This week is
my last week at CDSS, its already Wednesday
and every day I’ve been a little bit more worried that the week is going too
fast and in the blink of an eye, I’ll be back to the wild weathers of Wales.
Before the
weekend arrives and I say farewell to Sacramento, (for now at least), I have my
last set of meetings with colleagues here from across all the different policy
shops, to catch up on what I’ve written about, and to make sure I’ve done their
hard work justice. My report will just skim the top, of what is a significant
amount of new and innovative work across the Californian continuum of care. I’m
so very lucky to have been able to spend time with the folk here, and I know
that back home I’ll be able to do a lot of information sharing, and signposting
to all the different projects that I have referred to in the report,
particularly the early intervention work, and implementation now underway for
CCR. Equally, its fair to say that the team in CDSS have been genuinely interested
about learning from me too, and I have enjoyed being able to talk about some of
the real achievements we have made in Wales. Just this week I have been talking
about Flying Start, as a home visiting programme is considered for California, I
shared TFN’s ambassador scheme, with some former foster youth who joined us for
a shadowing day, and I’m looking forward to maintaining these networks to make
sure that my future work is informed by best practice from America and making
the most out of my new contacts, colleagues and friends in CDSS.
A few months
ago, I didn’t know anything about California, and how the state sought to
improve outcomes for vulnerable people. Now it feels like, I am completely immersed
in it, and although my report provides a good overview, I’m very much looking
forward to chats over coffees with welsh colleagues about how things really
work, and what the landscape looks like. How does Wraparound work, would it fit
in Wales? Why did it take a law suit to develop a new partnership approach to
the delivery of Mental Health services? What is implementation looking like for
CCR? And what do we mean by a Waiver?!
The days
here are extremely pleasurable as I’m now far more able to put into context the
policies and programmes I am learning about, and I have a greater understanding
of the political landscape in which the CCR reforms were developed. In an hour
or so, I’m going to leave the earthquake proof office on P Street that I’ve
called home, and head over to the Capitol building, fight my way through the
throngs of lobbyists, visiting school children and coach tours, and sit down
with AssemblyMan Stone, the legislator behind the CCR reforms. I’m looking
forward to being able to chat to him about what it feels like politically, how
easy it was or not to get the legislation through, and what his hopes are for
its future.
Everything
here has been so easy, I’ve felt very supported and encouraged to learn, I’ve
done my fair share of meetings, and endless amounts of reading to compensate
for my initial complete lack of knowledge, and I hope that I am now somewhat
competent in Californian policy speak. I say every time I blog that so much is
the same, yet also different, and that’s been the real benefit of this
fellowship. To see how someone else does it, and to challenge my perceptions
and norms, so that I can bring back a fresh, objective perspective to bring some
challenge to ongoing debates, particularly related to the ACE agenda, which the
Californians are way ahead of us on.
So, as the sunglasses are retrieved to protect my sensitive British eyes from the glorious Californian sunshine, and the appropriately flat shoes put on for the walk across town, I really do wish it wasn't already Wednesday.
