In Our Opinion: In children's corner
By Daily Hampshire Gazette
11/16/2009
Nobody knows the troubles nonprofits have seen more than Friends of Children, the Northampton human services program. Having just added seven volunteers to one of its core projects, Friends of Children continues to hang on in the face of cyclical budget cuts that make it one of the most battle-hardened programs of its kind.
The spirit of survival shown by Friends of Children and its Court-Appointed Special Advocates program would be inspiring, if it weren't so unfortunate. Efforts to reach and help some of our region's most vulnerable people have become, amid recession and a state fiscal crisis, a hardscrabble affair.
For nearly 20 years, Friends of Children has done just what its name declares: put adults in responsible, caring roles in the lives of troubled young people. Its CASA program oversees the work of 31 volunteers who serve the Franklin/Hampshire Juvenile Court by determining what is in the best interest of children who may be the victims of abuse and neglect. About a dozen Friends of Children volunteers act as mentors to youths ages 14 to 18.
The CASA program lost all of its state funding this year - some $77,000 - constituting 85 percent of its budget. And at the same time, the child welfare system in Massachusetts is itself in eclipse. The Department of Children and Families is paring community services and reducing eligibility among youth in foster care for state services.
Last year, to stay afloat, the small Friends of Children staff accepted pay cuts. This year, it cut hours and laid off a longtime worker. Both its budget and staff have been cut in half in a year. The mentoring program is in jeopardy.
For now, the two remaining employees of Friends of Children are scraping by on contributions (down 40 percent this year); help from the United Way; fundraising and grants worth $40,000 from the National CASA Association.
In its latest newsletter, Friends of Children works its key figures - and calculates its impact - this way: Annual budget: $149,100. Number of volunteered hours: 12,500. Number of children served: 496. Cost per child this year: $300.
The value it squeezes from scant resources is amazing.
Those seven new volunteers in the CASA program, having finished their training, are now receiving assignments from Judge Lillian Miranda. They'll go to work on behalf of children who have been waiting for the right adult to come into their lives. Randee Laikind, the CASA program director, calls the work these volunteers do "pick-and-shovel work."
She means there is no easy solution to the problems the children face, as the state and courts work to understand risks children face and to balance the rights of children and parents.
Digging into unyielding ground is an apt metaphor for the work these volunteers do. It also captures the difficult terrain of child services, in a time of chronic underfunding. Without programs like Friends of Children that refuse to give up, the prospects for happiness for hundreds of children would dim.
That's why people who know of this work keep giving. Some will help it raise money at a women's clothing swap at the Garden House at Look Park on Dec. 7.
Because its staff labors in private and in strict confidence, it is hard for the public to see how Friends of Children lives up to its name. But the difference it makes is real. Judge Miranda says that CASA volunteers often provide the insight into a child's needs that enables her to resolve complicated cases - and to help children find health and happiness.
We wish the new volunteers well, and commend them for taking up the pick and shovel - and for their selflessness.
For the sake of the children: New advocates step up
By Daily Hampshire Gazette
11/05/2009
NORTHAMPTON - Last year, Kim Clairemont went looking for volunteer work. She started by asking herself: "Who needs the most help?"
The answer, she said, was clear: "It's the children."
This week, Clairemont is one of seven new court-appointed special advocates working in Hampshire and Franklin counties, following a period of training and a swearing-in last week.
Volunteers in the CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates) program act as a child's legal guardian in cases that often involve abuse or neglect.
They serve vulnerable children caught in "a system that has limited and diminishing resources to help them and their families," said Jane Lyons, executive director of Friends of Children in Northampton, a nonprofit child advocacy organization.
 Friends of Children runs the local CASA program.
The organization started in 1990 to work on children's behalf after the state of Massachusetts closed its own advocacy program. Since its inception, Lyons said, Friends of Children has implemented strategies to fulfill its vision.
"All kids, especially those most vulnerable, should have opportunities to reach their potential," she said.
Friends of Children supports children in a variety of ways. It provides guidance and assistance to parents while advocating for children. It manages the Adolescent Advocacy Mentoring Project, offering volunteer mentors to youth ages 14 to 18 who will "age out" of the child welfare system.
In the Foster Dignity Project, the group distributes backpacks filled with donations, such as warm socks, gloves and school supplies, to needy kids. At the same time, it raises awareness about the problems and concerns facing vulnerable children in our community through outreach and media.
Friends of Children has faced a decline in public funding and private donations. Until recently, 85 percent of the CASA program's funding was covered by the state of Massachusetts in an earmark in the Franklin/Hampshire Juvenile Court's budget. Those funds are no longer available.
Lyons said Friends of Children maintains the CASA program because, in her view, it is "a vital, effective and critical program for so many of the kids we serve each year."
Today the United Way of Hampshire County, community donations, grants and creative endeavors keep Friends of Children and its CASA program going. "We made responsible cutbacks at the beginning of last fall," said Lyons.
Robert Berenson, one of the new volunteers sworn in last week, is a retired attorney who says he was motivated by a wish to serve the community. The Florence resident found Friends of Children's Web site on the Internet. "I liked the description," he said. CASA volunteers work "in the best interest of the children."
Other new volunteers are Janel Jorda, Sue Larson, Tom Sampson, Nancy Bird and Honey Minkowitz. They join a staff of CASA workers that now numbers 31.
 According to CASA's local program director, Randee Laikind, people like Clairemont and Berenson who wish to become CASA volunteers undergo a rigorous screening, then go through 20 hours of training, part of which involves court observation.
Laikind describes a typical case the volunteers will soon handle: A child is removed from home due to abuse, then is placed in foster care and may experience multiple moves within the foster care system. The child may also have multiple therapists and social workers.
The judge handling the case appoints a CASA volunteer who acts as the child's independent voice and will remain with the child until the case is resolved in juvenile court. This can take up to four years.
When assigned to a case, volunteers review available documentation about the child they will be working with. They interview each person involved with the child, including parents and social workers, and meet with the child at least once a month. Volunteers then submit a written report to the judge.
Judge Lillian Miranda of Franklin/Hampshire Juvenile Court, said CASA volunteers are vital in resolving the most complicated cases she sees. As a case grows more complex, and as lawyers for each family member work on their client's behalf, a CASA volunteer will "look at the case from the child's perspective." CASA volunteers provide an objective voice, said Miranda. "Often their recommendations and insight help to resolve the case."
Meanwhile, reports by CASA volunteers "often get issues framed and get services for the child."
"It can be a very rewarding experience to see that a child's life is changed for the better," said Laikind, the CASA program director. But, she adds, "I always tell them, that it doesn't always work out the way they want." She calls being a CASA volunteer "pick and shovel work." The work is slow and not for someone "expecting instant gratification."
"Things change so much for these kids," said Laikind. "We fight for their needs as strongly as we can." A CASA volunteer, she said, is often "the only consistent face that child sees over the years."
Mass. disparity in social services for children
By Jane Lyons | February 4, 2008
THERE IS something that Governor Deval Patrick's newly minted - and desperately needed - Office of the Child Advocate needs to add to a lengthy "to do" list: Find out why the children of Western Massachusetts don't get the same social service options as children in other parts of the state and how that can be fixed.
When it comes to care for vulnerable children, the inequities between eastern and western Massachusetts include the availability of psychiatric treatment, of group homes and especially, of alternatives to foster care. The state's poorest counties are the counties with the highest rates of child abuse and neglect, and they are west of Worcester. But in those same counties, the evidence shows that children are far more likely to be placed in foster care rather than treatment. And the reason seems to be cost, not what is best for the children.
Simply put: It is cheaper for the state to place children in foster homes in a region of the state where the $17 per day foster care reimbursement goes further for low-income families. So, in Hampden and Franklin counties, families will take in three or four or more foster children and use the daily payment as a secondary or even primary source of household income.
This is not to say that the foster parents are not good - there are incredibly dedicated and gifted foster parents who are increasingly called upon to provide for extremely troubled children. However, in far too many cases, this has led to inappropriate placements where young, vulnerable children, for example, are housed with troubled and sometimes dangerous teens in a home where monitoring is insufficient or sporadic.
How bad has this become? In some foster homes, the state has taken to affixing "alarms" to the bedroom doors of older children known to prey sexually on younger children in hopes of at least alerting foster parents that the troubled child is out of bed and younger children are at risk. There is no stronger sign that a system is overstrained to the point of breaking than knowingly placing dangerous children with vulnerable children. But in underserved Western Massachusetts, there are simply too few choices.
The facts speak for themselves: In Western Massachusetts more than eight out of 10 children removed by the state from their homes are placed in foster care. In the eastern end of the state, the number is closer to six out of 10. Children who should be receiving a higher level of care than being placed in a foster home are getting it in the communities around Boston. They are being placed in group homes or residential treatment programs with trained staff. They are being seen in a psychiatric setting. They are receiving their education in the place they live rather than being shuttled from home to home and school to school.
The numbers are stark. In the area immediately surrounding Boston, a third of the children - 32 percent - are in residential care. In Boston itself, a quarter of the children are in residential care. But in Western Massachusetts, only 13 percent of children are in residential treatment - and that is often in a facility on the other side of the state or in different counties, miles away from whatever family or support system they may have. It is not that these children don't need the help that such a setting would offer; it is that the facilities do not exist. To be blunt: It is cheaper to stick them in foster care than to provide the kinds of settings that may actually help these kids and are readily available in the eastern part of the state.
All of us struggling daily to help battered and neglected children are thankful that the new Office of the Child Advocate finally gives us a place to turn and be heard. Now we hope that advocate listens to the children of Western Massachusetts.
Jane Lyons is the executive director of Friends of Children, an independent, nonprofit child advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in Western Massachusetts. 
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