Faith Works 3-10-18

Faith Works 3-10-18

Jeff Gill

 

Families helping families are the key

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Brian Harkness is a friend of long-standing here in Licking County, and a fellow Christian minister, serving as pastor of Hebron New Life United Methodist Church.

 

He's been hearing me talk for years about our challenges in serving & protecting children from abuse and neglect in our area, and he has been reaching out to Kim Wilhelm, our Licking County protective services director (within the Job & Family Services office, and referring to child protective services or "CPS" which works alongside of adult protective services).

 

No part of our county is immune to this growing problem, from the downtown areas of Newark to the rural edges, including the southern stretches of our county. Seeing how the issues around addiction and abandonment were growing in the Hebron/Buckeye Lake area, Brian contacted some of his United Methodist resources in the central Ohio area, and soon was talking to Sean Reilly, executive director of the United Methodist Childrens Home Family Services (or UMCH Family Services) about creating a pathway for church families to help struggling families by caring for their children for short periods of time.  A form of what's called "respite care."

 

This concept is intended to include people struggling with areas from addiction to homelessness, but could encompass illness, time in recovery programs, or other complications in helping a parent trying to walk the walk to stay on the path.

 

The goal is to create a buffer between those who are struggling, and ending up where Children Services has to request placement of kids into foster care.  Right now there are over 525 kids in foster care in Licking County. Yes, over five hundred and twenty-five. I remember when we were worrying that the head count "in care" was approaching 350 and we thought that was unsustainable.

 

A big part of our problem is, of course, the increasing availability of cheap addictive substances. Opiates, especially heroin, get the biggest headlines, but meth – crystal meth, speed, meth as a powder, a liquid, in chunks, shards, or tablets – still far outstrips at least the quantities confiscated by local law enforcement. By a three to one margin, or more.

 

So we've seen an uptick in parents of small children getting addicted, and struggling to recover. And my own horseback impression is that while children being found by law enforcement in close proximity to drugs just left out in the open, or babies abandoned while a parent is looking for more drugs, are certainly not becoming less common, the real driver of the numbers UP of "in care" children is that in the past we've had parents fall into problems, lose their kids for a season, and work their way back into full custody again. Now, for every five new children entering the system, instead of five going back home, we have one or two. And over time, that kind of imbalance drives the numbers of kids needing placement up, as the number of foster homes ready and able to take them in struggles to keep up.

 

This is where Brian, in his conversations with Kim and Sean, started thinking about where churches could be of service. We've all shared information with our congregations about how to become foster parents; that's a big step, and one that still has lots of need and plenty of training ready (call them at 740-670-8725, or go to www.lickingcountyjfs.com/contact.aspx ). But is there an intermediate step where folks who weren't ready to take on the larger responsibility of foster care could be of service to their community, and to these innocent kids?

 

Recently they found an organization that already provides the framework for this, and has over 100 churches across the country enrolled in a program called "Safe Families."  They provide all of the policy outlines, background checks, and best practices, as well as training and support for the families in our churches who would be willing to take in kids for short periods of time.  This is NOT foster care, and custody remains with the parents, which gives the participants chances to build relationships with the whole family.

 

The three of them had a conference call with staff from "Safe Families" and they all were very positive and excited about the program.  Brian said as a pastor, "I figured if the professionals embraced it, then it should work for us."

 

His next step is to have a representative from "Safe Families" come and talk to pastors and church leaders in this area.  So, there's a meeting at Hebron New Life UMC (just on the west edge of the village on US 40) on Tuesday, March 20th at 10:00. 

 

Brian says to anyone reading this "We would love to have you there!" and I heartily agree.

 

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; tell him about your work to make this a better place to live for old and young alike at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.