Advisory Council and Work Groups
Advisory Council
The Council on Children and Families serves as the Advisory Council for this
project. This Council has thirteen members—the five Commissioners of
the Children’s Cabinet, three Senators appointed by the President of
the Senate, four Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House, and
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Work Groups
In addition to the Advisory Council, six workgroups will strengthen the Advisory
Council by broadening the base of participation and adding diversity of perspectives.
Each workgroup will have at least five members with at least one member from
the Advisory Council who will serve as chair, one OSA staff person who will
manage the work, and several community members representing youth, parents,
educators, law enforcement, service providers, and prevention specialists.
Each group will make sure that diversity is addressed as part of their planning
and operation. The workgroups identified are:
The Needs and Gaps Workgroup will reviewed the needs data
identified in the RFP, as well as the descriptions of existing programs,
strategies and services,
in order to identify both funding and programmatic gaps. The workgroup
will analyze as part of its process of identifying and filling gaps:
- Geographic issues, as they relate to funding availability, population
density, unique rural/urban settings for prevention services, and the
skill level/professional
development needs of prevention providers.
- Cultural diversity and cultural
competence needs, and related geographic distribution issues, as they relate
to unique cultural populations (i.e. reservation-based
Native Americans, migrant Hispanic farm workers, the Deaf community, Franco-Americans
along Maine’s northern border, and immigrant neighborhoods in Portland).
Risk and protective factor priorities at the regional and community level.
Having completed this analysis, the Workgroup may elect to target particular
areas of need in the state – by age, gender, locality, ethnicity, and/or
other relevant factors. It is also anticipated that the Workgroup will refine
the preliminary efforts already underway to identify science-based prevention
strategies that can be carefully targeted based on local risk and protective
factor priorities. Contact Person: Becca Matusovich, 207-287-6415, Rebecca.Matusovich@maine.gov .
The Strategies and Grant Award Workgroup will have two primary
functions: to identify the best science-based prevention approaches for the
needs identified and to oversee the sub- recipient grant award process. The
Workgroup will incorporate the conclusions of the Needs and Gaps Workgroup,
research all relevant approaches and develop appendix materials with references
and resource material. Applicants will be offered a variety of resource materials
including CAPT publications and the DSS developed by CSAP. Chair: Susan Savell
; Contact Person: Linda Williams
The Oversight and Technical Assistance Workgroup will be responsible
for monitoring awards and for making technical assistance available in areas
such as strategies, communications, and grant management. In the first quarter
of Year Two, subrecipients will begin program implementation. Throughout the
grant period, subrecipients will meet quarterly with SIP personnel, and representatives
of the Oversight and Technical Assistance Workgroup. At these meetings needs
for ongoing technical assistance will be identified. The OSA has many training
and technical assistance resources including Best Practice Forums, C4C, and
a strong partnership with the Northeast Center for Applied Prevention Technology
(CAPT). CAPT’s
Education Development Center (EDC) will provide technical assistance and
training to the Advisory Council and One ME staff throughout the grant period.
Chair: Brenda Joly. Contact Person: Lee Anne Dodge
The Evaluation Workgroup oversees
the work of the evaluators and serves as liaison between
the evaluators and the sub recipients. Two evaluation
firms play key roles: Research Triangle Institute (RTI)
of North Carolina who conducts the project’s overall
evaluation and in-state consultants, Hornby Zeller Associates,
Inc., (HZA) who conducts individual evaluations of subrecipients’
programs and provide technical assistance to subrecipients.
Project staff and RTI worked with the Advisory Council
to finalize the evaluation plan. HZA trains the community
subrecipients on data collection and data base management.
Chair: Roger Richards. Contact person: Meredith Fossel
The Public Communications Workgroup
works as a "think tank" in the area of public
communications for One ME Coalitions. Our goal is to
develop a media plan to maximize public understanding
and community support for effective prevention practices.
Chair: Senator Beth Edmonds. Contact Person: Meredith
Fossel
The Leveraging and Finance Workgroup will consist of experts in federal and
state funding streams and project finance. This workgroup will review the funding
opportunities for substance abuse prevention identified in the proposal. It
will work with the state budget office to assure that no funding sources have
been overlooked. The group will review the plan for leveraging laid out in
the proposal and will suggest any needed modifications to the Advisory Council.
It will produce a finance strategy paper, which will govern the leveraging
and use of funds. One effort of the workgroup will be to do informal cost-benefit
analyses and make recommendations for the continuation of the most cost-effective
programs. By Year Three, there will be a plan for sustained funding. This workgroup
will have members appointed and convene at a later date.
Chair: TBA. Contact Person: Linda Williams
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