COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

County Manager's Office

DATE:

June 19, 2003

BOARD MEETING DATE:

July 15, 2003

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

John Maltbie, County Manager

SUBJECT:

Employee of the Month for July 2003

Recommendation

Honor Joanne MacDonald as Employees of the Month for July 2003 and authorize the President of the Board to sign the commendation.

Background

The Employee of the Month program was established in December 1984 to recognize and honor County employees who consistently demonstrate an outstanding level of performance.

Our Employee of the Month for July 2003 is Joanne MacDonald, Senior Public Health Nurse in the Public Health Division of the Health Services Agency.

Discussion

Joanne MacDonald has served the County with dedication and enthusiasm since 1981. Joanne has served in her current role since 1999, and brings her considerable nursing, supervisory, and leadership skills to this role. She supervises nursing staff and community workers in the State-funded Adolescent Family Life Program, the State-funded Adolescent Sibling Pregnancy Prevention Program, the Cal-Learn program, the School Aged Mothers Program, and the Federally-funded Adolescent Family Life Project.

Joanne's excellent leadership in large part resulted in receipt of a second competitive 5-year funding cycle for the Federal Adolescent Family Life Project - the only governmental site funded for case management services in California. In addition, her excellent supervision has resulted in expansion and strengthening of the County's State-funded teen programs over the last 4 years.

As a result of these programs, and others serving teens in San Mateo County, we have seen a decrease of teen births from the high point of 43.5 births per 1,000 teen girls (aged 15-19) in 1993 to 24.6 births per 1,000 in 2001. In addition, teens served in the Federal Adolescent Family Life Program have the same outcomes as teens not served in the program, despite being of lower socioeconomic status. New resources developed in San Mateo County include a Young Mother's Advisory Council, Young Dad's Group and case management services for young fathers, the Ravenswood Educational Fair for middle school students, and support groups for teen mothers. In one recent highlight, a teen mother in the Young Mother's Advisory Council just received a $25,000 scholarship to pursue education in a health services field.

Finally, Joanne has been a longtime participant in collaborative activities in the County, working with the Teen Pregnancy Coalition of San Mateo County, the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Network, the Adolescent Collaborative Action Team, the Prenatal to Three Initiative, and others.

Our County is fortunate to have Joanne MacDonald as one of its outstanding employees.

Vision Alignment

This item keeps the commitment of responsive, effective and collaborative government through goal number 21: County employees understand, support and integrate the County vision and goals into their delivery of services.