Partnerships for child welfare across systems
April — Child Abuse Prevention Month and Volunteer Appreciation Month — is an occasion both to enhance related systems and to recognize how fundamentally those systems are connected, with collaboration an element in their success.
In Connecticut and beyond, from the governor and legislators to the White House, there are proposals to boost mental health as the pandemic exposed and aggravated problems: for children (from babies to adolescents) and adults in their lives. Among areas for action: schools and remote learning; affordable housing; domestic violence and other trauma; the substance-use epidemic; a gulf between the prosperous and the precarious. Barriers of race, language, and culture can intervene, too.
Lives that are secure or insecure, futures on track or impeded — these are differences children and families experience, nowhere more starkly than in Connecticut. To narrow disparities and improve children’s trajectories, much has to happen. It is a matter of resources and how they are used — both individuals’ decisions and the options and support they receive.
Dollars — and more
From an expanded federal child tax credit (which eased poverty in 2021 but is not permanent) to a bigger earned income tax credit proposed, certain measures involve income. Higher wages, more predictable work schedules, increased benefits, affordable child care (with child care professionals paid better) are all necessary. Elected and business leaders are moving some of this forward.
Much else, from school counseling and health centers to clinical mental health resources to housing capacity, needs addressing. A bipartisan consensus is emerging on, for instance, mental health and early childhood.
Results for the neediest children and families could take many months, if not years. Existing systems and professionals demand greater support and integration.
An example of agencies that have made progress, while requiring further attention, is the constellation around child welfare. With a federal judge’s decision, the Department of Children and Families emerged from a decades-old consent decree that saw staffing and conditions improve. DCF is embracing the federal Family First Prevention Services Act with a plan emphasizing preventive, less intrusive aid where feasible. The number of children in foster care dropped one-fifth in the last two years. And the department is listening to “voices for children” as well as to youths’ own voices — e.g., through SUN Scholars.
The child welfare system comprises not just DCF but the judicial branch, lawyers, and aspects of agencies like DMHAS, DDS and DSS, as well as schools, health clinics, therapists, and community organizations from early childhood to after school. Thousands of caring professionals are devoted to the work.
Still, this “system” is sprawling; gaps prompt its “reimagining.” Professionals have heavy caseloads. Even in Connecticut — where the social safety net is relatively sturdy but living costs high — families often struggle. Challenges include: to stay in homes, feed and clothe children adequately, see to their medical and dental needs, ensure they attend and keep up in school, and enjoy anything remotely resembling extracurricular and summer opportunities many other families take for granted. Substance use, intimate-partner violence, and mental illness heighten these challenges.
Neglect more common than abuse
Child neglect is far more common than outright abuse. Preventing both is crucial to healthy growth and children’s prospects academically and socially/emotionally.
April is a time to focus on ways families — with professionals from realms including law, education, and social services — can prevent harm to children year-round. It’s also a time to recognize volunteers’ role in supporting youth development.
Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers are among those filling such complementary roles. The CASA movement is gaining momentum, drawing dedicated men and women from their 20s to their 70s to advance the best interests of children who have experienced abuse or neglect. Participating in Protective Supervision as well as Foster Care cases, CASA volunteers can reinforce prevention objectives and — as part of a team with DCF, attorneys, and others — rally resources for children and families, while informing judges’ decisions.
A proven approach
The CASA approach is associated with increased stability and permanency for children, as those with CASA volunteers are only half as likely to return to the foster care system, have one-third fewer placements, and spend 25 percent less time in the system. There is a one-on-one connection to an adult and greater access to community services through the sustained, resourceful efforts of that caring adult.
The hope is to keep families together when safely possible, and if not, to reunify them in a timely way, if in the child’s best interest. Guardianship, with kin if feasible, or adoption may prove necessary. The aim: safe, permanent homes where children thrive.
A child with a CASA volunteer, on average, will receive a significantly higher number of services; is more likely to perform better academically and behaviorally in school; and will report significantly higher levels of hope associated with positive outcomes such as increases in self-control, and positive social relationships.
We thank volunteers, in this movement and others — from tutoring and coaching to food banks and blood drives — who improve our communities and enhance prospects for young people. Every day, such committed citizens make a meaningful difference.
Samantha Power, who originated the term “upstander,” observes: “People who care, act, and refuse to give up may not change the world, but they can change many individual worlds.”
That’s the CASA spirit. Channeled through a movement, in the context of broader systems, such volunteers can help professionals, families, and children themselves to shape a better future.