Agenda - 01-30-2007-2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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A"rnuvt- _*3 Memo To: Laura Blackmon From: Nancy Coston Date: January 8, 2007 Re: Use of former Orange Enterprise Building The Department of Social Services would like to use the former Orange Enterprise Building on Valley Forge Road as a training center for Work First clients as well as utilize space in it to relieve some of the immediate crowding at our two main sites. The following outlines our vision of how we would utilize this space. Work First staff offices: Provide office space for four permanent, four time-limited and up to ten temporary staff involved in the various components of the Work First pilots. Although the temporary staff could be in smaller spaces, the eight full time staff should have traditional offices that allow for clients to be interviewed. Classrooms/Conference rooms: Provide 3-5 meeting rooms. At least one would need to be big enough to accommodate the Work First training (25 persons). These rooms will be used for Work First training sessions as well as for child welfare team meetings, independent living meetings for older foster children, group sessions for adolescent parents, group training, for potential foster and adoptive parents, and group training for parents in child protective service cases. Family Rooms with observation areas: Provide two child-friendly family rooms with an observation area between the family rooms. These rooms would be used to observe foster children when they have visits with their parents. Since the agency often provides for child care during the various evening training sessions, these rooms could also be used for this purpose. Large conference room: Provide one larger conference room for staff training and for orientation of larger groups. This room could have a divider and also used for smaller meetings. Visiting office space: Provide smaller spaces that could be used by staff from Chapel Hill and by outpost staff such as school social workers. This. would involve a private space with telephones and computer access. This would also allow space for contractors who are working with the agency. Kitchen facility: Provide a kitchen that can be used with participants who are engaged in life skills training. The kitchen only needs to be equipped like a residential kitchen. Often the parent groups and older foster children have activities designed to help them learn basic skills such as cooking and home management. Having an appropriate facility would make this easier. This area could also be available to staff as a lounge since most of these trainings occur after school or in the evenings.