Helping kids: What works is what counts

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne is coming to North Idaho in early June to hear what works with struggling children in the Panhandle.

Michelle Britton, director of the state Department of Health and Welfare’s North Idaho operations, wants plenty of people to show up at the daylong meeting the governor will hold in Coeur d’Alene on June 6 and share with him the successes they’ve experienced.

“We tend to focus on the deficits, what’s not working,” Britton said Thursday. “We can’t ignore those, but we need to build on our assets.”

The governor’s Coordinating Council for Children and Families, co-chaired by Kempthorne’s wife Patricia, has held round-table discussions annually in every region of the state for five years. The sixth Governor’s Round Table is focusing on promising community endeavors to help children with emotional problems.

“For instance, a youth charged with a felony who’s in the juvenile detention center,” Britton said. “He has a history of petty theft, comes from an unstable family, won’t talk about his circumstance and shows no remorse. We could write him off as a hopeless case.”

But a closer look at the boy might show an uncle and siblings to whom he’s close and his strong interest in music. Those are strengths on which Health and Welfare’s children’s mental health program is learning to capitalize to turn around the lives of such kids, she said. Workers in the program recently participated in a training program on how to focus on strengths.

Other groups and organizations in North Idaho that work with kids have successes they need to share with a larger audience, Britton said. She encouraged those groups to attend the round-table meeting.

The Council for Children and Families will meet at the Coeur d’Alene Inn, noon to 5 p.m., June 6. The meeting is open to the public. It costs $20 and includes lunch.

The meeting will open with lunch and a presentation by Gov. Kempthorne. After lunch, John Allen , who runs the Western Regional Rural Development Center at Utah State University, will explain how communities can use their assets better.

Afternoon workshops will include more on community asset mapping, risks Idaho families face and how resilient they are, a strength-based approach to children with serious emotional disturbances and the strategies of fund-raising.

Kempthorne also will use the meeting to thank North Idaho’s National Guard and collect donations of school supplies for the division to distribute to Iraqi children. He’ll also collect donations of healthy, non-perishable snacks, such as granola bars or beef jerky, for soldiers while they’re on patrol.

The round-table meeting has space for 180 participants. Half the seats are sold. Registration deadline is May 27.

To register, go to www.gccfc.idaho.gov/RegionalRoundtables or call 769-1515.