Schools as Hubs for Social Services (Program debuts)

Schools may become hubs for social services

By Paul Egan Free Press Lansing Bureau

   LANSING — Schools could become new hubs for state services including welfare, child protection, job assistance, and even those related to vehicle registrations and driver’s licenses, government officials said Wednesday.

   Bringing services out of government office buildings and closer to citizens fits with Gov. Rick Snyder’s desire to improve customer service, said Duane Berger, chief deputy director of the Michigan Department of Human Services.

   Schools can benefit from increased funding as a result of improved attendance and the state can save money as it reduces leased office space, Berg-er said.

   The human service department’s Pathways to Potential program, which brings state social workers into schools as success coaches, will expand from its start of 21 elementary schools last year to 135 schools in Detroit, Pontiac, Flint and Saginaw by Feb. 15.

   Not only could that program be expanded across the state, but the program itself will be expanded to include more state government services, Berger said.

   “These are going to be more than DHS offices in the schools,” Berger said. “These are going to start to become community hubs.”

   Employment and unemployment services and public health services are among those that could be offered to children and their parents from inside schools, he said.

   “You can start getting really creative,” Berger said. “You can start talking about Secretary of State (branch) offices being there. You can start talking about all the interactions these communities need to have with government, and they ought to be in these community hubs.”

   The governor is interested in placing services inside schools that would help people overcome barriers to learning, finding jobs, and getting access to services, such as health care, Snyder’s spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said.

   “This will be an effort that’s reviewed, evaluated and tweaked over time,” she said.

   Berger said many parents will feel more comfortable and trusting at a school than in a traditional government building. And it’s more convenient for those without easy transportation.

   “It becomes a one-stop shop,” said Sheryl Thompson, the department’s deputy director of field operations.

   Having a success coach from DHS at the schools included so far has significantly reduced truancy, Thompson said.

   Lisa Billops, principal of Priest Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, said her school receives some truancy services through Detroit Public Schools, but DHS success coach Anita Whatley brings extra clout to the equation.

   Parents must have their children attend school in order to receive DHS benefits such as cash assistance, Billops said. When a child doesn’t show up for class, school officials sometimes don’t have a working number for the parents, she said.

   Whatley has “always got a working number, because she holds the money,” Billops said.

   Pathways to Potential has been “wonderful” in assisting students at Priest, and expanding it to more state government services “would be awesome,” she said.

   Michelle Zdrodowski, a spokeswoman for Detroit Public Schools, said the state program supplements community programs offered in Detroit schools and “is also helping our schools become the hub of their neighborhoods, creating a placewhere parents know they can go to get the resources they need so their families — and our students — can be more successful and focused on student achievement.”