Gownley Submitted Luzerne County Children, Youth and Families Director Katrina Gownley has rounded up information to show her agency is genuinely trying to help children and their families.
While child placement with strangers is sometimes unavoidable due to abuse and neglect, Gownley said the agency has been positioning itself as a compassionate resource so parents and other caretakers can get support to prevent problems from spiraling out of control.
“This past year we really worked on mending our relationship with the community,” said Gownley, who started overseeing the agency in February 2023.
“It takes a village to protect kids — not just our agency. We don’t want anyone to be afraid to ask for help.”
An example of prevention is a pantry at the agency on Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre created through a partnership with the Commission on Economic Opportunity.
It started out as a food pantry but has expanded to meet a range of other basic needs — plates and utensils, clothing, personal hygiene items, diapers — the list goes on. Gownley said cleaning supplies were added because some families indicated they were having trouble paying for them.
“Our goal is to help families initially so that they do not need to become entrenched in the system,” Gownley said.
Student needs
Another preventative measure: a unit housing agency employees in schools to reduce truancy and collaborate with schools “for the good of the students” — always with the goal of preventing child abuse/neglect, Gownley said.
The agency recently hired a school-based supervisor to oversee caseworkers who will be stationed in several school districts starting with the upcoming school year. Gownley said she will work to expand the program to all districts.
Agency presence in schools should help caseworkers get to know children and their needs, which can sometimes be a simple fix, she said. For instance, schools periodically call the agency to report students coming to school with no coats in frigid temperatures. Instead of addressing the matter through the agency referral system, the school caseworkers can immediately secure coats to solve the problem on the spot, she said.
“We’re trying to have workers do preventative measures so families never end up getting referred to us,” she said.
Five and under
The agency has dedicated an entire unit focused on families with children five and under.
In 2025, the agency will be forming a steering committee with all providers serving this vulnerable population to identify new ways to prevent abuse/neglect, she said.
For the past year, the agency has been holding weekly reviews with the state and community agencies to stay on top of concerns and preventative solutions, she said.
Outreach
Gownley is quick to stress no one entity has all the answers and said she has been making it clear her agency is “open for discussion” because it cannot operate in a bubble.
The agency has been working closely with other county human service agencies and outside providers, meeting regularly to discuss services that would benefit county children, she said. Topics include service gaps, housing needs and community issues, she said.
Gownley also is big on communication and said interactions with state agencies and the agency’s relationship with the court system have “greatly improved this past year.”
Her outreach plan also extends to the community. The agency and its citizen advisory board attended the weekly Wilkes-Barre’s Farmers Market on Public Square to provide information on summer safety. Agency staffers also have been attending events to hand out child abuse prevention information and sponsoring special events, such as a “Halfway to Halloween Trunk or Treat” in April.
Improvement proof
Gownley cites decreasing foster care numbers as a sign initiatives “to keep families together” are working.
In 2022, the agency had a high of 517 children placed in the foster care system.
Today, the total is 357.
Instead of dictating a plan to address a family’s problems, the agency now informs families of all applicable options and involves them in deciding which is best, Gownley said. Efforts also are made to involve relatives and friends equipped to provide family support and help assure the safety of children, she added.
“We’re empowering them,” she said.
Gownley said the agency also has a high rate of kinship placement.
“This is great news as the children in our county continue to be with family and not strangers and will have forever connections,” she said.
Family engagement
County council agreed in May to change the agency name from Children and Youth Services to Children, Youth and Families to emphasize the family engagement mission.
Gownley said the name change and many of the strategies she has implemented largely stem from the agency’s participation in the state’s “Family Engagement Initiative” through the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, which started in September 2023.
The initiative increases collaboration between the agency, judiciary and families to reduce the number of children placed with strangers in foster care, she said.
Meaningful family involvement increases the likelihood that children will safely remain in their own home or will be placed with family if out-of-home placement is necessary, she said. In addition, the initiative focuses on the wellbeing of both the child and the entire family.
Gownley said the agency’s selection to participate in the initiative was a “tremendous honor” and also demonstrates the strides it has made to “mend its reputation throughout the Commonwealth.”
County officials announced last September that the agency’s license was fully restored.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services had kept the agency on a downgraded provisional license since August 2021, a month after past administrator Joanne Van Saun’s termination due to criminal charges against her over failing to investigate child abuse and neglect allegations.
Officials have largely attributed the license turnaround to Gownley, who came to the county with 20 years of child welfare experience in Northumberland County, where she held positions as a child protective services/intake caseworker, supervisor, director and the top administrator for seven years.
Staff
Because more agency staff vacancies have started getting filled, Gownley reactivated a quality assurance department to help ensure all state regulations and requirements are met, she said.
This department has two employees, with a third planned. One primarily tracks files to make sure caseworkers complete all mandated checks within deadline. The other monitors contracts to verify providers are completing specified services.
The checks should cut down on past audit findings of missed deadlines and paperwork, she said.
Regarding vacancies, the agency currently has approximately 43 open caseworker positions, which is an improvement from the 50 or so when she started, she said.
Gownley also started monthly staff meetings and created a work environment improvement team that meets weekly to address concerns that could impact retention and morale.
The agency also has been working with the University of Pittsburgh to provide staff leadership and team-building, she said.
County Manager Romilda Crocamo highlighted Gownley and the agency in her recent “Luzerne County Works” presentation.
“We had a dark period with that department, but we have risen like a phoenix, and we actually do have other counties that are calling us to ask us how we are doing things,” Crocamo had said.
The name change emphasizes the agency’s mission to help families, Crocamo added.
“We wanted people to understand that that’s the purpose. It’s not to take children away. It’s not to break up families. It’s to support families,” she said.
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