The next installment of the Practice and Policy Lecture Series, sponsored in part by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS), will focus on the children of incarcerated parents.  “Tell me a Story:  The Reality of Oklahoma’s Children of Incarcerated Parents,” will be Friday, February 17, from Noon to 1 p.m in the Chesapeake Room of the Oklahoma History Center at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in Oklahoma City. The event features Cheri Fuller, Executive Director of Redeeming the Family, who will bring to light some of the challenges facing children whose mothers are incarcerated as well as share an innovative model for keeping families connected.

Fuller is an author and international speaker who has taught at every level from elementary school to college.  She has written several books, appeared on national television and radio, and in 2004 was named “Oklahoma Mother of the Year.”  Children are deeply affected socially, emotionally, and academically by the incarceration of a parent—especially a mother.  “Few children see their incarcerated parents on a regular basis and most not at all,” says Fuller,  “It is difficult for parents to maintain contact with their children while they are incarcerated due to a lack of resources.  That may include the child’s distance from prison and family hardships, among other things.”

Click here to register for the event.  The lecture is free and open to the public.  For more information contact the Office of Planning, Research, and Statistics at (405)521-3552.  View the complete lecture series lineup at: Practice and Policy Lecture Series website.

Oklahoma State University, a consortium partner of the Oklahoma Geriatrics Education Center (OKGEC), is hosting the first annual grandparenting workshop, titled “Linking Gerontology and Geriatrics – Grandparent Rearing Grandchildren: Expectations and Experience” on February 18, 2012.  The workshop will: (a) identify the links between Gerontology and Geriatrics; and (b) apply evidence-based information to enhance the best practices or fill professional practice gaps of healthcare & other professionals working with older adults.

The population growth of older adults in Oklahoma is out-pacing the number of health care and other professionals trained in Gerontology and Geriatrics. The Oklahoma Geriatrics Education Center (OKGEC) is a consortium of institutions across the state that seeks to train health professionals in Oklahoma using evidence-based education specific to gerontology and geriatrics.  This workshop is part of a series of events in 2012 linking gerontology and geriatrics that will focus on three primary themes: (a) Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren; (b) Special Populations of Older Adults in Oklahoma, such as widows and older Oklahoma prisoner populations; and (c) Health and Wellness with a two-part session on information on and diagnostic assessments for Dementia and Alzheimer’s.

The workshop will be in Stillwater on February 18, 2012.  Click here to register for this event online.  For more information about the workshop, please visit http://humansciences.okstate.edu/okgec or contact Dr. Tammy L. Henderson at tlhokgec@okstate.edu or 405-744-8350.

Assets mean economic security.  Yet impoverished families frequently lack the means to build assets.  Some are even sanctioned by public assistance programs from accumulating the wealth they need to escape poverty.  Oklahoma earned a “C” grade from the Corporation for Enterprise Development in a national report ranking states on opportunities for wealth creation and protection, particularly for low-income residents.  That same report says 23 percent of Oklahoma households are asset poor, lacking sufficient net worth to subsist at the poverty level for three months if their income was disrupted. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2011 Financial Education in Oklahoma Conference brings together financial education service providers and stakeholders to learn about programs offered in the state, share experiences, and identify new resources for financial education.  This conference is sponsored by the Oklahoma JumpStart Coalition and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Oklahoma City Branch and is titled “Frauds, Scams and Cons: Protecting Yourself and Your Assets through Financial Education.”  The event will take place on Wednesday, November 2nd at the Moore Norman Technology Center South Penn Campus from 9:00am to 4:00pm.

This year’s conference will arm educators, advocates and teachers with the information they need to identify and prevent financial cons, scams and frauds, and ideas for presenting this information to the communities and students they serve.  The conference is designed for: financial educators, teachers, bank and credit union staff, business and civic leaders, and all other individuals interested in improving financial education in Oklahoman.

Click here to register online or contact Annette Phillips at Annette.F.Phillips@kc.frb.org or (405)270-8464 by Tuesday, October 25. The $25 registration fee includes a continental breakfast and lunch buffet.  The event agenda can be accessed here.

The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy is hosting a Legislative Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Participants at this year’s Forum will hear a state budget overview from OK Policy Director David Blatt and listen to a panel of state agency directors as they explain how recent budget cuts impact children. The state agency panel includes: Mike Fogarty with the Health Care Authority; Terri White with Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services; Howard Hendrick with Department of Human Services, Gene Christian with the Office of Juvenile Affairs and Toni Frioux of the State Department of Health.

Forum workshops will focus on five policy priorities for Oklahoma’s children selected by an online vote earlier this year: child health; child safety; mental health; early care and education; and maternal and infant health. Participants will work in breakout sessions on the five issues, culminating in a policy/strategy vote. The forum will also include a grassroots coalition training session.

The keynote speaker is Michelle Aguilar, winner of season six’s “Biggest Loser” competition.  Her inspirational speech will motivate others to find their own voice and inner-strength as child advocates, community members and business leaders committed to OICA’s mission in providing strong voices for Oklahoma’s children.

Go to http://oica.org/fall-forum to register and see the full agenda.

The University of Central Oklahoma’s College of Business will host Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves.  The lecture and book signing will begin at 10:30am in the Nigh University Center Constitution Hall on Wednesday, August 31, 2011.

The book delivers a behind-the scenes account of how domestic financial problems developed into a global crisis in 2008.  It spent several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was nominated for the BBC’s Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction.  The Economist, The Financial Times and BusinessWeek named Too Big To Fail one of the best books of the year.  Andrew Ross Sorkin is a leading voice about Wall Street and corporate America and New York Magazine described him as “the most famous financial journalist of his generation.”

For more information, visit www.busn.uco.edu or call (405) 974-2822.

The following post by Paul Shinn originally appeared on The Tulsa Initiative Blog. The Tulsa Initiative is a project of Community Action Project and its partners to undertake research, planning, and coordination of pilot programs to support the delivery of state-of-the-art services to low-income children and families in Tulsa.

As Oklahoma’s Early Childhood Advisory Council, Smart Start Oklahoma is charged with making recommendations to Governor Mary Fallin on actions we can take at the state level to better support young children. Interested members of the public will get their chance to review and comment on the recommendations at a forum on August 18 in Oklahoma City. This opportunity comes in the context of a day-long, free conference where participants will learn more about funding early childhood programs and the impact of those programs on children and the state’s economy.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, August 5th, Moore Norman Technology Center’s HIRE program and the Sooner Human Resource Society are hosting a one-of-a-kind workshop in partnership with The State Chamber, the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance, Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, DHS, State Regents for Higher Ed, Dept. of Career Tech, Dept. of Corrections, et al.

The conference, “Barriers and Bridges…Reframing your Corporate Culture,” will address the economic cultures and challenges that develop with long-term unemployment, as well as sessions designed to address employer questions and concerns about hiring those with criminal backgrounds.  With increasing numbers of males and females being released to return to our communities, the discussion is important and timely. Read the rest of this entry »

The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services will host their 2011 Suicide Prevention Conference on Friday, July 29^th at the Doubletree Hotel in Tulsa.  The conference will provide participants with suicide prevention training, intervention skills and knowledge. In addressing the complexity of suicide in our communities, emphasis will also be placed on building resources for professionals and families. Read the rest of this entry »

Oklahoma Assets will host the third in a series of webinars on asset-building next Thursday, June 23rd from 1:00 to 2:00 pm CDT.  The 60-minute webinar, “Individual Development Accounts (IDAs): Programs and Policies that Work!” will show how IDAs offer individuals with low income and limited resources the opportunity to save money for education, a small business, or a home.  IDA participants enjoy matched savings, peer support, financial education and training specific to their savings goal.  Click here to register, free of charge. Read the rest of this entry »

The senior vice president and director of the Human Services Research Division of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc will be the final speaker in the spring 2011 OKDHS Policy and Practice Lecture Series.  Barbara Devaney, Ph.D., will present “Oklahoma’s Building Strong Families Project” on Thursday, May 19, from Noon to 1pm at the Oklahoma History Center in the Chesapeake Room. The event is free and open to the public.

Devaney received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.  She is a nationally recognized expert in maternal and child health, nutrition and risk-reduction programs for youth.  She is co-director of Mathematica’s Building Strong Families study and has served as principal investigator for the firm’s evaluation of abstinence education programs, which received the 2009 Outstanding Evaluation Award from the American Evaluation Association.

Devaney has played a leading role in many of Mathematica’s studies of family formation, children’s nutrition and public health programs.  She has served on scientific committees convened by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She publishes widely in peer-reviewed journals and presents findings at conferences of researchers, policymakers and practitioners.

The Building Strong Families project is an initiative to develop and evaluate programs designed to help interested unwed parents strengthen and stabilize their relationships.

Related information:

• Guest blog post by Scott Stanley on Family Expectation, one component of this initiative in Oklahoma.
• OK Policy roundtable: Should Oklahoma be promoting marriage?

Mobile apps, social networking, and digital connectivity are already transforming our lives in many ways. Alongside these developments has been a growing movement, known as Government 2.0, to apply these technologies to make government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative. As a short film by the Open Knowledge Foundation explains, government data combined with these newly available tools has huge potential value both for governments and ordinary citizens.

Next week, leaders in Oklahoma’s Gov 2.0 community will gather for the 2nd annual Gov 2.0a conference, May 6-7 at the Skirvin Hilton in downtown Oklahoma City. You can register to attend the conference here.

On Friday, attendees will hear from a number of speakers representing city and state organizations, community groups, non-profits and businesses that are interested in applying technology to make our government more efficient, accessible, and accountable. Keynote presentations include Governor Mary Fallin on government modernization and i2E CEO Tom Walker on opportunities in Oklahoma technology industries.

On Saturday, staff from the City of Oklahoma City will host a CityCamp event, where they seek ideas for how to use web and mobile technologies to improve services.  That afternoon, a group of software developers will take public data and APIs and try to build useful applications in a day.

In addition, there will be a free “GovUp” networking reception at Tapwerks Ale House on Thursday, May 5.