THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020647
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
A young organization struggling to carve out a niche as the area's chief advocate for child-abuse victims has struck a new hurdle: paying its staff.
Formed two years ago during the height of the Little Rascals sex abuse case, the group now called Kids First Inc. provides comprehensive support and services to child-abuse victims throughout the seven-county 1st Judicial District.
Since July 1992 the Elizabeth City-based organization, which focuses on sexual abuse, has served about 400 children. Its current caseload includes about 50 kids and their families.
But Kids First's new executive director says the organization, which has had shaky relations with some of its peer agencies, is now facing a financial crisis.
``I have no way to pay the staff after today,'' Cynthia Grafton, the group's leader since February, said on Thursday.
An anticipated $63,000 grant from the Governor's Crime Commission that accounted for more than half of the coming year's budget fell through suddenly in late June, Grafton said, leaving the center without operating funds.
Kids First has enough money to pay for rent and electricity this month, and a current grant is paying for a part-time therapist and part of clinical director Judith S. Abbott's salary.
But to weather the storm until more funding opportunities arise in the fall, Grafton says, she will have to go without pay, and the agency may lose its part-time secretary.
Grafton said the need for local funding, which has been virtually nonexistent since the organization began, is coming to the fore.
``Without local support, we're sunk. We are sunk,'' Grafton said. ``We need to let people know that we're out there . . . and that we really need their help now.''
The center began as the Northeastern Children's Co-op after concerned parents and officials involved in the Little Rascals case decided that various agencies with limited resources should unite in abused children's favor.
``We saw the need in these seven counties to coordinate services to children,'' said Nancy Lamb, a North Carolina associate attorney general who helped prosecute the Little Rascals cases and is among the center's founders.
``The idea more than anything is to bring together all the people who touch a case when a child makes a report of abuse.''
The center takes referrals from social services, law enforcement and other agencies. Its 590-square-foot office with walk-in-closet-sized rooms strewn with toys and stuffed animals has facilities for interviews, forensic medical exams and counseling.
Children scheduled to testify in their abuse cases are prepared for the experience by role-playing through a program called ``Kids in Court School.'' The center also provides training for officials of other agencies.
All of the center's services are free.
A main focus of Kids First is its coordination of a Multidisciplinary Review Team, a collection of law enforcement and social agency officials who meet to decide what's in the child's best interest in each case.
Grafton is reorganizing that process, which officials say hasn't worked as well as it could.
Part of the problem, Grafton and others say, is perception. Some officials believe Kids First merely duplicates other agencies' services.
But center officials say the court preparation program and the medical exams, which involve an expensive device called a colposcope that allows close external examination of the genital area, are the only services of this type offered in the northeast.
And as far as therapy, ``there are certainly enough victims to go around,'' Grafton said.
``People like to think that in small towns, abuse is not common, and that's simply not so,'' Grafton said. About 1,238 cases of abuse and neglect were reported to area social services in 1992-93, she said. About a third of those cases are substantiated.
``I don't think anybody's ever going to get a grip on child abuse. The problem is so huge,'' Grafton said. ``But in this area, we're doing everything we can.''
Many area officials agree that Kids First plays an important role in helping abuse victims.
``I can't say enough good about them,'' said Lt. Bill Walker of the Kill Devil Hills Police Department, where Abbott spends about a day a week in an office set up for interviewing children.
``They've been very beneficial to the entire community,'' added Walker, who has served on the multidisciplinary review team. ``The primary purpose of it is to make it easy for the kids.''
And Grafton insists that money troubles won't keep the center from doing its job.
``Absolutely not. I refuse,'' she said.
``I don't care if I have to operate this out of the back of my car.
``This is kids. We can't say, 'Oh well, it didn't work. Too bad.''' ILLUSTRATION: ``I have no way to pay the staff after today,'' says Cynthia
Grafton, Kids First's new executive director.
HOW TO HELP
Kids First Inc. is a comprehensive advocacy and support
organization for abused children and their families in Dare, Camden,
Chowan, Currituck, Gates, Pasquotank and Perquimans Counties.
The center has lost an essential operating grant and currently
cannot pay all of its expenses.
For more information or to contribute, call Executive Director
Cynthia Grafton at (919) 338-5658.
by CNB