Child Abuse and Neglect
Phelps County
Phelps County Community Partnership
Core Result: Children and Families Safe
Benchmark: Rate of Child Abuse/Neglect
February 2002
Objective
Reduce and/or maintain the rate of substantiated child abuse/neglect reports in Phelps County to a rate of 7 cases per 1,000 by 2004.
Strategies/Successes
The Phelps County Community Partnership has taken an active role in Phelps County to reduce the rate of child abuse/neglect. In the early 1990’s, PCCAN (Phelps County Child Abuse Action Network) was developed to raise awareness and advocate change in the county.
In 2001, the Safe Action Team was developed by the Partnership to increase the number of representatives working to increase child safety. The two organizations joined forces in 2002 to increase effectiveness and includes representatives from Division of Family Services, the Juvenile office, the Department of Health, the Family Crisis Center, Prevent Child Abuse Missouri, local police departments, private therapists, schools, the hospital, the media, private business and concerned citizens.
Activities and events included:
“Take a Stand” Against Child Abuse—During this two-day annual event, children in the area are encouraged to set up a lemonade stand and sell a shaved ice lemonade treat that is provided by a local bank. All proceeds are given to PCCAN for future campaigns to fight child abuse/neglect. Participants who “take a stand” receive t-shirts, chances to win prizes for the highest sales, and for the best-decorated stand. During two days of sales in 2001, $15,000 was raised.
Anti-Bullying Program — Through a grant from Prevent Child Abuse Missouri, the Rolla Public Schools have implemented a program to educate students, teachers, and administrators on what constitutes bullying, and then how to prevent it. Administration and teachers attended a training program and fifty-two classrooms received training.
“The Answer Is One” Awareness Campaign — How many children need to be abused in Phelps County before you should be concerned? The answer is one. A series of public service announcements have been produced to raise awareness about the problem of child abuse. The announcements have been aired on six area radio stations covering ten south central Missouri counties. Through a partnership with the local stations, all announcements have been aired and produced free of charge.
Home Based Training Institute — The Phelps County Community Partnership hosted a FREE, two-day training institute conducted by Prevent Child Abuse Missouri. The training was developed for professionals that visit the home of clients. Topics included childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, mental illness and the dysfunctional family, personal safety of the worker, issues regarding mandated reporting and use of the state hotline, teaching financial planning for at-risk families, and teaching parenting skills.
Foster Parent Recruitment Campaign — On January 1, 2002, there were no openings in foster homes in Phelps County or in the six surrounding counties. In response, a series of public service announcements have been produced to raise awareness of the shortage of foster homes. The announcements have been aired on six area radio stations covering ten south central Missouri counties. Through a partnership with the local stations, all announcements have been produced and aired free of charge. Local DFS officials were very pleased with the response and in fact reported twenty-eight families signed up for the first class after the campaign began.
Results
Phelps County has experienced a widely varied rate of substantiated child abuse cases in the past few years. It is suspected that some of the variation is due to awareness campaigns conducted by the action team. During awareness campaigns, the hot line call rate increases and subsequently so does the rate of substantiated child abuse/neglect cases. These cases may have previously gone undetected without the participation of a community that is actively involved in the safety of its children.
Observations/Concerns
While the rate of substantiated cases has been varied so has the rate of children in DFS custody. This may be caused by a number of factors to include the availability of foster homes. DFS may determine a possible need to remove children from a home but are hindered in their decision by the lack of foster homes.
Funding/Return on Investment
For every dollar of Caring Community funds spent, the Phelps County Community Partnership has been able to leverage an additional $33.50 through in- kind and private donations. This is a very conservative estimate and excludes hours of volunteer time.
Future Plans
The Board of Directors of the Partnership has made a commitment to continue the awareness campaigns. Future campaigns will be expanded to recruit foster families from a larger portion of south central Missouri. The Safe Action Team and PCCAN will continue to work together and have established plans to increase their scope or work and impact of projects.
