As some of you know I am part of the
Junior League of Tampa. It is a wonderful organization made up of women only who work on various projects that impact our community.
This year I'm part of the
'Love Bundles' committee. We get to put together backpacks for children who are removed from their homes and placed on foster care. The backpacks contain age appropiate items, and for the most part are made up of toiletries, pajamas, an outfit, and a toy/stuffed animal. This is meant to give the child some sense of security during a time when they are stripped away from their home and leave empty handed.
Our committee works directly with the Hillsborough Sheriff's Department Child Protection Investigation Division (CPI). Last week we had our first kick off meeting of the year and we had the privilege to have it at the Sheriff's office. We got to meet the manager of this program Heather Grates, who gave us a great overview of how the department works. I'll do my best here to share what I learned from notes I scrambled that night.
The Sheriff's department has been under contract by the CPI to carry out the task of assessing and removing children from unsafe environments since July 2006. Not all Sheriff's department in the country have this responsibility under them. Since they took over the number of children removed from their homes had been decreasing every year until 2009...
Number of Children removed from their home
2006- 1,775 children
2007- 996 children
2008- 878 children
2009- 1,161 kids
Then number jumped up again in 2009 due to the economy and unemployment!! I knew there was a correlation between unemployment and drug abuse, addictions, etc. But it was eye opening for me to see it in a tangible number how it's affecting children.
How sad that Hillsborough county is the # 1 county in the state of Florida for Domestic Violence.
Heather mentioned the goal is to 'preserve families together'. For example if a child is in danger because the parents don't have money to pay for electricity (but the child is very loved) instead of removing the child from the home, they will move the entire family to a safe place together. And they will connect the parents to organizations who can help them get a job, assistance, etc.
If a child can't stay with their primary caretaker (ie. mom is on drugs), the department will then..
1. look for an ex-spouse and assess if they can care for the child
2. If this doesn't work, they will look at any family member
3. If this doesn't work, they will look at any friends/neighbors that can assume responsibility.
This means if a child is placed on foster care, there was truly no one they knew that could care for them :(
2009 Statistics of reasons for removing a child from home:
Drug use- 40%
(Prescription drugs on the rise)
Inadequate housing- 13%
Physical abuse- 17%
Abandonment- 8%
Neglect 22%
Process of investigating an allegation of an unsafe child...
There is a hotline to call any suspicion of a child who might be neglected --> Call is then routed to Tallahassee who speaks with the person and writes down about a paragraph of information on the situation -> Then the info is sent back to the Sheriff's dept -> They contact a 'Child Protective Investigator' who is in charge of investigating the claim. This person is required to visit the child's home within 24 hours at the most, and if there is indication of inmediate danger within 2 hours -> They will then go out to the home and talk to the family/caretakers of the child and assess if its safe-> They will then support or refute the allegation.
Out of 14,000 allegations a year, only about 1,200 children are actually removed from their homes.
There are 100 paid CPI (Child Protective Investigators) positions in Hillsborough county. I imagine it'd be a difficult job since you are on call 24 hours a day, are going to potentially dangerous homes (drug use, etc), and it'd be difficult to watch little ones being neglected/hurt.
Once the child is removed from their home, they are at the Sheriff's office for a maximum of 4 hours before placed in foster care. Here is a picture of the Sheriff's facility which now has very child-friendly areas.
I never really understood how the foster care system worked until tonight. I had bits and pieces, but it was so good to hear this and put it all together.
The staff at the Sheriff's office was very friendly and the director of the program was truly amazing! I think I had this wrong perception of the police department being uncaring towards children removed from their homes, mostly because my only image of them is from TV shows. It could not have been any more opposite from what I expected- they took their job very seriously.
The mayor stayed past his regular 'work shift' which normally ends at 5pm to talk to us at 8pm. Here is a picture of him with our committe leader Jenny. She has worked hard all summer with the CPI department and getting our committee ready for the year. She is truly doing a great job!!
He gave us a special 'coin' to thank us for working on the backpacks this year (now if it could only get me out of a ticket one day! :)
We'll be meeting once a month from Sept- June 2011 to put together these backpacks for the following month (stocking up the closet below). I'm looking forward to having appetizers and a glass of wine with these 22 women as we work together on the backpacks! We alternate on hosting the night, since we wouldn't dream of using any of the money towards the backpacks for anything else than for the children.
We're also responsible for buying the materials for the backpacks (formula, clothes, etc). If you have any suggestions on where to find really cheap formula, baby items, pajamas, clothes, etc. Please let me know! We have a set budget to purchase all this stuff, but the cheaper we can find the items for, the better. I'm responsible for buying baby clothes ages 0-18 months before the 21st of the month, and the best place I can think of is Walmart. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
In November our committee will be doing a drive to collect 'coats' to include in the backpack for these kids. So if you have any gently used coats/sweaters or would like to donate some in Nov it'd be greatly appreciated as well!
Here are some pictures from the child area at the Sheriff's office. The lady in the black in the second picturewas the Heather Grates who gave us all this info and tour that night. She did a great job in presenting all this info to us and giving a tour of the facility.
There have been many times when I have really not wanted to go to Junior League so I can spend more time with Steve and Jack. I don't get to put down my baby to sleep those nights or play with him very much since I usually work during the day. Its hard for me on those days, but Steve has always encouraged me to continue going. And this night I was really thankful I didn't quit because I got to see firsthand the direct impact that Junior League and Love Bundles has on our community.
