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Arlington Human Services Planners
(AHSP) is a partnership of the United Way of
Tarrant County, Arlington community volunteers and the City of
Arlington.
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Office: |
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401 West Sanford St., Suite 2600 |
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Arlington, TX 76011-7072 |
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817-548-9595 |
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817-277-6919 fax |
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Project Director -
Patty Wright |
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AHSP, founded in 1981, is a decentralized planning arm of the
United Way of Tarrant County. AHSP brings
together task forces composed of volunteers and interested
citizens to investigate emerging needs and develop community
solutions.
AHSP also:
• Serves as an advisory body to the City of Arlington,
providing information important to development of human
services and recommending actions.
• Advocates human service policy changes when issues impact
Arlington.
• Promotes cooperation among human service providers in
Arlington, the City of Arlington, the Arlington Independent
School District, Tarrant County governmental institutions and
others.
• Provides focus on Arlington's role in the county-wide human
services agenda.
The
United Way is making a difference in Arlington.
After-school Child Care (Ongoing)
AHSP Community Forum (Annual)
Grant Review Committee for City of Arlington (Annual)
Social
Service Providers Network (Ongoing)
Roundtable
Discussions (Annual)
Dental Health for
Arlington Inc. (Ongoing)
Child
Abuse and Neglect in Arlington (2006)
Homeless Youth
Task Force (2005)
Caring for Our Kids: The State
of Child Care in Arlington (2003)
Priority Home: Continuum of Care Plan for Homeless Persons
(2002)
Accessing Medical Resources in Arlington: A Task Force Study
(2001)
Youth Shelter Feasibility
Study (2001)
Arlington at the
Millennium (2001)
A Place to Call Home: Affordable Housing Priorities in
Arlington (2000)
Arlington Youth Assets and Challenges (2000)
Toward an Arlington for All Ages: Issues of the Senior
Community (1999)
Adolescent Pregnancy (1997)
UTA Continuing Education
and Employment Center (1996)
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After-school Child Care (Ongoing) |
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AHSP was instrumental in
establishing a collaborative after-school child care program in 1981
following an AHSP community study titled "Who’s Minding the
Children?" Responsibility for after-school care is
divided among each of the participating youth-serving
agencies: Girls Inc., Boys & Girls Clubs of Arlington and the
YMCA of Arlington. AHSP works closely with these agencies, the
Arlington Independent School District and the City of
Arlington to maintain standards of care and maximize resources
for these programs. Over time, after-school care has become a
reality in nearly all Arlington ISD elementary
schools. Children now have a safe
place to stay while their parents work. A copy of the
AHSP community study is available from the AHSP office, 817-548-9595. |
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AHSP Community Forum
(Annual) |
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AHSP holds an annual
community forum where emerging human service issues are
presented and discussed. Previous forum topics have
been:
2005: United Way's Community
Assessment and the City of Arlington's Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area
2004: Community Impact/Child Care
Council
2002: Better Health Better
Community
2001: Protecting Arlington Youth:
Be Aware and Be Prepared |
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Grant Review Committee
for City of Arlington (Annual) |
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With confidentiality and
objectivity, the AHSP Grant Review Committee assists the
Community and Neighborhood Development Committee of the
Arlington City Council with the annual review and evaluation
of applications from social service agencies for Community
Development Block Grant (CDBG) social service funds and
Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) funds. |
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Social Service Providers
Network (Ongoing) |
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The AHSP project
director attends the Steering Committee meetings of the Social Service Providers Network
(http://home.earthlink.net/~sspn/) and monthly meetings of the SSPN
Service Groups for Administrators, Youth, Health and
Education, and Aging and Disabled. The purpose of this group
is to promote the coordination of the local human service
delivery system. AHSP participates as a Steering Committee
member, a member organization and by providing staffing
assistance.
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Roundtable
Discussions (Annual) |
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2005-2006 schedule of
roundtable discussions hosted by AHSP:
2005: Diversity in
Community Leadership (April and June); Hurricane
Response Efforts (November)
2006: Youth Violence
(April); Mental Health for Youth (May) |
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Dental
Health for Arlington Inc. (Ongoing) |
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Dental Health for Arlington was
established in 1993 as a result of an AHSP study that
identified the need for a local dental clinic
offering emergency and preventive treatment to
Arlington’s low-income residents. At the Dental Health
for Arlington clinic, volunteer and staff dental professionals
provide oral health care, including fillings and extractions,
for low-income children and adults. Dental Health for
Arlington also provides dental screenings, oral health
education and sealants to prevent tooth decay at elementary
schools in lower-income areas of Southeast Tarrant County. |
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Child Abuse
and Neglect in Arlington
(2006) |
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In fiscal year 2005,
Arlington had 726 confirmed victims of child abuse and
neglect. A 2006 AHSP Child Abuse and Neglect Task Force
determined that prevention efforts
in Arlington should be improved by focusing on perpetrators of
neglect. The task force developed a "Children's Bill of
Rights" and recommended that a public awareness campaign
be created to establish community standards of
acceptable child nurturing and treatment. It also
recommended that organizations and institutions work
together to establish a family support system in an area
of Arlington where the incidence of child neglect is
high. |
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Child Abuse and Neglect Task
Force Report |
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Homeless Youth Task Force
(2005) |
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In September 2005, AHSP facilitated the Homeless Youth
Task Force to assess needed resources in Arlington and
develop a plan of action using recommendations from
previous AHSP studies and UTA School of Social Work
class studies.
Acting on recommendations in the task
force report, AHSP is helping to establish a “drop-in”
service center and ultimately a homeless youth shelter. |
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Homeless Youth Task Force Report |
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Caring for Our Kids: The State of Child Care in
Arlington (2003) |
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Since AHSP began in 1981, it has
paid particular attention to the quality of life led by
children of working parents. In 2000, AHSP decided to revisit
child care issues facing infants, toddlers and preschoolers as
well as those in early childhood education programs and
after-school care. A task force chaired by Don Kromer met
between February and October 2002. The focus of the study was
quality of care, accessibility, affordability and support for
nonprofit efforts.
The task force developed
recommendations for each of the four focus areas in May 2002.
A copy of the report is available from the AHSP office, 817-548-9595.
Members acknowledged the need for a commission for child
care in Arlington that would facilitate and monitor
implementation of the recommendations. The task force decided
that an Arlington Child Care Commission should be established
to oversee child care and after-school care for children from
birth to sixth grade.
In 2003, United Way provided a
planning grant to The Partnership For Children (through the
Tarrant County Youth Collaboration) to facilitate the
implementation of an Arlington Child Care Council. The ACCC
was formed in February 2004, and is a freestanding,
citizen-driven initiative designed to ensure that all children
in Arlington will experience quality early childhood
development opportunities and will be ready for school.
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Arlington Child Care
Council |
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Priority Home: Continuum of Care Plan for Homeless
Persons (2002) |
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In October 2002, AHSP
facilitated a task force that developed a continuum
of care plan for homeless people in Arlington.
Annually, more than 2,500 homeless people stay in
Arlington shelters. More than two-thirds of
the homeless are women and children. The city has
attracted more than $2.1million in additional
resources to assist homeless families in finding
housing and achieving self-sufficiency. |
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Accessing Medical Resources in Arlington: A Task
Force Study (2001) |
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A health resources
task force convened by Arlington Human Service
Planners published a report on
the medical resources and challenges that exist in
Arlington. It included recommendations to
improve health services in the city. Issues
examined were access to quality health services;
diabetes; mental health; substance abuse; heart
disease and strokes; maternal, infant, and
children’s health; dental health; and
educational/community-based programs. The task
force found that Arlington residents who have
low-to-moderate family income, those who are
working but lack health insurance and those who
need indigent care have extremely limited access
to needed health services in Arlington. The
distance to countywide services offered in Fort
Worth was seen as a barrier to adequate care for
Arlington residents, especially those who do not
own vehicles. |
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Accessing Medical Resources in Arlington |
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Youth Shelter Feasibility Study (2001) |
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The youth shelter feasibility task
force was formed to determine whether Arlington would be able
to establish an emergency shelter for homeless youth. Task
force members examined available data, shared their knowledge
of the challenges of youth homelessness and identified
resources for homeless youth. The task force determined that
services for homeless youth in Arlington were insufficient,
but that building a publicly-funded, overnight emergency youth
shelter in Arlington would not be feasible.
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AHSP Youth Shelter Feasibility Report |
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Arlington at the
Millennium (2001) |
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AHSP's Arlington at the
Millennium: A Profile of Arlington, Texas at the Turn of
the Century, incorporates information from United Way’s
countywide community assessment and combines it with
timely demographic, economic and non-profit information
to identify the assets and challenges of the community.
Focus areas include: children, families, older adults,
health challenges and crisis relief. |
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Arlington at the Millennium Report |
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A Place to Call Home:
Affordable Housing Priorities in Arlington (2000) |
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AHSP organized a task force to address the issue of
affordable housing in Arlington. Overall, the focus of the
task force was on housing opportunities for low- and
moderate-income citizens. The task force wanted to examine the
housing challenges that working families face in Arlington.
Recommendations were made by the task force related to
affordability, age of housing stock, credit, down payment,
homebuyer assistance, housing education, housing for larger
families, housing initiatives, nonprofit housing, rental
rates, Section 8 vouchers and transportation. The final
recommendation made by the task force was to educate all
citizens about the lack of affordable housing options, about
the contributions that both renters and owners make to
neighborhoods, and about the need for local and regional
transportation. A copy of the task force report is available
from the AHSP office, 817-548-9595. |
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Arlington Youth Assets and
Challenges (2000) |
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The youth challenge
task force was organized to identify the critical
needs of young people, investigate how the
institutions and systems in Arlington were
responding to the needs of families and youth, and
make recommendations based on the findings. The
task force focused on the challenge to have a
home, the challenge to be safe, the challenge to
stay in school, and the challenge to be healthy.
Beyond the recommendations
for each area, several issues appeared in all areas. The
lack of transportation was mentioned often as a barrier
to accessing services for youth and their families. The
lack of standardized data collection was found to hinder
the ability to identify the number of youth being served
and those on waiting lists. Finally, young people
requested a single, local 24-hour community "hotline" to
bridge the information gap between youth in need and the
services available to them. A copy of the task force
report is available from the AHSP office, 817-548-9595. |
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Toward an Arlington
for All Ages: Issues of the Senior Community
(1999) |
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An AHSP task force of
23 citizens and agency representatives was formed
to examine specific issues affecting Arlington
older adults. The goal was to identify gaps in services
and develop solutions that maximize resources.
Subcommittees focused on caregiver education,
health, housing, and safety and transportation. The
task force reviewed a United Way Needs Assessment,
an AHSP agency survey and input from roundtable
discussions before issuing a report of
recommendations.
In response to the report, Senior Citizen Services
opened a second site for congregate meals for
seniors in Arlington. A copy of the report is
available from the AHSP office,
817-548-9595.
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Adolescent Pregnancy (1997) |
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An AHSP report found that births to teen mothers had increased
36 percent over 10 years, while births to mothers over age 20
increased more than 11 percent. In Arlington, 66 percent of
the parenting students drop out of school. Based on the
report, the Arlington Independent School District was awarded an abstinence education
grant for $580,000 from the Texas Department of Health. The
Arlington Coalition for Teen Pregnancy Prevention was formed
in 1998 but has since declined in participation. The Arlington
ISD continues to receive abstinence education funding that is
shared with Boys & Girls Clubs of Arlington and Girls, Incorporated of
Tarrant County. |
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UTA Continuing
Education and Employment Center (1996) |
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A 1996 AHSP study of
under-employment and unemployment prompted a task force
recommendation to establish a one-stop job-training center
for Arlington. This resulted in the creation of the UTA
Continuing Education and Workforce Development
Center that opened May 7, 2004. |
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