An Open Letter to the Board of Child and Family Agency & the Citizens of New London

Three weeks ago, through an ad in this newspaper, nearly 100 parents and citizens asked the Board of Child and Family Agency to meet with parents to discuss the dismissal of the B.P. Learned Mission’s Director. We believe this person was fired for expressing safety concerns with the plans Child and Family Agency has for reducing staffing at the Mission in preparation, we believe, for closing the Mission once the merger agreement between Child and Family Agency and the previous Mission Board expires.

When parents attempted to speak to the Child and Family Board at its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 17, they were refused that opportunity by the agency’s CEO and the board chairman. Their treatment of these Black and Latino parents was both insulting and disrespectful.

Since then the Board of Child and Family Agency has made no effort to discuss this matter with the parents of the Mission. Instead, the parents have been given meaningless messages that the Mission is “headed in a new direction.” When parents ask: “What is that new direction?” They are told, “We are not at liberty to share that information.”

Really!

Here is what parents have observed: 1. Connecticut College students and other volunteers that once joined staff in helping the children are no longer at the Mission. We ask: Why is that? 2. The elimination of volunteers and reduction in agency staff has resulted in children not getting the homework help they need and being interrupted in doing their work to move to another space (to remain, we imagine, in “ratio”). This “ratio” issue extends to all other aspects of the program. 3. Since there is not enough staff, all other aspects of the Mission’s activities (like the annual Halloween Children’s Show) have been cancelled. It would seem that the “new direction,” that no one is permitted to discuss, is to drive every ounce of joy that once filled the Mission out of existence.

Three weeks ago parents asked the Board meet with them to discuss the firing of the Mission’s director. We do not understand the reasoning behind these drastic and unnecessary changes to the Mission when a kind and caring area philanthropist had indicated her willingness to underwrite the Mission’s deficit as alternative plans are explored.

We, again, ask that the full Board of Child and Family Agency meet with the parents and a growing number of interested city residents to discuss these matters and to explain to us and others why this city should believe that Child and Family Agency has the best interests of the city’s children at heart.

Why, for example, should the Board of Education continue to do business with Child and Family Agency? Would not New London be doing better by its children if school-based health and other services were offered by an agency that valued New London’s children over a desire to use the Mission for office space?

Hiding from the parents of New London will not make the hurtful actions you’ve taken against the children of the Mission go away. Rather, stepping up and explaining in a public setting your behavior and the future intentions for the Mission is the right and proper thing to do. To do otherwise, would be both shameful and disrespectful on your part toward the Black and Latino children the Mission once served with distinction.

Keesha Croft and the parents and friends of New London’s children