The City Wire Special Report: Crisis continues for at-risk children
by July 7, 2011 11:49 am 58 views
Editor’s note: The following is part of a series of stories The City Wire will post in 2011 about foster care issues and organizations in the Fort Smith region. At least one story a month will attempt to provide some insight into a state and regional foster care system with realities that range from deeply troubling to wonderfully successful. Following are the previously posted stories in the series.
story by Aric Mitchell
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Sebastian County continues to face a crisis for at-risk children. May numbers from the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) showed close to 600 children in the foster care system with approximately 50 eligible homes to care for them.
For John Furness, executive director of Comprehensive Juvenile Services (CJS), the strain hits especially close to home. Furness and the CJS Foundation have been trying to expand their Cecil-based facility since 2005 when a land purchase at Chaffee Crossing presented hope that the facility could be built in the next few years.
However, those efforts have been met with funding roadblocks, for which Furness has sought, and secured, extensions from the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority (FCRA). Should plans for the facility be unable to move forward, there is the possibility the FCRA could reclaim the land at the original sale price and find another buyer.
“I appreciate the FCRA. They’ve been very patient with us. They granted us two extensions, and recently approved the third at their June meeting,” Furness said. “They could have very easily said that time is up. Having the facility at Wells Lake Road, allowing our kids to see the beautiful area out there, and get outside with our supervising staff — it would just really be a nice move for everyone. But we understand there is a very real possibility that if by some chance we’re unable to raise the money, it’s back to the drawing board.”
For Furness and CJS, that would mean possibly confining their efforts to the 80-year old leased building in Cecil, which has cost CJS approximately $5,000 per year in repairs since 1991. Also, the location presents a 90-mile round trip for staff, who transport children to and from shelters, court, and families’ homes. For the 2011 year, CJS has had to budget an additional $33,000, which Furness estimates would be reduced by 75% if the new facility at Chaffee Crossing becomes a reality.
As The City Wire reported at the June 16 meeting of the FCRA, CJS has managed to raise $300,000 of the $1.2 million goal that would enable the 16-bed facility to be built.
But since that time, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, whom CJS was looking to for support, stopped funding “capital projects,” which they consider the emergency youth shelter to be. CJS has targeted 25 other foundations and received six “unfortunatelies.” Furness explained, “Most of these letters always start out ‘unfortunately, due to the bad economy…’.”
While CJS’s emergency youth shelter mainly deals with children facing juvenile delinquency issues and troubles at home, the DCFS said in May that youth in the foster care system are more likely to become juvenile delinquents. Furthermore, more than 270,000 inmates, according to Casey Family Program Values Training materials, were in the foster care system at some point in their youth. While the work of the CJS deviates some from foster care, the goal is the same: re-establish connections between troubled children and their families.
CJS contributes by offering a home for up to 60 days for children who have demonstrated delinquent behavior. During that time, food, clothing and shelter, as well as education is provided in-house, thanks in part to the County Line School District.
A staff member is on site 24 hours per day, seven days per week to ensure that youth needs are taken care of, Furness said. CJS also offers both English- and Spanish-language parenting courses to give parents or guardians the opportunity to regain the respect of their child and re-establish a connection. The planned Sebastian County facility would also allow families to enjoy more visitation time, as most of the children that CJS services are native to the region.
“These are not bad children. They’re just experiencing troubles at home. We have some kids that for whatever reason won’t respond to parenting. Some kids just fall in with the wrong peers, and are being influenced by them. And others are just good kids with really tough home lives. No two cases are the same, but you can almost bank on it that there’s always some kind of family conflict. It is certainly not always the child’s fault they end up in our care,” Furness said. “It is our goal to make sure that families can stay together.”