July 2010

CALIFORNIA

Why 'boutique' social services make sense

In a budget crisis, youth programs are targeted for cuts but their payoff is substantial

A six-year-old girl looks up and tells Rico Riemedio that the lizard she’s holding in her hands is poking her skin with its fingernails. Riemedio, who spent 25 years in state prison and just got off parole, tells her that if she puts the reptile on the lapel of her sweater, it will use its claws to hold on. The girl tries it, and it works. She leaves the room smiling, arms out like she’s walking a tightrope: “Thank you, Rico!”

Riemedio has been out five years and is now a case manager for United Playaz (U.P.), a nonprofit youth-leadership and violence-prevention program housed in a nondescript South of Market building. Several U.P. staff members are former prison inmates and ex-gangbangers. Riemedio’s caseload consists largely of teenagers who are failing out of high school or already locked up in juvenile hall, but he says U.P.’s in-school and afterschool programs for elementary-age children are part of the violence prevention strategy, too. “We want to get to the kids when they’re young,” he says, heating up bologna-and-cheese sandwiches in a toaster oven for snack time, “so when they’re older and maybe on the street, we already have a relationship with them.”

U.P. is the type of community-based non-profit that is often in the firing line when city officials are looking for budget cuts. Critics complain that the city spends too much money on too many nonprofit programs, and that some wastefully duplicate services. Maria Su, the head of San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and their Families (DCYF), told the San Francisco Chronicle last month that “…we fund a lot of boutique programs. And I don’t believe our kids are that “boutique -y.” Considering San Francisco’s diversity, though, it’s hard to imagine a more boutique-y city in the United States. And the thing about community-based organizations is that they are designed to serve the needs of unique populations.

Twelve blocks away from U.P. headquarters, gay and lesbian teens and young adults, some of them homeless, head into the San Francisco LGBT Center on upper Market St. to get a hot meal, a line on some housing or therapy, or an HIV test. On the surface, you couldn’t ask for a youth program that looks less like U.P. In a real way, though, the LGBT Center is focused on violence prevention, too. According to a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) report, 26 percent of LGBT youth are kicked out of their homes when they come out. Many end up in shelters or foster care, where an even larger percentage experience violent physical assaults because of their sexual orientations. Some bail out of the system altogether because they actually feel safer on the street. “A lot of our youth have been kicked out of their homes,” says Roberto Ordenana, who oversees the center’s transitional-age youth program. “We all know the story of young people coming to the city looking for greater acceptance. They come here hoping San Francisco will be a place to be true to who they are.”

It doesn’t always end up that way. Ordenana says 75 percent of his program participants have housing issues—couch surfing, living in shelters, sleeping in parks or doorways. Ordenana’s program uses weekly Tuesday Meal Nights to hook young people up with housing and mental health services that can help keep them off the streets.

Both U.P. and the LGBT Center hire staff that can relate, through experience, to some of the issues their participants face. They employ holistic approaches to issues around violence, education, substance abuse and physical and mental health. “To me, violence is a mental health issue,” says Rudy Corpuz Jr., who founded U.P. 16 years ago after gang tensions led to a violent incident at Balboa High School. “Post-traumatic stress disorder. That’s one of the things a lot of people don’t see. Violence is not a normal thing for kids. Just because it’s happening in the hood doesn’t make it normal.”

Both programs were also hit with six-figure funding decreases earlier this year when DCYF announced $6 million in cuts to nonprofits across the city. The board of supervisors negotiated add-backs last week that could result in funding restorations for both programs, but the process has been challenging.

“We call it the dance,” Debbi Lerman says, adding that fiscal limbo is a stressful fact of nonprofit life during the city’s budget cycle. Lerman is administrator of the San Francisco Human Services Network (SFHSN), an association of nonprofit agencies. “Every year we go through this (cuts) and then the board adds it back.”

Steve Fields, co-chair of the committee that governs SFHSN and director of the Progress Foundation, believes the annual rigmarole of nonprofits hobnobbing and testifying at city hall to secure funding amounts to little more than a demoralizing short-term fix. “The add-back process can sometimes exacerbate the divide between agencies,” Fields says. “It’s one of the most inefficient and frustrating ways to make these critical decisions, although without that option in the system, many critically needed programs would not be saved.”

Lerman and Fields acknowledge that San Francisco’s abundant pool of social services is expensive. Both would like to see a streamlining of nonprofit services, particularly at the administrative level, but not at the expense of programs that effectively address San Francisco’s complex diversity of needs. “It’s all about cultural competence,” Lerman says. “That’s why nonprofits are so successful.”

Fields agrees: “What looks like duplication of services is often responses to different parts of a problem. We have families that receive help across five departments. These services are all connected and we need to look at them the same way in the political arena.

Trey Bundy
28 July 200

http://www.baycitizen.org/columns/file-under-juvenile/youth-services-equals-violence/

____

UK

Joint working: The value of children's trusts

Last week, Education Secretary Michael Gove confirmed that the government plans to reform the way children's trusts operate from this autumn. Joe Lepper speaks to three local authorities to ask if they believe their arrangements are worth saving.

As manager of one of four children's action teams in Reading, Andy Fitton sees the benefits of children's trusts on a daily basis. He recalls a recent case where a young mother living in privately rented housing got into debt and fell behind with her rent. In her frustration, she damaged the property, got evicted and found herself unable to find a social housing place after officially making herself "intentionally homeless".

"Because we have a trust in place, which the action team and housing team is part of, we were able to work quickly to get her a home, address child protection concerns and come up with a package of support to help her, including debt management," says Fitton.

The children's action teams involve children's professionals such as health visitors, school nurses, family support workers and youth workers, all working together in the same building.

Positive steps
Anna Wright, Reading's director of education and children's services, says the action teams are one of the most effective initiatives to emerge from the town's children's trust, which was set up two years ago but was preceded by a less formal partnership group.

The area's children's trusts arrangements are overseen by a board that meets six times a year, as well as a joint commissioning group that meets more regularly to decide where money should be spent. There are 13 partners involved in the arrangements - including NHS Berkshire West, Thames Valley Police and Reading Children's & Voluntary Youth Services. "The action teams ensure that the priorities that are set through our children's plan, such as tackling child poverty, are put into practice locally. The trust and the action teams have brought us out of our silos," explains Wright.

Tracey Daniel, teenage pregnancy co-ordinator for Reading, believes that the joint commissioning role of the trust is helping the area to tackle its high levels of teenage pregnancy rates for under-16s. Daniel, who has a background in youth work, rather than healthcare, explains that historically, teenage pregnancy was the sole responsibility of the local health trust. She says: "This approach meant that schools, youth workers and youth offending teams were not properly involved. Condom distribution was not well co-ordinated, and usually happened through hospitals, not where young people actually went."

Initiatives introduced under the trust arrangement include joint commissioning of a "C-card" for young people, who can use it to get free condoms in places they regularly attend, such as youth clubs. The scheme will soon include local chemists, which will be reimbursed through the trust.

Divided opinion
A peer education scheme has also been set up through the children's trust, where 25 young people have been trained to provide sexual-health and substance-misuse advice to other young people. "We had one teenage mum become a peer educator," says Daniel. "Because of this involvement, she now has a part-time job, is more confident and helps us with launches of sexual-health campaigns. All of these initiatives would have been very difficult to organise without a trust," she adds.

Despite this enthusiasm for children's trusts in Reading, Education Secretary Michael Gove is less impressed. Last week, he confirmed the government's plan to remove the legal requirement on local authorities to set up children's trust boards and produce children's and young people's plans. And while the legal requirement for key agencies to cooperate will continue, the list of statutory partners will be reviewed.

Wright, however, is adamant that Reading's trust will remain. "It will carry on here," she says. "It has made an enormous difference. From police to health and across the council, we have the same priorities regarding young people and can now pool our budgets more easily." She disagrees with the accusation that trusts are a bureaucratic burden, countering that they actually provide a cost-effective way for those working with children to share resources. The council, Wright says, employs just one part-time children's trust manager to "chase people and ensure they are doing what they say they will". Despite the fact that the role is currently being reviewed as part of wider cost-cutting plans, it will remain in place, Wright says, although possibly with the addition of other duties such as co-ordinating the local safeguarding board.

Ben Cross, development worker at Reading Children's & Voluntary Youth Services and vice-chair of the trust, says local charities also want the children's trust to continue. "The trust is very beneficial," he says. "It gives us the opportunity to be a partner in providing and allocating services. This does not feel like a 'Reading Council plus others' situation at all."

But not all trusts have proved as effective, admits Sir Paul Ennals, chief executive of the National Children's Bureau. "Some areas are resistant to the concept and have tried to do everything they can to get around working together," he says. "If trusts are not statutory, the good ones will continue and the bad ones won't. That is a worry."

Another challenge facing trusts is the government's plan to reform the health service. Under the new NHS white paper, the government proposes axing primary care trusts, with GPs taking centre stage in the commissioning of local healthcare services. Ennals believes this will create another layer of bureaucracy and will mean trusts having to forge new relationships with health partners. He adds that the determination to make cutbacks in the public sector makes the joint-commissioning function of trusts even more important. "Children's trusts' time has come. Most people are aware that there is a need to pool resources - it just makes financial sense," he says.

Extra benefits
Care for children with disabilities is one of the main services that benefits from a trust arrangement, says Jo Fisher, Luton council's integrated service manager for children with additional needs. "Joint commissioning, through the children's trust, of services for children with multiple needs is invaluable to our work as we don't have to chase money," she says. Fisher cites a package of services jointly commissioned by the trust for one disabled 12-year-old girl, who also has health conditions including epilepsy. "We have been able to employ a carer, like a foster carer, who stays with her at night. But because we are part of a trust, the carer gets training from a community nurse," she says.

A shared carer scheme - where families of children with disabilities can get a break, with the child staying with another family in Luton for a night - is also funded jointly through the trust. And despite trusts being statutory and being required to involve certain partner agencies, there is still plenty of scope to tailor them to specific local needs.

In East Sussex, which covers a wide rural area as well as urban areas of high social deprivation, such as Hastings and Eastbourne, the children's trust has been divided into 22 distinct groups based on clusters of schools. Higher up the structure there are five regional groups based along borough and district council boundaries, as well as a central trust board.

Dave Ely, children's services manager for one of the trust's partners, Action In Rural Sussex, says this structure is invaluable to the charity's work with families. The charity has been commissioned by the trust to provide support such as family counselling in rural areas. "We really feel part of the trust," he says. "At a local level, we know the school staff through the local groups. At a central level, the trust helps as we are part of a wider structure that has a common assessment framework and is working to the Every Child Matters agenda."

Here to stay
Ely cites a pupil whose behaviour at school was being affected by the separation of his parents. "There were lots of issues, such as conflict over access," he says. "We were able to organise a family counselling session, which included the school and a school nurse, to look at how the situation could be improved for the benefit of the child."

Matt Dunkley, East Sussex County Council's director of children's services, is also adamant that the trust will remain after the legal requirement is removed. "We've already had this conversation between the partners. The trust works, it's cost-effective and is now invaluable to us in supporting families," he says.

Joe Lepper
27 July 2010

http://www.cypnow.co.uk/news/1018431/Joint-working-value-childrens-trusts/

____

VIRGINIA

Out in the open: Family violence in our backyard

It may happen behind closed doors, but the toll that it’s taking on the Charlottesville area is no secret. Family violence costs us: in human suffering at every age, rising costs for mental health and medical care, strained resources for law enforcement, diminished workplace productivity and the tragedy of homeless shelters at capacity. The costs of family violence are real, far-reaching and all Charlottesville-area residents - and all Virginians - pay.

How well are we doing as a commonwealth in protecting a fundamental right of residents - to live safely in their own homes? Up until now, we could only guess at the answer. But, a groundbreaking report from the Family and Children’s Trust Fund (known as FACT) brings together data that highlights conditions for Virginians of all ages who have experienced violence within their families.

Violence At Home: The FACT Report is unique because it looks at family violence holistically, across different types of violence and the entire lifespan. Those findings are centrally located in one report, which measures 18 “social indicators” in eight geographic regions. Readers will be familiar with some of the indicators - the percentage of people living below the poverty line.

Other indicators are less widely known, but can reveal surprising, and troubling, facts about the community. For instance, Albemarle County is among the localities with the highest number of substantiated reports of abuse, neglect or exploitation of those aged 60 or older and of incapacitated adults aged 18 or older, in which abuse or neglect, including self-neglect, occurred in the individual’s own home.

Why would this be true for Albemarle? Herein lies the report’s real power: Its publication provides an unprecedented opportunity for us as residents, policymakers and public and private organizations to determine the answer to that question, and others. Lives depend upon it.

The FACT Report includes hypotheses to questions such as:

• What leads to some communities having higher rates of a family violence and others having lower rates?

• Why are arrest rates for family violence different among the regions?

• What might be reasons for apparent increases in child and elder abuse in some regions compared to others?

Based on data gathered over five years, the FACT Report was created to do more than get us talking as a community, although that’s critical, too. As service providers and concerned citizens, we have a tool that helps identify whether our current services and practices are matching community needs. And, if they’re not, we can refer to a uniform set of data points to collaborate on concrete strategies that help residents of every age and background meet a fundamental expectation - to be safe in their own homes.

There’s no question that some of the statistical information is tough to read. One sobering stat: Thirty percent to 60 percent of those who are violent toward their intimate partners also abuse children in the household.

Rather than discourage us, let’s use this information to encourage, push, demand that resources be allocated based on need and monitored to ensure effectiveness. The goal of the FACT Report isn’t to make Virginians feel as if there is nothing they can do. It’s just the opposite, because so much is already being done.

For instance, in Charlottesville, the Foothills Child Advocacy Center provides a culturally sensitive, coordinated community response to allegations of child abuse. The setting provides a child-friendly atmosphere, with experienced counselors facilitating conversations with families. In 2008, Foothills served more than 140 abused/neglected/victimized children in the Charlottesville-Albemarle community. To provide its multidisciplinary investigation, treatment and support services, the Foothills Child Advocacy Center collaborates with 13 partners.

Understanding the interrelated and intergenerational nature of the family violence helps prevent future harm. Surviving the Teen Years, sponsored by Children, Youth and Family Services, is a six-week parenting course combined with home-based, individualized consultations with parents. The program uses an established national curriculum, and parents and their teens participate together in all services. Most families are referred due to identified risk factors, and live in Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson.

These are two examples, but there are many others. The commonwealth has so many dedicated organizations and individuals that will benefit from a definitive report on family violence across the lifespan continuum. Virginians of every age who are affected by this understand the terrible costs of family violence. Now it’s time for us to become educated and active to eradicate this blight.

Martha Sayler
25 July 2010

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2010/jul/25/out-open-family-violence-our-backyard-ar-349229/

____

NEW YORK

What happened along the way to these boys?

I have become so covered in sadness I could be an ad for clinical depression in a cartoon strip.

Children. Children shooting other children. As I watched the news I saw what I had already known: a 17-year-old boy I had known for years climbing into a police van to be indicted for the shooting of an 18-year-old and an 11-year-old. And I think of what The Daily Gazette said last week when they quoted this boy when he was just 12 years old. He and his family had just moved to this town and a reporter had asked him what he expected from Schenectady. This was his reply: "I want to grow up and be a good man and a good father and get a good degree."

And I ask myself, what happened along the way to being a good man?

This boy, who never really had any kind of a good life and went from one youth detention center to another, whose older brother is in prison, whose life is in shambles. And I ask myself about the two boys he shot and the guns and ammunition found in his home and I remember the last time I saw him he asked for a ride to Wal-Mart to look for a job.

And the two boys on the other side of the line, an 11-year-old with a bullet in his brain and an 18-year-old who lived in foster care almost his entire life - and the shoe could so easily be on the other foot or feet. And I also see by the same paper that another shooter has been found in the Terry/Pittman case, and he too is just a boy, 16 years old.

How many times have these children been told to "Man up," "Be a man," "You're grown now," or "Take care of the family, you're the man of the house?" And indeed, these children live in a land of unreality, too young to vote or drink or even smoke cigarettes but old enough to be men, deal drugs and carry weapons.

And doesn't everything come back to guns and drugs and the "Pimp Walk," which is a special kind of swagger reserved for the young who think they own the world. "How you gonna be a good father if you're dealin' and carryin'?" "You need money to be a father," they reply, "give me a job."

"You need an education," I respond. "Going to school don't get you nothing!" They say and drop out and hang out and make babies with girls who look up to them with stars in their eyes and no hope in their hearts.

I see these girls everywhere; you do too. They're the 15- and 14-year-old girls with the eyes of a 60- year-old woman. Pushing strollers, lugging 2-, 3-, or even 4-year-old kids around. Drop out of school? Of course, they say, "I'm a woman now. Got these kids to take care of."

And then there's the kids, babies mostly; I see them everywhere. Dirty diapers, dirty feet, clothes too small or too big and universally bad teeth. Anything in a bright color is juice to them, even Kool-Aid and dinner can be a store-bought beef patty between two slices of white bread. I've fed kids who didn't know a jelly doughnut from a bagel and who thought that oranges were sublimely special.

Kids who eat dry cereal for dinner and whose baby bottles hold watered down milk and yet more Kool-Aid. We feed these kids. "What do you want for your birthday?" We'll ask. "Potato salad," they answer, "coconut rice," "jerk chicken." Sometimes, they'll even ask for a birthday cake with candles. But it's food they're after. Food, glorious food. As much as they can eat and then some. And then maybe a ride in my car. Just them and me. Moomah tips the seat way back and hangs her feet complete with flip-flops out the window and we do our imaginary beach routine while she waves out the window like a queen to her subjects.

My 13-year-old D is now living with another family -- "Transfer of Responsibility" it is called. Only thing is this house is more of the same, a 15- and 17-year-old allegedly dealing heroin, even the mom is in on the deal. Heroin and ecstasy, the terrible twosome, used and abused, and there is D - right in the middle again. And doesn't anyone ever check into these things before making life-altering decisions? Does or will anyone follow up? I hope so, because I can't. I've already been told by DSS to nose out. And so I do or try to. It's hard to stand by and watch the kids line up like little toy soldiers and then get bowled over by fate.

Ahh, soldiers. The latest book out on Afghanistan is written by a news reporter and a photographer who spent six months embedded in one of the most desolate and dangerous places in Afghanistan, living with a group of young soldiers and emulating as much as possible their lives as men at war. These 19- and 20-year-old men develop a strange camaraderie in this outpost. Many signed up for another tour of duty. "It's as if the dangers of their life turn their relationship into that of a unique brotherhood. All they need or can have is present on that small wind-swept hill." And I think that maybe that is why our boys join gangs. Brotherhood. Just like those who go for soldiers, our children are the army of the streets, the keepers of the city in which they live.

And the guns keep going off and young men die or go to jail and others stand in line, right behind, ready to take their place in the fight . And Afghanistan, or our city, does it really matter? It's just more wasted lives.

Pushing the rock up the hill
And here we are, QUEST, this small bastion of help for so many young hearts looking for a place to move on to and still no one wants us. I met a very good man in a parking lot last night, an ex-minister now working for children in this community. "They called me, you know, they finally called me," he said. And I, succumbing to self pity replied, "They hate me." "Now Judy," he answered, "no one is talking about hate. It's just you take THOSE KIDS." "I know, but everyone is holding meetings and talking about THOSE KIDS but when it comes time to actually do something, everyone walks away. We're a good group," I said, "we get things done and we have actually helped, changed some people's lives, we're in the black financially and we make sure all our paperwork gets done."

"That's the problem," this kindly man said, "they can't find anything to hang on you, so they just keep looking for a chink, a little hole somewhere. You been around too long to let people like that bother you."

"Maybe so," I said, "but it hurts just the same." And it does. The wind of isolation and failure is blowing strongly through my soul. But this stubborn, stubborn woman will get up one more time and push that rock up the hill again.

Judy Atchinson
21 July 2010

http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/atchinson/2010/jul/21/what-happened-along-way-these-boys/

____

US

Teens lack adult shoulder to lean on, study finds

Bonding with a coach, mentor or other trusted adult can make a crucial difference in the way young people thrive in school and life, but a new study from the Minneapolis-based Search Institute found that most Twin Cities teenagers lack such relationships.

Four of five teens surveyed had no meaningful relationships with adults beyond their immediate family, the institute reported recent in its second annual Teen Voice report. The analysis suggests that while many teens are busy with school, sports, work or family, they lack the broader social support that can give them confidence and help them succeed.

"Caring adults, beyond the immediate family, really do matter for a lot of the outcomes that Americans care about, including school success," said Peter Benson, president and chief executive officer of the Search Institute, a policy center for child and family development.

The survey of 1,860 15-year-olds found that the teens showed more academic achievement and hope for the future if they had positive adult role models in their lives. Almost half the teens identified one or more adults as a mentor or someone who "really gets" them. Specifically, 27 percent mentioned teachers, 11 percent coaches and 8 percent neighbors.

But through further questioning, the researchers found that many of these relationships lacked the necessary depth to offer much support. "It's one thing to be friendly as an adult," Benson said. "It's another to give kids the signal, in however you engage with them, that I know you, I see you, I value you."

Few chances to connect
While some teens may be "overscheduled," many have no activities outside school and few chances to connect with adults, said Angela Jerabek, the ninth-grade coordinator for the St. Louis Park schools. Jerabek was consulted in the design of the survey and has a 15-year-old daughter herself. Finding mentors for this age group can be crucial, she said, especially for teens entering the freshman year, which can "make or break" their progress in high school.

Teens at that age start to tune out parents, Jerabek said. But they still need adults to guide them and serve as examples as they deal with turbulent issues such as sex, friendship, self-identity and their hopes in life. "If it's a neighbor or a coach saying the exact same thing that I'm saying, I'm thrilled that they are (viewed as) clever and I am not," she said.

The survey is the second of its kind by the Search Institute and Best Buy, the electronics retailer, which has taken a specific interest in the young teens who will be future shoppers and workers.

St. Louis Park has been something of a laboratory for outreach to this age group through an initiative called Children First. Coordinator Karen Atkinson said the program has encouraged organizations over the past decade to come up with ways to connect with young teens. The parks department, for example, is promoting a junior leadership program for early teens to mentor younger children and to manage summer playground and park activities.

Long-established formal mentoring programs are also changing their approaches to encourage stronger relationships. The White Bear Lake Rotary Club is tinkering with its Strive program, which provides mentors and scholarships to high schoolers whose grades need a boost.

Last year, the club tried a "speed-dating" event in which students rotated among business leaders to make multiple connections. This year it plans to link students with mentors who work in the industries that excite them, said Janet Newberg of the White Bear Lake chapter.

When 'it's clicking'
While Rotary focuses on students near graduation, others are concentrating on the younger teens identified in the survey. Minneapolis-based Bolder Options links mentors such as Glen Desouza, an IT consultant, with at-risk, urban youth in the 10-to-14 age range. Desouza is mentoring his third teen and getting to know when relationships reach meaningful stages. Usually, he said, it's when teens start calling to schedule activities, instead of the other way around. "When they start saying: 'Let's go for a run' or 'Are you coming to my baseball game?'" he said, "that's when you know that it's clicking."

Jeremy Olson
19 July 2010

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/19/2092874/teens-lack-adult-shoulder-to-lean.html

____

GEORGIA

Grant allows system of care for at-risk kids

The Hall County government recently received a grant to help at-risk high school students achieve in school and graduate — and a wide variety of agencies will work together to make that happen. The grant, $94,317 from the Governor’s Office for Children and Families, creates a “system of care” in Hall County. The system connects literacy, mentoring and educational agencies to students struggling with truancy, behavioral problems and substance abuse, among other issues.

“I think any time that we have students who need that kind of support, we need to be a coordinated effort to make sure that we provide them the best services that we can that will give them the opportunity to succeed,” said David Smith, executive director of Center Point, one of the agencies involved in the program.

Center Point will provide mentors for at least 15 youth referred through Hall County Juvenile Court. “Mostly, the relationship involves the assigned mentor being there to be somebody to listen to and support the student,” said Kate Hoffmann, mentor program director for Center Point. “The main goal is to become their support person, listen to the problems that they’re having and then help the child brainstorm about how they can overcome any obstacles.”

Mary Carden, a juvenile court judge, said many kids who come through the court system could benefit from the program. The Hall County Juvenile Court will be one of the primary referral agencies for the system. “These are the kids that don’t get picked up normally on the radar,” she said. “And this grant is for that purpose, to get these kids identified.”

Carden said some of the children coming through the courts have fallen behind in their education and need to get back on track, especially if they move around a lot and change schools from year to year. She said she encountered one student who had never been in the same school for more than a year, and that had hindered his education.

Ava White, of Ava White Tutorials, is assisting with the literacy education aspect of the program. She will train 12 individuals to assist students one-on-one with their reading skills, something she believes is key to getting at-risk students through high school. “Their futures are very limited if we don’t give them reading and give them some tools to survive. We’re really trying to get the drop out rate under control,” White said. “If you can’t read, you’re lost in this world.”

Kevin Claussen, an educational specialist and chief operating officer for Parents Educating Parents and Professionals is reviewing applications now for people interested in literacy training through the grant. Though he said the grant states services would be available for 60 students in the first year, he believes the system will be able to do more. “Honestly, I feel that those numbers are going to be surpassed,” he said. “We got a referral system in place two weeks ago, and we’ve already gotten nine students referred.”

Those students will be able to get the help they need and avoid the “run around” Claussen said is common when parents seek help on their own. He said parents may be bounced from agency to agency as they try to find support for their child. “After two or three times of that, a parent will stop looking for the help,” he said. “So if the parent doesn’t have to continue to look for the assistance and the assistance comes to them, it will provide the opportunity for the child to receive the assistance.”

He said he hopes the program will later expand to include children in younger grades. And the only way for that to happen is for everybody to work together. “It’s all about collaboration,” he said. “It’s about collaboration and agencies working together to make every thing that everyone’s doing work cohesively.”

Mimi Ensley
17 July 2010

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/article/35467/

____

VERMONT

Curfew issue raises question: Where are parents?

After reading Jeremiah Horrigan's article "Woodstock weighs kid curfew"? in the July 8 Times Herald-Record several times this morning, I am left wondering only one thing: Where have all the parents gone?

Horrigan frames the fermenting debate in Woodstock over establishing a legal curfew to deal with kids that wander the streets after 10 p.m. causing general havoc as a conflict between normal "rites of passage" and a potential "civil right"? infringement. Interviews with local residents support Horrigan's assertion as some view this behavior as displays of "youthful energy" that require no response while others offer "reluctant"? agreement that perhaps a curfew is necessary along with a hand-wringing wish that there were "other things that could be done."

The core issue in the Woodstock dilemma lies, however, in what Horrigan does not include in the story: What role do parents and other adults in positions of community leadership play in providing Woodstock's most vulnerable citizens, its children, not its store and property owners, with structure, guidance and productive activity as an alternative to "hanging out"? in the streets late at night? Where is the community initiative to engage parents, local leaders and the town's young in solving the problem together?

Horrigan's reference to Woodstock's beginnings as an artists' colony and its "long tradition of tolerance when it comes to public behavior"? posits one answer to this question. The current situation is a natural outgrowth for a community that has a long-standing reputation for being "laid-back"? "way out"? and "rebellious."? This rationale, however, has long provided a self-serving excuse for those who hide behind the aura of being an artist to avoid responsibility for their actions and decisions. Any productive artist will attest that successful creativity requires a degree of structure, form and discipline.

Interestingly enough, these qualities are also markers of effective parenting.

Woodstock's youth issue unfortunately is not unique to Woodstock. National studies and local news coverage show a steady rise in adolescent crime and anti-social behavior across urban, suburban and rural America as communities everywhere, whether liberal, moderate or conservative, struggle with what to do with kids once they are past the car-seat stage but not old enough to be out on their own completely.

As an NYC educator, I work collaboratively with many parents to develop strategies to keep their adolescent children on track, out of trouble and safe while the parents work, take care of sick relatives or smaller children, or struggle to get their own lives in order. There are many others, however, who abdicate responsibility altogether. They blame external forces — television, music, the drug culture, peer pressure — for their children's substance abuse problems, petty and not so petty crimes, sexual promiscuity, and other anti-social behaviors.

They relinquish their power to help their children shape their lives to the schools, the jails, mental health professionals, community religious institutions, or anyone else that will accept the responsibility because being an involved parent is hard. Case in point, a friend working at a neighborhood diner recounts how when, the diner was no longer open 24 hours, area parents voiced complaints to the establishment's owner that now their children would have "nowhere to hang out" late at night.

So, in retrospect, maybe Woodstock Supervisor Jeff Moran is on to something after all. A lesson about the relationship between responsibility and freedom is sorely needed here. Oh, but not for the children. It's the adults that seem to have forgotten the social contract into which they entered when they decided to procreate.

Magdalen Radovich
15 July 2010

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100715/OPINION/7150311/-1/SITEMAP

____

NEW ZEALAND

Patients quizzed on safety

Asking patients whether they're being abused at home is becoming routine practice at MidCentral Health.

About 12 children each month who have been hurt or are in danger are being referred to Child Youth and Family services from Palmerston North and Horowhenua. At least twice as many more women are being supported and encouraged to get help, while social workers deal with other cases in-house, and inter-agency supports are wrapped around some families.

But family violence intervention co-ordinator Juliet Scott believes there are many more cases that are missed. The goal is to ask all women in hospital, no matter what they're there for, about whether they and their children are safe.

Pregnancy services are among the first where staff are trained and the questions have become regular practice – based on concerns that women are often at their most vulnerable when they are pregnant. Womens's health, children's health, mental and sexual health and the emergency department aren't far behind.

Ms Scott estimates about one in 20 women in hospital has suffered from family violence, but she doesn't have the figures to prove it yet. What she does know are the national statistics. About 450 women are admitted to hospitals each year as a direct result of family violence.

Adult victims of family violence present to emergency departments three times more often than others, are twice as likely to see a health professional in primary care, and are five times more likely to need mental health services. "People who are subjected to family violence are over-represented in health settings. It is bad for your health, being bashed and put down." The longer abuse continued, the worse the outcomes for people's mental, emotional and physical health.

Ms Scott said people were getting used to the idea that they would be asked about family violence, and few were disconcerted. The questions were usually asked in the course of a clinical assessment, with a preamble explaining that staff care about family violence and its impact on women and children. Ms Scott said people were only asked if they were in a safe, private place, which wasn't always possible in a busy emergency department when partners and children and other people were around, or when the patient's more immediate needs had to come first.

The service is due for an audit later this year. Future extensions to the intervention programme are likely to include helping staff deal with family violence in their own lives, and screening for elder abuse.

Janine Rankin
14 July 2010

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/3914199/Patients-quizzed-on-safety

____

WYOMING

Youth diversion teaches better decisions

The Community Service Youth program makes a difference in the lives of local young people. The program partners teens — some of whom have made not-too-smart decisions -- with other community organizations that need just a little bit of help.

Community Service Youth Coordinator Jen Miner is the facilitator who makes it possible for young people from 11 to 18 to be part of service projects in the community. The service program is part of Youth Diversion, so some of the young people Miner brings in are first-time, misdemeanor offenders. Others are connected to a youth group, church or organization that just want to do something good in the community. “She acts as a hub to put the right resources together to get things done,” said Weed and Seed program coordinator Mike Burnett.

Miner’s part-time position is funded as part of Weed and Seed, a five-year federal grant that is substantially supported by the City of Casper. Weed and Seed is a Department of Justice program that was created in 1991 as a community-based, multi-agency strategy for law enforcement, crime prevention and neighborhood revitalization. The idea, according to Casper Police Chief Tom Pagel, is to weed out the negatives and sow in positives. Casper is in its third year of a five-year, $1 million grant. The promised federal funding has been cut each year, but each year the Casper City Council has added money to keep the program going. The federal funding will run out in September 2011.

The program, targeted toward the county’s young people, is part of Weed and Seed’s success, Burnett said. Last year 349 participants and 65 adult volunteers partnered with 37 agencies on 113 projects. Of the 3,300 hours of total donated time logged through the Community Service Youth program, 1,700 hours were put in by young people in the diversion program.

Diversion is for first time misdemeanor offenses such as shoplifting, alcohol or tobacco offenses, vandalism or graffiti. The one-time-only opportunity for young people Burnett described as “everyday kids that make stupid choices” is a wake-up call for those who opt into the program. Charges are dismissed for those who successfully complete a program that includes documented community service as well as school attendance, no additional offenses, drug or alcohol education if appropriate and supervision by a diversion officer.

For 75-80 percent of the juveniles who opt to rectify their bad decisions through community service, the first encounter turns out to be the last. Those first-time offenders who fail to comply with their choice of three to four months of community service supervision instead of going to court and paying a fine, go into the Juvenile Probation program supervised by Judge Steven Brown’s Circuit Court. Juvenile Probation is the next step along a continuum of care run through District Attorney Mike Blonigen’s office. Community Service Youth fills a gap between those who need more intense supervision and everyday kids who aren’t necessarily delinquent, Burnett said.

“It’s not just a touchy-feely, soft approach,” Burnett said about the early intervention program. “We want them to understand the repercussions. It’s designed to get kids engaged in the community.”

It’s “natural mentoring” to put kids that haven’t made bad choices with those who have, Burnett said. Miner’s job is to think outside the box to come up with age-appropriate projects at local nonprofits, line up those who will take part and make sure that everyone shows up and follows through. Part of her job is outreach and coordination with the community, including nonprofits and city departments. She also has mastered the kind of texting and e-mail contact that’s necessary to keep up with the teenagers assigned to her. “Find us the need and we’ll be there,” said the former probation and parole officer.

The Community Service Youth program’s largest effort this spring was done in cooperation with the Youth Empowerment Council. Seton House, the Self Help Center and the Rescue Mission told Miner that one of the biggest needs for the women and children residents was toilet paper. The combined effort that included how to organize a community giving campaign, signs and work at the collection site on the Wal-Mart parking lot filled a utility trailer.

The program has helped out at the Senior Center, Boys and Girls Club, Special Olympics and with the Angels program. There is also an ongoing effort that pairs young people in the diversion program and volunteers from local church youth groups for graffiti removal and trash pickup in yards, alleys and along parkways in areas identified by the City of Casper Code Enforcement. City personnel provide some of the supervision for efforts that supplement what neighborhoods have already decided to do as part of Weed and Seed. “We want to be sure to expose them to things they might not be exposed to, and that the contact is meaningful,” Burnett said.

The Community Service Youth program has become so successful that the biggest challenges now are enough kids to draw from and volunteers to help with supervision, the Weed and Seed coordinator said.

Carol Crump
8 July 2010

http://www.casperjournal.com/articles/2010/07/10/news/news22.youth%20diversion%20teaches%20better%20decisions.txt

____

TEXAS

Childhood obesity on the rise, while physical education credit requirements lessened

The Texas State Legislature recently reduced the number of physical education credits that students need for high school graduation from three semesters to two starting with the 2010-11 school year.

Even though the U.S. Surgeon General has identified the obesity epidemic among our youth as one of the greatest health problems facing the nation today, educators have had their attention elsewhere.

Today’s schools face intense pressure to focus on standardized tests and consequently have placed less emphasis on the broader view of a healthy mind in a healthy body. However, an increasing number of educators and school board members are realizing, as the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) has written: “Health and success in school are interrelated. Schools cannot achieve their primary mission of education if students and staff are not healthy and fit physically, mentally and socially.”

Parents can help prevent childhood obesity by providing healthy meals and snacks, daily physical activity and nutrition education. Healthy meals and snacks provide nutrition for growing bodies while modeling healthy eating behavior and attitudes. Increased physical activity reduces health risks and helps weight management. Nutrition education helps young children develop an awareness of good nutrition and healthy eating habits for a lifetime.

Children can be encouraged to adopt healthy eating behaviors and be physically active when parents:

• Focus on good health, not a certain weight goal. Teach and model healthy and positive attitudes toward food and physical activity without emphasizing body weight.

• Focus on the family. Do not set overweight children apart. Involve the whole family and work to gradually change the family’s physical activity and eating habits.

• Establish daily meal and snack times, and eating together as frequently as possible. Make a wide variety of healthful foods available based on the Food Guide Pyramid for Young Children. Determine what food is offered and when, and let the child decide whether and how much to eat.

Rita Arnst
8 July 2010

http://www.mysoutex.com/pages/full_story_landing/push?article-Childhood+obesity+on+the+rise-+while+physical+education+credit+requirements+lessened%20&id=8530917

____

UK

Afraid on Hackney’s streets

Young people need more safe places to hang out

The festival in London Fields two months ago should have been a moment to celebrate Hackney community spirit, but instead it highlighted a frightening truth about the borough. At 3.30pm on Saturday 22 May, an innocent man was shot through the stomach as he sunbathed on the grass, surrounded by hundreds of other people enjoying the park. Police presence was low and the perpetrators escaped.

For those who witnessed the shooting, and for those who read about it in the days following, the incident rang alarm bells. Violent crime is spreading under the surface of Hackney at the moment, and it is claiming a growing number of lives. Lives like that of 16 year-old Agnes Sina-Inakoju, an innocent schoolgirl who was shot by youths on mountain bikes as she queued for a bag of chips on Hoxton Street on Wednesday 14 April. Or Godwin Lawson, an aspiring footballer who was stabbed to death in Amhurst Park on Saturday 27 March.

Last year the number of teenage homicides in London dropped to 14 – a much-quoted statistic by politicians proud of current initiatives. Yet in the first four months of 2010, ten teenagers were murdered in the capital, and half of those deaths happened in East London. The police have described reported stabbings as the tip of the iceberg, and NHS statistics show that Hackney has some of the highest numbers of hospital admissions for knife crime injuries in London, with 56 recorded last year alone. Worse still, firearms are increasingly on the agenda. Gun crime in Hackney is up 29.1 per cent in the last year, much more than the 14.2 per cent increase across the whole metropolitan area.

Violent crime is often gang related. While there are only an estimated 200 active gang members in Hackney of a population of around 200,000, they create a breeding ground for criminal behaviour. For the residents of Stoke Newington, shootouts like the recent one in Allen Road are rare. But for those families caught in the worst affected areas, the threat of violence is more immediate. Pauline Hemmings lives in Hoxton, minutes from the takeaway where Agnes Sina-Inakoju was killed. “When I first moved here, twenty years ago, Hackney felt safe,” she says. “But now I’m terrified just walking my eight year-old son to school.”

Politicians are quick to champion Section 60 of the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, which gives police the right to stop and search someone if they believe there to be a threat of serious violence. Yet the Act is highly contentious. Ishmael Roberts, a 16 year-old college student, describes being pulled off his bike as much as twice a week by police acting on stop and search laws. “They drive up in vans and put me up against a wall on the way home from college,” he says. “We try to take detours when we see them coming, because they hold you up for so long.”

“It makes me angry,” says Gracian Duimitrow, a 14 year-old student from the same area. “We don’t like the police.”

Governments may perhaps be prepared to overlook human rights considerations in the light of statistics that show that knife crime across London has decreased 30 per cent as the result of 27,000 stop and searches and the seizure of more than 500 knives. Yet stop and search has been described as a sticking plaster of a policy, relying on the idea that potential knife-carriers will be too afraid of being stopped to leave the house with a knife, rather than addressing why they felt the need to arm themselves in the first place. The alternative for many has been to stash knives in public places or to shift weapons onto girls, who are less likely to get searched and thus act as ‘mules’.

Still the message from the top gets tougher. Last November, the then Justice Secretary Jack Straw raised the minimum sentencing term for knife crime to 25 years, just shy of the 30 year minimum for gun crime, despite large bodies of evidence suggesting that longer sentences do not act as a deterrent to young people.

Pat Sands is secretary of the Pedro Club, a youth club and drop-in centre in Rushmore Road, E5, in the middle of three of Hackney’s most challenging estates. “There is an answer to all this,” says Pat. “We need a dedicated, branded youth service, so that there is a youth club in every community centre open every day. In it you need proper youth workers, preferably people who’ve been around the block a few times. Then you pay those people proper money and you make sure everything in the centre works.”

At the Pedro, young people can get free boxing lessons, make music and internet radio shows in the club’s studio, play pool and most importantly stay off the streets. Places like the Pedro act as a sanctuary for the poorest kids. And they really do work – according to residents, when the club was forced to close for a couple of years owing to lack of funding, violent crime in the area increased sharply.

Darrell James grew up in the area and spent time in prison for drug offences before deciding to become a mentor at the club. He describes how, in deprived areas of E5, gangs clash over territory, as young people struggle to assert control over the one thing that can lay claim to: the streets. “These kids haven’t got anything to lose,” says Darrell. “Most of the kids that are involved in knife crime don’t care if they get a 25 year jail sentence. I say train them, give them enough so that when they leave school they say ‘what can I be?’ A guy that knows he can achieve, you can take something away from him. You can take away his freedom and that will be enough.”

According to Christophe Lutard, a play worker at Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground (SWAPA), education must include information about the risks. “Kids become aware of knives by 12 or 13, but they will have brushed against it when they were younger, so you need to raise the issues with them before then,” he says. At SWAPA, where memories of a once notorious local gang called SOS (Soldiers Of Shakespeare) still linger, community police officers have built up a good relationship with local children and provide presentations and workshops to keep them informed. But it doesn’t stop them from being afraid. “By 14 or 15 the young people are very aware of [the threat] and they’re frightened to leave the area,” he explains. “That’s why they carry knives: they don’t intend to use them but they’re scared.”

For many, crossing the line to carrying a knife can start a downward spiral. Statistics show that people who carry a knife are three times as likely to be the victim of knife crime, while 60 per cent of young people serving short-term sentences reoffend. Simply taking the knives from carriers is not enough – children need to be taught earlier about the risks, and given far better pastoral care, especially during rehabilitation.

Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, describes the pincer action needed to prevent violent crime in the borough. She advocates a program of prevention in schools alongside the dismantling of gangs by the borough commanders and Operation Trident, which tackles crime in the city’s black community. “There is very intensive work going on, but we can’t alert the people we’re trying to catch,” she says. And in the meantime: “We need to make sure people have safe places to go and that they have the confidence to deal with these problems.”

To do that, according to Pat Sands at Pedros, you need to be recruiting the right people. “I’ve got five lads outside my club and they’re working in the only way they know, selling drugs or whatever,” he explains. “I would like to go out to those five kids and say ‘I’ve got £20,000 here for each of you who wants to be a youth worker.’ I might not get them all, but I bet I’d get two or three.”

Christophe (of SWAPA) agrees: “There’s always money for big projects but then there’s no money to keep them going, because every time you need funding it has to be for something new.” Pat and Christophe both describe funding application forms that take days to complete, severely restricting access to money, which may be the reason that so few youth clubs survive in Hackney today.

Pride, linked with aggressive territorialism, is often at the root of the problem. The lack of positive role models and the disenfranchisement of young black males in the poorest of boroughs can breed discontent and violence that makes easy prey for gangs. Stop and search, with its dehumanising approach, can only intensify that problem while inciting deep-seated resentment of the police.

Dismantling gangs must be a priority for any politician. Children need to be freed from the fear that incites violent crime. Young people need to feel part of a society bigger than the postcode they live in. Without this, Hackney may become dangerously fragmented.

Hazel Sheffield
5 July 2010

http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2010/07/05/afraid-on-hackneys-streets/

____

JAMAICA YOUTH

Curbing the mindset of criminality

This article represents the thoughts of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), an organisation comprising principals of high schools across Jamaica that has been in operation for decades. The current president is Sharon Reid, principal of St Andrew High School for Girls. I am vice-president, and secretary is Glennor Wilson, principal of Claude McKay High School.

As principals of secondary schools, we have been faced with the impact of a society that has been decaying spiritually, morally, socially and economically. These realities need to change. So, too, must the violent nature of our society, and the corruption which is so pervasive, if we are to have the chance to develop and prosper. We need to give our children the opportunity to be educated in an environment free of fear and violence.

It has been too long that dons and criminals have had the almost exclusive power of monopoly across several communities of this country, and we think it is time that the Government, the security forces and patriotic Jamaicans take back this country.

The current situation in Jamaica, whereby our security forces are seeking to challenge the status quo of dons ruling in garrison communities in Jamaica and to restore our nation to the rule of law and order, calls for all Jamaicans to give their strong support to this initiative in order for these objectives to be achieved. This initiative is a war against crime and lawlessness in Jamaica. A nation must give its support to its troops when they are at war.

At its meeting on June 11, the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, therefore, resolved that:

1. There is to be genuine, balanced support given to the security forces in the execution of the mandate given by the Government to bring to justice, criminals who have been inflicting terror and violence on our society. This should include granting the security forces all the necessary resources that they will need to achieve this objective effectively.

2. The heads of the Jamaica Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary Force are to operate without concern for corrupt politicians who might seek to undermine their efforts in an attempt to protect their party supporters who are criminals. Every community in Jamaica must be open to be searched by the security forces to root out each and every such criminal and acts of criminality. In their effort to bring stability and civility to the country, every effort must be made and care taken to protect law-abiding citizens and give them the respect they deserve.

3. If the state of emergency provided the framework whereby the security forces were able to enter Tivoli Gardens, then it should be used judicially to provide the similar framework whereby the security forces will be able to go into every other such community that exists in Jamaica.

'Badmanship'
This is a matter that must be pursued and given priority because of what we are seeing in the classrooms. The mindset of criminality is affecting our youth at every level and in every part of our island. This phenomenon is no longer confined to the urban areas of Kingston and St Catherine, but has become evident in the schools across the length and breadth of Jamaica. 'Badmanship' is the behaviour that is now thought to be 'hype' by our boys and admired by our girls. The pervasive and rampant oversexualisation of our youth is a product of this culture which sees young girls being demanded by the dons and gunmen in communities across the island. Many of our girls have accepted this view of themselves as being of value only if a man or boy wants to have sex with them. They openly and willingly buy into this belief that a girl's value is based on her sexual activity.

This criminal mindset is further evidenced in the practice of extortion being played out in the schools. Both boys and girls seek to prey upon younger students or the 'soft' ones to extort money from them for their own means. They have learnt this from what our dons have been doing in this society. In addition, because some students are not receiving love, affirmation and acceptance at home, they now look to gangs to provide these needs in their lives. Some gangs are school-based, while others are community-based. These gangs become surrogate families for these students. This is what, after all, they have been seeing in operation around them. "Children live what they learn."

As a nation, we must recommit ourselves to work together as a society to provide a positive environment within which our children can grow and develop to be adults that will benefit our nation. This can only happen if we work together as a community to build strong family support for our children. We must determine to start practising and teaching the values and morals that will strengthen, not just our children, but our nation.

Let us ensure that our children attend school regularly; that they are provided with the textbooks that are necessary; that they are given the nourishment needed for their brain to function optimally; that their homes be places of safety and not abuse. Let us, as a society, make sure that they are not on the streets loitering when they should be at home. Let us make sure that they are not out late at nights in places which even adults should not be.

Let us see how, as a society, we can work together, in the home, school, church, media, security forces, private sector and the Government to create a society where our children can be given a fighting chance at developing as wholesome and productive individuals and, thereby, strengthen our nation.

Esther Tyson
4 July 2010

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100704/cleisure/cleisure5.html

___

IRELAND

Children lost in a system of failures and secrecy

Last April the Health Service Executive published two reports into the deaths of teenagers who died in State care. The reports were heavily edited, but their findings were clear.

David Foley (17) and Tracey Fay (18) had been failed by a social services system charged with protecting their safety and welfare.

The reports exposed the fault-lines of a social work system that was too often “fragmented and disjointed”; instead of structure and stability there was chaos and poor management; successive opportunities to intervene and help change the course of their rough and tumble lives were missed.

Senior officials said at the publication of the reports that their contents were being put in the public domain to ensure there was “absolute transparency” over the services provided to young people in its care. There was no suggestion that the reports were being suppressed, officials said. The HSE had a policy of full disclosure and anything edited out of the reports was for legal or family reasons.

Newly released internal documents, however, paint a much different picture. In April last year one of its most senior officials told Minister for Children Barry Andrews there were “no plans to publish” the David Foley report. The case review was aimed at identifying what, if any, lessons could be learned; it was never envisaged that the report in its entirety would ever be published, the official added.

In relation to the Tracey Fay report, the official said it was not planning to publish this report either. It had received legal advice to say it should not be put in the public domain. It compromised the young woman’s children and other individuals involved in the case. It assured the Minister, however, that recommendations from the reports – aimed at policy, practice and management of childcare services – were being acted upon.

In the meantime, the HSE had launched an “urgent investigation” into leaks of the report which were published in The Irish Times . It was examining its computer systems and had launched an internal audit into the leaking of the information. That is where matters may well have rested. But internal records indicate the reports into the teenagers’ deaths were eventually published a year later following political pressure from an exasperated Minister’s office.

The findings are disturbing, but not surprising. The reluctance of the HSE to publish these reports is part of a wider culture of excessive secrecy and unwillingness to confront failure at a senior level within the service. Take, for example, the HSE’s annual report on social work services, the Review of Adequacy of Child and Family Services, also known as the “section 8” report. It is obliged to produce this under statute. The raw material for the annual report includes regional dossiers compiled by childcare managers in local health offices across the State.

Many of these unpublished reports make for shocking reading. They point to “dangerous” numbers of children waiting to be allocated social workers, or “unsustainable” strains on child protection services. When the actual annual report is eventually published, these comments are generally edited or censored out. The published version contains general statistics and examples of good practice – but criticism by the HSE’s own employees is almost entirely absent.

More recently, the HSE said it was unable to hand over files on children who died while in care to a review group set up by the Minister for Children. The executive said that due to the in camera rule, it could not hand over the files. But commentators like Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly pointed out that it was possible to legitimately circumvent these obstacles where the public interest demanded it.

There’s no doubt there are many social workers who do their best in a chaotic and under-resourced system. But all too often senior HSE management adopt an overtly legalistic and defensive approach to the issues regarding the care of children. The irony is that hiding these failures regarding the under-resourcing of services ultimately damages social services.

Greater openness should not be something to be feared. Reports into failings of social services should not be hidden. Instead, everyone involved in the lives of these children – schools, public health, children’s mental health, youth justice and child welfare – should be learning from their deaths. Greater openness would only serve to strengthen arguments over, for example, putting more emphasis on resourcing family support and other early intervention services. It would also ease the burden on over-worked social workers who strive to do their best in near impossible situations.

The alternative is that inadequate and under-funded social services limp along – and children at risk of abuse or neglect are left to pay the steepest price of all.

Irish Times
1 July 2010

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0701/1224273705063.html

____