What is more important to a society than its children?
As moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and neighbors, we all feel the mandate to keep our kids safe. Of course, not every child has a home filled with family to care for them. Some of our kids face the hardship of homelessness and the sorrow of neglect. As National Child Abuse Prevention Month comes to a close, I ask that we all continue to recognize that there are vulnerable families and children who need our attention and our help all year long.
The unfortunate reality is that we typically become aware of children's needs at moments of crisis. And many of the interventions and services our communities and governments offer to high-need kids focus only an immediate crisis. But we know that child neglect and abuse, child welfare involvement and family separation are linked to long-term problems like deeply entrenched poverty and housing instability. Kids in these families are in the most danger of having a lifetime of physical and mental health problems, dropping out of school, being unemployable, ending up in and out of jail, using drugs and even repeating the pattern with their own children. Not only are these behaviors a financial burden on the public, but all children deserve a better future.
That's where supportive housing can play a vital role. CSH's Keeping Families Together model addresses the needs of the most vulnerable families with children -- those that present the highest cost to society.
- Keeping Families Together offers stability to high-risk families with children (many supportive housing programs target single adults and adult couples without children).
- Keeping Families Together case managers meet with each family to identify what's needed (e.g., substance abuse treatment, medication management, parenting skills training, domestic violence services, etc.), and help them develop intermediate and long-term service plans.
- Keeping Families Together streamlines the efforts, expertise and resources of multiple city and state agencies to help those organizations do more for families, for less.
One of Michelle's sons, a boy with serious behavioral and emotional problems, attacked her with a broom. The only way she could defend herself was to strike back. The next day, Michelle was reported and the city's Administration for Child Services (ACS) opened a child welfare case against her. Suddenly, she was in danger of losing all three of her sons because of her problems with one.
Michelle's Keeping Families Together case manager stepped in on her behalf so that Michelle's son could remain at home while receiving proper treatment and medication. Now he's in psychiatric day care, getting the help that he needs.
"I don't know what I would do without the services here," Michelle says. "Sometimes when you need support, you need it right then -- not tomorrow or next week."
Keeping Families Together has given her that kind of support, so she can raise her children at home as a family.
It's not just Michelle who Keeping Families Together has helped. The results of the program overall have been incredibly promising so far. The first formal evaluation of the program in New York City revealed that with a Keeping Families Together intervention, families are still in the same home, kids are still with their families, their siblings have come back home, and attendance in schools is up. And it costs approximately the same as what the city is already spending on the crisis services that fail to fix the root problems for these high-need families. When you factor in the savings over time (savings in foster care services, juvenile and adult incarceration, etc) the financial benefits are even greater.
I'm hopeful and excited about the potential of this new program as CSH brings it to cities across the country.