John Rust Email & Phone Number

Cookeville, Tennessee, United States

Cookeville, Tennessee, United States

Upper Cumberland Region Of Middle Tennessee

Provide organizational structure for statewide networking on behalf of children and families. Work to make available information about services to children and events of interest to advocates and other interested Tennesseans.

Responsible for developing new agency business through relationship building, grant writing, developing partnerships, seeking state and/or federal funding and developing fee for service programs. Developing a non-profit agency, Tennessee Community Solutions, that will compliment the services of Tennessee Community Services Agency. Provide marketing and outreach for agency business.2006- 2009

I am responsible for directing all programming in the Middle Tennessee region for TNCSA.

I am responsible for the development of new business ventures for TNCSA. Currently, that involves securing state agency and federal program contracts for various types of social services. Our biggest venture to date is setting up a non-profit agency in order to have access to additional funding sources.

I have the opportunity of working with different projects within our agency. I currently work as a representative of Tennessee's State Child Insurance Program, referred to as CoverKids, and a state sponsored insurance program called CoverTN. I coordinate registration for two juvenile educational programs; a defensive driving course and an alcohol and drug education and prevention class. I am also a participant in a local Strategic Prevention Framwork State Incentive Grant funded Coalition.

Initiate start-up and direct various agency contracts including TN Department of Health's Diabetes Services Initiative, Upper Cumberland Regional Mock Disaster Preparedness meeting, and TN Department of Finance and Administration's CoverTennessee outreach program. In this position I have been responsible to network throughout the Upper Cumberland region and state to develop new revenue funds, assist the community in solving and meeting social service needs, and act as a liaison between the region and the agency. I participate on the agency's grant development team as an idea generator, researcher and writer. I managed the enrollment of a defensive driving course and A/D prevention course for the agency's Living Safe Educational series.For the CoverTennessee program, I am responsible to market three health insurance programs (CoverTN, CoverKids & AccessTN) and one pharmacy assistance program to all sectors of the community. 2005-2007A to Z In-home

Directed a $1.9 million FEMA funded Public Assistance program in the Upper Cumberland region for evacuees of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This position began with a limited mission delivered from FEMA to the State Department of Finance and Administration to a full-blown comprehensive social service assistance program. The program provides rental and utilities payments, purchasing of household goods and overall case management services to all eligible evacuees. Management of this program includes supervision of case management and clerical staff, budget management, community relations and data management.

Initially responsible for coordinating services to assign tutors and follow up on all aspects of reporting, being a liaison between tutees, parents and school staff as well as other various administrative responsibilities. My second year of part-time employment, I provided assessment and tutoring services to children in DCS custody within the Upper Cumberland region.

Directed all aspects of a multi-site tutoring/mentoring prevention program hosted by public schools and community-based organizations located throughout the Upper Cumberland region of middle Tennessee. I was responsible for hiring and training approximately 30 AmeriCorps members, monitoring each host site and its members, and collecting and reporting data for the outcomes of the program. I assisted the agency grant writer in completing annual proposals for continued funding of this program.

Initially, this position worked with communities in the Upper Cumberland region to assist with grass roots efforts to reduce the number of children entering state custody by mobilizing communities to develop effective diversion, intervention and prevention activities. In 2001, the agency received grant funds from TN Commission on National and Community Service to mobilize communities under the Communities of Promise efforts of Amerca's Promise utilizing AmeriCorps members. Under this program, seven of the fourteen Upper Cumberland counties became recognized as Communities of Promise. This program also mobilized Tennessee Technological University as the first University of Promise in Tennessee.

Initially, I worked in the National Call center answering general questions for customers that included the following areas: billing, service times, complaints, scheduling pick ups and freight quotes. I later moved to a specialty team that worked exclusively on all aspects of freight that customers reconsigned.

Therapeutic Foster ParentOn June 15, 1996, my wife and I became foster parents to a beautiful six-year-old girl. For three years we were fortunate enough to invest our life into this intelligent child and assist her in all areas of life. Duties of therapeutic foster parents included daily monitoring and reporting of behaviors, regular meetings with case managers, educators and therapists as well as attending legal proceedings associated with her care. On occasion, we also acted as respite caregivers for children with therapeutic needs.

Monitored programmatic and financial aspects of the Governor's Community Prevention Initiative. The funding for such programs were given to communities that ranked highest on factors such as referrals to juvenile court, teen suicide, teen pregnancy, children in state custody and low graduation rates. During my tenure in this position, two communities (Cannon and Cumberland County) went through the process of receiving funding for prevention programs that were designed through grass roots efforts. I was fortunate to receive training from Communities That Care for Risk Focused Prevention and Promising Approaches.

Provided assessment, care and coordination of services to children referred to juvenile courts on delinquent, unruly and dependent and neglected petitions. Services to these youth included gathering social, educational, health and mental health data to be used in formulating recommendations to referring juvenile courts. For those children placed into state custody, I also secured residential placements and managed their cases until permanency was reached.

This WK Kellogg grant funded position was part of the Training Resource Center housed at the Community Health Agency. The center's goals were to assess the training needs of social service personnel, provide social service training to local social workers, and drive curriculum change at Tennessee Technological University so that graduates working in the field of social service were prepared for the local job market The position was part of a three person team consisting of an educational specialist

Provided assessment, care and coordination of services to children referred to juvenile courts on delinquent, unruly and dependent and neglected petitions. Services to these youth included gathering social, educational, health and mental health data to be used in formulating recommendations to referring juvenile courts. For those children placed into state custody, I also secured residential placements and managed their cases until permanency was reached.

Provided child and adult protective services for reported abuse and neglected individuals in White County Tennessee.

B.S., Psychology

B.S, Psychology

Bachelor Of Science, Psychology

Agency Counseling Degree not completed