Parent Partnership member urges more compassionate DHS responses and expanded supports

Amber Adams, a member of OCCY's Parent Partnership Board, told commissioners on June 21 about her family's experience with the Department of Human Services following a domestic-violence incident and her later engagement with home-based services. Adams described an early caseworker interaction that she found lacking and then contrasted it with a subsequent worker whose empathy and assistance—arranging grief counseling, housing help and Head Start enrollment—she said changed the family's trajectory.

Adams said those direct-service experiences motivated her to serve on the Parent Partnership Board and she urged the commission to continue elevating lived experience in policy discussions. She asked for more family access to services, increased training for workers and less stigma when families engage with DHS.

Commissioners responded with thanks for Adams's personal account. Several commissioners encouraged colleagues to visit the Parent Partnership Board and to use the board's written materials; Amber noted commissioners had been provided a written record of the board's recent activities.

What happens next: Commissioners asked staff to circulate Parent Partnership Board materials and to keep the board's perspective available for future agendas.

Source: Amber Adams testimony during public and agenda presentations, June 21 meeting transcript.