
coordinator Suzanne Estrella. In order to access County
funding they needed a non-profit tax status so Community
Council took them under their wing to provide that with the
help of (Halvey), Inez Halverson. They had an income of
$3,588.45 and expenses of $1,894.80; Sandy Giles was their
first teacher, and employee.
1983: The organization was growing and Robin was
involved. Luckily she was also involved in “Kids Bowling for
Kids” and had been for 6 years. She decided after all the
work and money Forks had raised it was time Forks had a
piece of the action, and what Robin decides to do, happens.
She and Linda soon traveled to Seattle to pick up the brand
new Sunshine van sponsored by Variety Club and Seafirst
bank. That summer Karen and Linda volunteered to drive that
van back and forth to Port Angeles so that our kids could
have a summer program. Concerned Citizens for Special
Children and the ARC sponsored the program. Also that year
they raised money from their first ever Bike -a -Thon and
used the money for insurance for the van, were recognized as
a viable organization and received County Discretionary
funds to build an “Integrated Child Care Center.” To muster
more parent participation they invented game nights at the
Senior Center and did more fund raising than ever, netting a
whopping $3,490.63 with expenses of $2,120.94. Some members
who thought this organization had dreams of grandeur and
wanted out while they still could, did just that and quit.
The rest of us plugged on.
1984: The County with Suzanne’s help put up
$12,000.00 to begin a Childcare Center that would integrate
children with and without disabilities. This project was in
conjunction with First Steps in Port Angeles and since they
were the non-profit they would be the umbrella. Irene Smith
was the president at the time and a big help to our agency.
Concerned Citizens stepped up to the plate and rented an old
feed store. It was by far the shabbiest building available
and needed lots of work but it was also the biggest and most
open allowing more square feet for expansion and the
creative juices to flow. This was a shell of a building that
needed rewiring, insulation, walls, a kitchen, and lots of
ambition. Volunteers included the families of the Schostaks,
Wilson's, Lausches, Middletons, Hamptons, Scannells and a
whole crew of electricians who graciously volunteered their
Saturdays for a month. Plumbers and carpenters volunteered a
day here and there, Robin was our volunteer coordinator and
kept them coming. With $25,000.00 of volunteer labor and
materials to compliment the counties funds we were able to
build a pretty nice place that held us in good steed for the
next 10 years. One of the most interesting aspects of the
first Sunshine and Rainbows building was the mosaic carpet
that was made of many free carpet remnants cut into squares
and laid out in a unique and colorful pattern. Income was
$19,303.08 and expenses were $19,540.00.
1985: By opening Sunshine and Rainbows Child
Development Center we soon realized how little we knew about
Early Childhood Development. We advertised as a center that
took regular and special needs children thinking we were
giving the public something special. The public had a
different view and our naive public relations and
advertising turned out to hurt our image rather than help
it. Debbie Scannell was our second employee teaching First
Step and taking the job of Director. We still did fund
raising to pay the insurance and were even able to help with
extras for the public school specifically for special
classes. This year we also hired a van driver to transport
our kids to summer school in Port Angeles and Karen and
Linda took a much-needed break.
1986: First Steps in Port Angeles decided it was too
hard to administer a preschool / daycare from 70 miles away.
These were the days when integration was the buzzword in the
childcare business and we tried hard to make it happen.
Childcare rates were $1.35 for babies and .65 for children
over 2 years old. The break from Port Angeles was hard and
very scary but we had come too far to turn back so we
plugged on. We received our own 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt
status, became incorporated, and were able to thank
Community Council, and Halvey for getting us there. Our
income this year was $5,974.70, expenses topped at
$3,439.98.
1987: We had hit the big time with preschool, summer
programs and field trips, childcare, Christmas parties. We
still did fund raisers and of course the annual “Bike-a
Thon”. This year a helicopter crashed into the play yard
fence and burst into flame, just missing the van. Luckily it
was a Saturday and no kids were in attendance. This year we
were also in the kiddy's parade with our first float.
Income soared to $70,033.97 but expenses beat by $72,830.06,
we were definitely non-profit.
1988: We became licensed for infant care and decided
to open on Saturdays. Linda taught preschool, we had a
contract with the school to provide special Ed 3-5 year
programs and we applied for a Therapeutic Child Care grant.
The board rejected the grant after we got it because of the
extensive compliance it would involve. We still considered
ourselves “just parents” and we still were flying by the
seats of our pants. Having bake sales to buy a VCR and
remodel the infant room, and now competing with another
daycare that just opened in Forks, it was all we could do.
Early Intervention had 7 infants and toddlers and we did our
first screening with the school district for birth to three
year olds. Summer was a big hit with day camps and field
trips combined, minimum wage was $3.90. We started an
incentive program to try to encourage staff to educate
themselves on Early Childhood offering raises for college
credits and striving for an increase in quality of care. The
Director made $950.00 per month, we averaged 29 children per
month, our income was $86,429.00 and expenses $84,962.00.
1989: The year of the first annual Easter breakfast
with the help of the Elks Lodge. This year we also revised
our policies and procedures, Early Intervention had a record
10 children enrolled, Susan Staiert was our teacher, the
woods industry was starting to wan with the arrival of the
Spotted Owl and low income families made up 70% of the
childcare population. Summer field trips were not very well
attended and to make some extra money we rented space to the
vet for $50.00 per month. Suzanne helped us with our first
5-year plan. It said that over the next three years we
would: go ahead with the TCC program, apply for an ECEAP
program and look for a new site.
1990: Minimum wage rose to $4.25 but barely affected
us because of our incentive program. We invited
Representative Hargrove to see us and talk to us about
Developmental Disabilities money and how to provide
residential services to compliment what we were already
doing. We rented two rooms at the Plaza for $400.00 per
month and moved the preschools and after school program over
there. The board took a field trip to Port Angeles to look
at what they had to offer for residential sites and
employment programs. Ken Nichols from Department of Social
and Health came to our board meeting to encourage us to look
again at he Therapeutic Child Care program. This time we
were braver and took on the challenge as well as beginning
work with the school to provide a site for transitional
youth from the Special Ed program. They came and worked in
the kitchen and with children as an adjunct to their school
program. Ramona Anderson was the coordinator. Fay Doyle and
Sherry Schostak joined our staff and we started the USDA
food program. Clearwater Corrections wanted us to start
Saturday childcare again and we did, they helped support the
program financially so it was somewhat more successful. We
had income of $ 92,467.00 and expenses of $ 98,101.00
1991: We renamed the Plaza from Kids Klub to Funhouse
and applied for Timber Money but none was available for
childcare. We rented a third room in the Plaza and
contracted with the ESD to provide Interim Family Resource
Coordination, IFRCs for Forks and the Hoh. Suzanne came and
talked to us about contracting for Early Intervention
funding through the school to free up Developmental
Disabilities money for adults. This began our political
challenges with the collaborative efforts of school and
county as we all worked together on funding programs for
children with challenges. Transition students coming out of
school needed programming too and the school contracted with
Outreach and Concerned Citizens to provide that service.
Income was $213,598.00 expenses $ 204,561.00.
1992: We brought the ECEAP program to Forks in
conjunction with Community Action, it began in the
Transportation department at the school and we enrolled 36
four year olds. Suzanne visited us again and asked us to
take on the Community Access program through the County and
funded by Developmental Disabilities. To do this the School
District had to take on the Birth to Three services to free
up funding for the adults. With the collaboration of the
school, the County and Concerned Citizens funding was
shifted to provide the adult service, we started with two
Community Access clients. Peninsula College contracted with
us to use the daycare for the lab portion of the training
for nursing students. We worked with Barbara Clampett to
bring Early Childhood Education Classes to Forks so that
students didn’t have to travel 120 miles round trip to Port
Angeles. To make it worthwhile we started an incentive
program that tied raises to college credits earned and then
subsidized the employees with a loan for tuition and payroll
deductions over three months to break their payments into
affordable amounts. Summer involved 4 field trips a week. We
had a progressive dinner in each of our sites that featured
appetizers, dinner, and dessert. The main course was at the
Fun House and since it was October the lights went out and
we dined in the dark. Income was at an all time high of $
350,106.00 with expenses at $347,117.00.
1993: Our average kid count for the months was 17.
Fay was our first FRC in Forks. We received exceptional
acknowledgment for our work with the ECEAP program through
Peninsula College, and became involved in the Systems grant
program through them, providing support to home daycares
that were interested in becoming licensed. We had a small
pot of money to help them with the costs surrounding
licensing. We again revised our Policies and Procedures to
try to incorporate some of ECEAP’s policies into ours. We
began negotiations with Mr. Birdwell to buy the Plaza. We
hired our first office manager, Theresa Fox-Burrett, and the first
thing she did was straighten out our food program mess. We
had outgrown everything and moved the whole office to Terra
Eden in a trailer we shared with a board member. Income $
421.978.00, expenses $429,339.00.
1994: We finally realized our biggest of all goals;
the purchase of the Plaza and in June took over all but 2
rooms, good-bye Mill Creek. Carl and Mary Lausche loaned the
down payment and Ray Birdwell carried the contract. It took
twenty volunteers two days to move, clean, and set up, we
moved the fence and the sink too but still left a lot. In
October we had our first United Way day of Caring. Sixty
volunteers painted, cleaned, fixed playgrounds, and rebuilt
the boardwalk. Two weekends later Robin organized the
biggest community event ever to grace an agencies door or
should I say roof. The Elks and Lions got together with over
60 men and cut shake bolts, donated the wood, mill, and
labor and then followed through the next week by completely
taking the old roof off and putting the new roof on. In one
weekend it had all happened, our goal was met. We were
licensed for 94 children at the new site. The bad news that
year was that Concerned Citizens and Community Action were
not a compatible team, the first in our eight-year history.
The school district took over the ECEAP contract and we
moved on. $455,791.00, Expense $430,985.00
1995: In March Suzanne visited us again and asked us
to take on a Port Angeles Community Access program from
Umbrella services, now known as Healthy Families. The board
said a NO; we were after all “just a parent group”. As usual
the board was talked into taking the contract by a silver
tongued county coordinator and we acquired a new office in
Port Angeles and three employees, one of which was Belinda
Rumble. We added another staff at the end of that month. The
ESD decided to let an agency take the Interagency
Coordinating Council, (ICC), as well as the (ITEIP) Infant
Toddler Early Intervention Program contract and so we became
the lead agency for the Birth to Three programs across
Clallam County. We were now responsible for working with
school districts to provide Birth to Three services in all
Clallam County. This year Faye Swindle visited us from the
renowned Developmental Therapy program in Athens Georgia.
They were so impressed with our site they made us a rural
demonstration site for them. We began training staff and
using their assessment tool and curriculum. Income
$432,778.00, Expense $446,581.00
1996: This year Forks lost three teens to alcohol
related accidents, so we began having community meetings. As
many as seventy people attended these meetings and a new
group emerged, VOICES, (Volunteers Offering Independent
Choices and Effective Solutions). This parent group was
organized to address the problem of drinking and driving and
developing solutions to the growing problem. We had speakers
come in from all aspects of government, school, parents,
teens themselves, and community members. We began to put
together a plan that would give the teens in Forks an
alternative other than substance abuse. Grants were written
to provide a day center for developmentally delayed adults
during the day and a drug and alcohol free place for teens
in the evening. The doors were opened in July of 96 and by
December had a consistent attendance of 35-40 teens. Income
$548,309.00, Expenses $518,450.00
1997: We contracted with the school this year to
provide the last year of schooling for the special education
high school students in our new Teen Center. Graduation
marked their journey into adult hood with a ceremony held at
the Center. Charlie Freestone, special education director,
was the keynote speaker. The Board began to think about our
original goals for the future of adults with disabilities.
We applied for and received our license for Home Health Care
and contracted with the Olympic Area Agency on Aging to
begin serving Personal Care clients in Port Angeles, Sequim,
Port Townsend, Hadlock, Forks, and Neah Bay. Our program
specialized in people with disabilities young and old but
also began serving seniors in their homes too. We met Anna
McEnery who came to Forks and asked us to take over the
Community Access program in Jefferson County. Our reputation
preceded us, but the Board said “no”, enough was enough, “we
were just a bunch of parents”, what were we thinking?
However after much thought and arm-twisting they
reconsidered and took the contract for a year. We found an
office in Port Townsend in the Baker Block Building, 211
Taylor Street, and opened our third office. Those County
Coordinators are persuasive. We applied for and received a
Community Block Grant from the City of Forks to start work
on our duplex. We remodeled it to become an Adult Family
Home, able to provide a home to 3 people with disabilities.
Income $740,833.00, Expenses $720,468.00
1998: This year we spent a lot of time finishing up
the projects that we started. We were able to get an Adult
Family Home license specializing in people with
developmentally delays. We flew through the licensing
procedures with practiced ease and many compliments for a
job well done with the licenser. He claimed to have never
before had such a well-organized and homey first meeting
with a contractor. We also got well-deserved exceptionally
high marks and compliments on our monitoring visit from the
Personal Care contractor. The adult family home got its
first official resident in August 1998, and we custom made
his shower and bedroom. We were asked to be the lead agency
for the ICC in Jefferson County and of course the board said
a resounding “NO”. Income $835,035.00, Expenses $862,482.00
1999: We raised childcare rates, and wages, received
a para-transit sub-contract, and arranged and hosted a
Family Support Conference in Port Ludlow. For the first time
we have a million and a half dollar budget. Anna came and
asked us again to become the lead agency for ITEIP in
Jefferson County and this time we accepted the challenge. We
planned our first Super Summer and it was very successful.
Welfare reform and Work First came this year dropping our
childcare slots drastically and changing our census to
include more private pay families. We had our first Safe
Night for graduation night at the teen center and spent our
Bridge Funding from ITEIP to open five Family Resource rooms
across both counties. We began services for South Jefferson
County families in the Community Center in Quilcene. We
wrote a grant for $200,000.00 to enhance services for
children both in the daycare and in the teen center, AND GOT
IT, life was good. This year sadly we lost one of our
charter members, Mary Lausche to Kidney failure. Income
$1,123,510, Expense $1,133,631.
2000: Fay moved in to the other side of the duplex to
manage the Adult Family Home. We rented another room in the
Port Angeles office to accommodate our overflowing staff and
clients. In September we had our first annual staff retreat
and training, kicking off the New Year with gusto. Four
staff were trained in PAVE, (Parents are Vital in
Education), and we became a PAVE Chapter, with two liaisons.
The school wanted to take the ECEAP food program back and we
gave it up gracefully. Office staff received leadership
training. We purchased a nice twenty-five-seat bus and two
months later our 12 seat handicapped access bus with a
wheelchair lift caught on fire in Beaver, no one was
injured, but the bus was a total loss. We received our Basic
Health contract for employees to provide Personal Care
workers with health insurance. We applied for UGN dollars to
pay for our playgroup in Quilcene and continued to work on
the school districts there to pay for their Birth to Three
programs. Soroptomist granted us $5,000.00 for two new
computers. We bought two new computers and refurbished
computers from Army Surplus to make a total of seven
computers. OCC donated a kiln to the Teen Center and Green
Crow donated the funds to finish the room to make it safe
for the kiln. A grant from Clallam County Physicians service
and donated labor gave us a new kitchen in the daycare.
Networks were formed and the Forks and Port Angeles Networks
commingled their funding with the promise of equitable
services to Forks. The Los Ninos parenting group, paid for
by the Network, was a success and the parenting classes took
on new life with the Nurturing Program. We replaced the
carpet in the front of three rooms with linoleum and moved
our Port Townsend office to Port Hadlock to a small house on
Chimacum road. All of our work in Developmental Therapy paid
off as we embraced their philosophy and became an integral
part of their project. This year we upgraded the office to
new-networked computers for all, and a new copy machine. The
teen center blossomed with the GUTs program and Team
Challenge enhanced by the grant from the Klahns. We also
received a big break with a DSHS Capacity Grant to increase
capacity in childcare, and a Wage Ladder Grant from the
State to increase childcare workers wages. For the first
time we are doing well financially and able to pay workers a
living wage, we are able to drop the incentive program.
Expense $1,453,167.00, Expense $1,462,773.00
2001: We lost the Therapeutic Child Care contract due
to modification of the Federal Rules for running programs;
we were one of twenty programs to lose funding. This was a
big blow to us financially and an even bigger blow to
children whose services have been cut. This meant cut backs
in staff and reconstruction of service delivery in
childcare. Grants were pulled with only a three-day warning,
we lost $100,000.00 of our DSHS grant, leaving employees and
clients without recourse and the agency with debt to make
payroll that would have been covered by the grant. This year
we have unprecedented debt of $60,000.00 just to make
payroll and tax payments and most of it on high interest
personal credit cards. The picture is grim and more cut
backs are predicted. We are thinking we might have to close
our doors. Income $1,688,779.00, Expense $1,668,779.
2002: The year has been wrought with challenges.
Funding streams that we have depended on for years were
drying up while compliance and regulations increased. We
have made cut backs and streamlined everything we can. Debt
looms over our heads and there seems to be no end in sight.
The economy is failing everywhere but for us it feels
devastating after all the hard work. We are trying to rally
from the continuous financial blows. No growth to report
this year, we have been reeling from funding cuts too fast
to catch our breath. Income $1,464,085.00, Expense
$1,543,960.00
2003: We have managed to make it another year and
even pay off half of our debt. To do this we cut
administration wages and staff with the Executive Director
taking the biggest cut at $4.00 per hour. We also received
some financial help from the Hurds to remodel the Adult
Family Home. With this pledge of faith the board rallied up
and with $4,000.00 and a lot of volunteer help remodeled the
other side of the duplex to accommodate three more
residents. This increased our revenue to at least cover
expenses in this program. The Teen Center got a facelift too
and we gained another $10,000.00 donation for the year to
keep it going. The idea was to charge for our new
skateboarding activity and for concessions, to offset the
cost. By the summer we were able to have the Adult Family
Home licensed for six and move the residents in. DSHS asked
us to do Supervised Visits for families who are trying to
reconcile and needed someone to supervise their visit. This
turned out to be helpful, financially. We also got an
Independent Living Skills and Tracker contract, which were
not so profitable, but every little bit helped. The office
in Port Angeles had outgrown its space and had to move and
we had to redo playgrounds for our upcoming licensing audit,
fundraising for them became a monthly occurrence. Linda
began teaching classes for adults for both Personal Care and
Childcare which brought in almost $1,000.00 per month. We
were beginning to pull out of the crunch with all the cut
backs and picking up some paying projects.
2004: We have somehow caught our breath financially
by cutting salaries, and programs we have managed to hold
together. We have expanded some programs such as the Adult
Family Home to help it make ends meet. We are now seeing a
shift in how disabilities and services are defined, which
sometimes cuts peoples service and occasionally increases
the services. This year we have spent most of our energy
keeping our heads above water but there is no real expansion
available. Although funding is drying up still compliance
issues with the government contracts we hold have become
more strict so much of our energy this year has gone into
compliance goals. Community Access has stabilized to some
degree but the program requirements have changed to require
people with disabilities regardless of severity to work or
volunteer. After many unsuccessful attempts we finally got a
small grant from the County to teach a parenting class to
parents of special needs children. We contracted with the
school to teach their Extended School Year program for the
high school special education class, it was awesome, and
purchased a new “used van”, trading the bus for a partial
payment. This year is our 25th anniversary. We have
struggled and faced incredible odds as an agency and are
still in business, that is the good news. We are looking
forward to 2005 and hoping that we can continue to provide
services to the many people that need help to stay in their
own homes and give them quality of life. We hope to provide
more training for staff and increase staffing levels so that
we truly leave no child behind and can provide quality care.
We hope our next 25 years are as productive as our last and
that we can continue to meet the challenges that all
agencies face with perseverance and grace. |
