Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130078
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Trying to assume a greater role in children's well-being with less public funding, about 90 shared information Tuesday at a daylong seminar titled "Community's Children: Resources, Supports and Services."
"We're trying to form a coalition, pool our resources," said Sheila Bertholomey of the New River Valley Community Services Board, which organized the first-time event at Radford University. "We're all trying to do more with less under a financial crunch."
Stresses on the system and those who depend upon it were evident throughout the day as the workers told of how they are coping with a more perilous world for children.
Consider:
In Montgomery County, the Health Department's baby-care program, which provides health counseling for low-income mothers and their infants, is dealing with 12- and 13-year-old mothers-to-be. "They are not prepared," said Nancy Cogswell, coordinator of the program.
In 1993 The Free Clinic of the New River Valley, which provides health care to people who can't get it elsewhere, provided $1 million worth of services on a $130,000 budget.
"We do as much social work as health care," said Rebecca Noftsinger, clinic director. "We're trying to fill the gap."
Child abuse cases investigated by the state Department of Social Services are increasing in number and severity, said Mary Adams, child protection coordinator for the western region. After 19 years on the job, "I never say never. And I never say I've heard it all."
The Comprehensive Health Investment Project of the New River Valley has 64 families and 110 children who lack health insurance signed up for its medical and dental programs, said Lynn Keister, coordinator.
Floyd County, with a per capital income of $10,532, doesn't have a CHIP program for its 12,000 residents. Keister said she's hopeful of getting a grant to bring CHIP to Floyd by 1995.
Poverty, lack of education, lack of parenting skills and accessibility to drugs and alcohol are the primary problems facing New River Valley children, seminar attendees decided.
All these woes are intensified by the economic devastation of local employment layoffs, which over the past decade have deprived many children and their families of financial stability.
Joyce Berra, coordinator of the new Virginia Caring Program, which offers free medical care to working people without health insurance or medical benefits, said 30 area families have been enrolled since June 1.
Most agencies are struggling to catch up with the growing awareness of the various forms of child abuse, and the larger case loads that have resulted.
Only with the past decade has local attention been focused on counseling sexually abused children, said Pat Brown of the Women's Resource Center.
Eighteen years ago, when the Women's Resource Center was opened, services were focused on women who experienced domestic violence, she said.
But experience taught Brown that "women aren't going to leave a domestic violent situation unless they can take their children with them."
Now the Women's Resource Center has a residential program and counseling specifically for children. The center's delayed recognition of children's needs is typical, she said, and gaps in the area's ability to handle child abuse cases persist.
A new and evolving effort to protect children is the Child Abuse Prevention Coalition of Montgomery County. Director LaNette Dellinger said the coalition's goal is to raise public awareness of the problem by organizing training sessions and providing educational aids to community groups.
Eventually, the coalition hopes to create a regional Center for Children's Advocacy, "a place where kids could go to get help," Dellinger said.
There's much uncertainty while the national debate continues over health care issues. Meanwhile, local professionals, organizations and individuals are donating their time and resources to help indigent families and children.
Child-care professionals left the meeting saying that their joint effort will be vital to break family cycles of violence that begin in childhood.
"We're going around and around and around with kids in trouble and adults in violent situations and prisons being full," Brown said.
by CNB