Winter 2012 - Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services

Cuyahoga County
Division of Children & Family Services
Winter 2012
News Notes
2011 PCSAO Family of the Year Award
It is with great pleasure and honor that CCDCFS congratulates Tony and
Barbara Crump as the 2011 PCSAO Family of the Year Award recipients.
Every year at their annual conference, the Public Children Services
Association of Ohio (PCSAO) publicly recognizes birth families who
have successfully stayed together or have had their children returned,
and kinship, foster, or adoptive families who have voluntarily opened
their homes to provide temporary or permanent homes to children who
needed them. Public recognition of these families’ accomplishments,
commitment to providing protection and stability to children, and hard
work are testimony to the unique value of each and every family.
Mr. and Mrs. Tony Crump first became involved with Cuyahoga County
Division of Children and Family Services (CCDCFS) in December 2009
when they agreed to provide care for their two grandchildren. The
children entered CCDCFS custody because of mental health issues with their biological
mother. The Crumps later took the necessary training to become licensed foster parents
through CCDCFS in October 2010.
The Crump Family
Mr. and Mrs. Crump adopted their grandchildren’s biological mother many years ago,
when she was eight years old. Later the adoption failed due to the mother’s serious
mental health issues and lack of community supports which are now available to families
in similar situations. Mr. and Mrs. Crump had to relinquish custody of their daughter
after six years, but they remained in contact, supported and welcomed her into their
home. The Crumps never stopped caring and supporting their daughter even when she
had children of her own.
The bond that Mr. and Mrs. Crump have developed with their grandchildren since birth
Barbara and Tony Crump accepting the
is remarkable. It is extremely evident that the children truly only know and identify
PCSAO Family of the Year Award
the Crumps as their grandparents. Prior to the Crumps fostering the grandchildren,
they were doing poorly in school. Now in the Crumps’ care, the children are excelling in school and at home. The Crumps are
really like any other concerned and engaging grandparents; they want only the best for their
grandchildren. Not only do the Crumps provide a solid home structure for the academic success
of the children, they take them to therapy, church and keep them active in sporting programs.
Inside this issue:
Director’s Corner
A Celebration of Fatherhood...
Fathers Matter
It’s True, Wherever You Find Love,
It Feels Like Christmas!
Terrell Howard -
Rising Up and Moving On!
Free School Meals for
Children in Foster Care
12th Annual Halloween Party More Halloween Photos 2
3
4
5
5
6
7
Equally important, Mr. and Mrs. Crump want and do permit their daughter to be involved in
her children’s lives. For this reason, they continue to communicate and support her. Sundays
are family days at the Crumps’ with mom and the children. During this valuable bonding time,
the family members talk about schools, extra curricular activities and traveling. Since family is
paramount to the Crumps, when mom gave birth to her third child, the Crumps approached a
niece to foster the new baby, and she agreed. The niece, just like the Crumps, is committed to
making sure all three children are raised together in one family with every opportunity to have
a positive relationship with their mother.
The Crumps expose the children to many different cultural activities and instill positive values,
structure and stability in the children’s lives. They go above and beyond the duties as kinship/
foster parents. It is for these and many more reasons, that Tony and Barbara Crump received the
2011 PCSAO Family of the Year Award.
Director’s
Corner
Patricia Rideout
Dear staff,
Many of you have noticed that we’re talking a lot more about
how often kids in care are visiting their parents these days.
We’ve been trying to figure out just how regularly children
have these visits, and to understand the reasons why some
don’t see their parents very often. We’ve asked our network
providers to assess the family visiting patterns of the kids in
their foster homes, and we’re meeting with our collaborative
partners to talk about expanding opportunities for visits in
their neighborhoods.
Why the big fuss, some may be asking?
Well the obvious answer, which won’t surprise anyone who
works here, is that it’s the right thing to do. Our mission is
to ensure that children are nurtured within a family, after
all. And when we take a child away from their birth family,
we have a legal and moral obligation to do all that we can
to support that family and maintain their connections to one
another until such time as they can live safely together once
again. When parents and children see one another frequently,
and in comfortable settings that allow them to interact in the
most natural, family-like ways possible, their attachments
to one another are nurtured, parents’ motivation to work
on reunification plans is supported, and both parents and
kids may find it easier to keep hope alive and envision their
eventual return to life as an intact family.
These are not just assumptions or gut feelings. Research has
shown that the more frequently children in care spend time
with their parents, the earlier and more safely their eventual
reunification is likely to be. Yet a recent desk review of open
placement cases revealed that not even half of the children
in our custody are visiting their parents on a weekly basis. Is
it any mystery that, for over a third of the children in our care
who ultimately return to their parents , it takes more than a
year to reunify?
Close your eyes for a moment, and think about a child you
love -- a child with whom you spend a great deal of time. Your
son or daughter, niece or nephew, grandchild or neighbor or
godchild: imagine that they must live with others for a period
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Winter 2012
of months or years, and that you can only see them once or
twice a month, for a couple of hours. I’m sure that for most
of us, it’s easy to imagine the pain this would cause. I believe
that our aspirations for the children in our custody must be
the same as for our own loved ones; this is the measure we
should strive for in all that we do. If we consider the status of
our current practice around family visits, can we do anything
less than advocate for change?
It won’t be easy. Children placed with relatives or in our own
county foster homes must rely on our own workers to do
most of the transporting (and when necessary, supervising)
to make family visits happen. We no longer have a Family
Visits staff at DCFS to lend a hand. And our network agency
partners have for the most part followed our lead, and
ensured only every-other-week visits for the children in their
care, who represent 3/4 of all our children in foster homes, so
big changes will also be necessary for them. Many people are
working hard on this issue as I write: we have groups of DCFS
staff from many units meeting with one another and with
network agency partners and community collaboratives.
We’re trying to determine what the impact on workloads and
budgets might be if we succeed in meeting our initial goal
of a minimum weekly visit for every child in care with his/her
parents.
We also know that, simply by talking to one another about
this issue, many staff and foster parents, as well as GALs,
community partners and others, will stretch to make these
visits happen more frequently. Surfacing the issue and
shining a spotlight on it is raising awareness already -- which
is a terrific thing for kids and families. But it will take much
more, and so I want to encourage everyone on our staff to be
a part of the solution. We need your ideas and energy, your
heartfelt concern for the people we serve, to transform our
system’s longstanding acceptance of twice monthly visits
and create a new norm, a cultural shift – and solid reason to
believe that many of the families we work with can be safely
reunited more swiftly than ever before. Let’s make it happen.
A Celebration of Fatherhood
Fathers Matter.
Winter 2012
3
“It’s True, Wherever You Find Love,
It Feels Like Christmas.”
By Lisa Dickson
One of my favorite
movies in college
was “A Muppet
Christmas Carol.”
As a former foster
child,
I
could
relate to Scrooge’s
need to come to
terms with Christmases of the Past, to find
a place to belong in Christmas Present,
and to summon up the courage to face
Christmases of the Future.
I believe that this is a journey that continues
for all of us…
I can still remember the 14-year-old girl I
once was, living in an all-girls group home,
and facing Christmas without family. My
father was abusive and often absent. My
mother’s death had left a void in my life that
had yet to be filled.
To quote from my journal at the time:
“Peering out from frost-covered glass, I feel
a chill on my face as gusts of fresh wind burst
through the open window. It’s tough to face
the fact that my own father chose not to
visit me – that sharp sting of abandonment.
My heart feels the bitter taste of winter’s
emptiness. I squint my eyes to stare at the
falling snow, noticing how each individual
snowflake falls from the sky in its solitary
travel; separate, isolated and alone.”
colorful shirts. Whoever bought these
clothes somehow knew my favorite colors:
red, pink, turquoise and indigo-blue. Over
the years, I’d grown accustomed to handme-down clothing; I typically borrowed
clothes from my roommates or raided the
charity boxes.
“Do they do this for us every year?” I asked
my roommate incredulously.
“Yeah. They start saving up in January and
put away money all year until the beginning
of December. The group home sends them
a list of things we need.”
I stared at the huddle of figures in the
periphery of the room. The men wore
dusty, work-worn overalls, embellished
with holes and caked with dirt. The women
were equally without embellishment – no
make-up, plain clothes.
“I hope they have enough money left for
their own kids. It doesn’t look like they could
afford to pay for all this stuff.” I commented.
A woman standing across the room caught
my eye and smiled gently.
My roommate hissed in my ear. “Shut up,
Lisa. They might hear you.”
“Okay, okay.” I stole another glance over at
the strangers in the corner. Their selflessness
astounded me. Why did they do this? Why
sacrifice for us? My own father didn’t send
any Christmas presents to me.
Warmth insisted on making its way into my
winter holidays -- particularly the Christmas
when I was 16 years old…
As I exited the gathering that day, my arms
filled with gifts I had received, the air outside
was crisp and clean. My breath rose in a
smoky haze. My new coat enveloped me,
surrounding me with a feeling of warmth.
For one brief moment, I felt cherished and
secure.
The snow outside was white and pure,
as I walked through the door of the main
gathering area of the co-ed group home.
The room was filled with a multitude of
gifts, donated by members of a church
somewhere in our county. Some of the
packages had my name on them.
That day, for me, was an integral experience
in my life –one of many such seeds for the
future that make me who I am today. Long
after I had fought to build a future for myself
and successfully established a marriage and
family of my own, this snapshot from the
past remained.
I opened up each of my presents, one by
one, and stared at my brand-new blue
jeans, white sneakers and assortment of
This
particular
experience
helped
me survive in that moment, and I am
determined that its legacy will carry on…
However as Albert Camus once pointed
out, “In the midst of winter, I finally learned
that there was in me an invincible summer.”
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Winter 2012
This vision is at the heart of why the Ohio
Chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America
hosts multiple Thanksgiving Events for
foster care teens and young adults every
year, with the help of partners such as
Antioch Baptist Church, Cuyahoga County
Children Services, the National Council
of Jewish Women, Adoption Network
Cleveland, and Village Network.
There are moments in our life when we
have the opportunity to step outside of
our comfort zone to make a difference.
As we look back upon our lives, we can
each remember those special people who
went the extra mile in our lives – and how
their actions continue to make each and
every one of us who we are. As Scrooge
discovered in the Muppet Christmas Carol:
“It’s true, wherever you find love, it feels like
Christmas.”
We cannot save the entire world – but
we can save some. We can and should
continue to invest in our young people in
and from foster care. We can offer them
the gift of our love, encouragement, and
empowerment. We can provide them
with hope in this moment, and education
regarding available resources that can help
to pave the way for their future. Inasmuch
as it depends on us, we can provide them
with a “summer of the soul in December.”
We should expect nothing less from
ourselves and one another.
Note: Lisa Dickson is a founding member of Foster
Care Alumni of America (FCAA) and co-founded
the Ohio Chapter of FCAA, for which she currently
serves as Communications Chair. She is an online
journalist who writes for Voices for Children, a
national adoption site, and Imaginif, an Australian
child protection site. She also co-facilitates the Ohio
State University’s Alumni Support and Assistance
Project (ASAP) to support foster care youth seeking
higher education. She serves on the planning
committee for Ohio’s Annual Independent Living
Summit, is an active supporter of the OHIO Youth
Advisory Board, and a member of the statewide
Ready to Launch Coalition.
Terrell Howard Rising Up and Moving On!
Terrell Howard, a former foster care
youth at Cuyahoga County Division of
Children and Family Services (CCDCFS),
has dealt with difficult situations in
life. Despite his involvement within
the child welfare system, he has been
able to overcome many obstacles and
utilize all adversity faced as strength to
turn the negatives into positives. Terrell
completed high school successfully and is currently attending
college. He’s made a tremendous impact on other youth by
exemplifying leadership skills, courage, and strength. He’s also
touched others by speaking out, sharing his story, shedding
knowledge and encouraging his audience to provide support
and assistance by doing whatever is necessary to make positive
changes within the foster care system.
Year Award” from Adoption Network Cleveland (ANC). Terrell’s
hard work and dedication will never go unnoticed, and his
consistent strive to press forward to become the upstanding
young man that he has grown into is exemplary.
Terrell is a current participant in CCDCFS’ TAG and brings lots of
energy, knowledge and perseverance to the group. He was just
recently appointed as the State Treasurer on the Youth Advocate
Board (YAB), along with winning an “Adoption Advocate of the
For more information regarding the CCDCFS’ Teen
Advocacy Group (TAG) program, please contact Jamiese
Davis, TAG Coordinator, at (216) 881-3061 or via e-mail at
[email protected].
CCDCFS wants to congratulate Terrell on his accomplishments.
We also want to congratulate all of the 2012 Ohio YAB Statewide
Officers:
• President Cieria Rodriguez-Toney, Lorain County
• Vice President Alexander McFarland, Montgomery County
• Media Spokesperson Dauntea Sledge, Franklin County
• Secretary Denae Haney, Athens County
• Parliamentarian Autumn Kester, Portage County
• Treasurer Terrell Howard, Cuyahoga County
Free School Meals for
Children in Foster Care
According to the Children’s Bureau Express, the recently signed Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, make
it easier for school districts to enroll foster children for free school meals. Children in foster care are now
automatically eligible to receive free school meals, regardless of household income, and they can remain
enrolled for the entire school year, even if they leave foster care during the year. Because of this, the process of
school districts enrolling foster children into this program is simplified.
An article written by Nate Frentz and Zoe Neuberger for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities covers six tips on how to take
advantage of this new Act, so that families can receive the best opportunities possible:
• Directly certify children in foster care for free school meals by matching data from foster care agencies or a court with student data.
• U
se the notification that schools receive from child welfare caseworkers or a court of a child’s foster status to certify the child for free
school meals.
• R
evise school meals applications to reflect the categorical eligibility of children in foster care for free school meals and the potential
benefit to the foster family of including children in foster care on the same school meals application as other children in the
household.
• Notify foster parents that their children in foster care are eligible for free school meals and explain how to apply for benefits.
• Maintain certification when a child in foster care changes schools by transferring the certification for free meals to the new school.
• R
elieve foster families of paperwork if an application with a child in foster care is selected for verification by obtaining documentation
of the child’s foster care status directly from a foster care agency or court (or by allowing foster parents to provide contact information
for an appropriate third party who can verify the child’s foster status, such as a social worker).
The full article, Six Ways that States and School Districts Can Make It Easier for Children in Foster Care to Get Free Meals at School, can be
found on the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website at http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3559.
Winter 2012
5
12th Annual Halloween Party at CCDCFS !!!
On Friday October 28th, 2011, the Jane Edna Hunter
Building and the satellite offices were invaded
by ghosts, goblins and ghouls for the afternoon.
Organized by the Wellness Committee and with
the help of agency staff, our 12th annual agency
Halloween party for our foster children was a big
success. An instant hit from its inception in 1999
with kids and staff alike, this year’s party was no
exception. Costumed characters filled all three
floors at the Jane Edna Hunter Building as the
transformation from agency to haunted fun houses
provided safe environments with treats, laughter,
and an occasional “boo!”
Trick-or-Treat bags were distributed to all children,
and everyone had a great time. In similar fashion to
previous Halloween events, staff went all out and
awards were given for the best decorations and
costumes. The creative decorations, scary costumes,
and abundant treats created an atmosphere where
our kids and staff could just be kids for the afternoon.
The Wellness Committee would like to thank all
staff and volunteers for getting into the spirit of the
day. Whether decorating, appearing in costume,
donating candy or handing out treats, your efforts
made this a special day that our children will long
remember!
Halloween at Old Brooklyn included:
Best Decorated Unit -Pirates of the Caribbean
Intake Fas C-Silke Pagendarm, Jamie Paige, Jenny Kovi, Tanya
Burgess, Jackie Campbell, Lori Delsignore and Selina Brown
Best Children’s Costumes
Bridget Daly, Landon Future, Caitlyn Dedic
Best Adult Staff Costumes
Aaliyah Salters, Mary Blinas, Shindana Jackson
Honorable Mentions for Best Decorated Unit/Office
Kimberly Kuczma, Wanda Morales-Negron
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Winter 2012
Winter 2012
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Cuyahoga County
Division of Children and Family Services
Patricia Rideout, Director
3955 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
216-431-4500
Ohio Relay Service 711
MISSION:
Happy New Year!!
To assure that children at risk of abuse or neglect
are protected and nurtured within a family and with
support of the community.
The Division of Children and Family Services
embraces the philosophy that children grow better
in families and support this by keeping children
close to their families whenever possible through
neighborhood foster care. Their programs have the
goal of stabilizing and reuniting families that have
been weakened through poverty, illness or crisis,
resulting in neglect or abuse to children.
News Notes...
News Notes, the newsletter of the Cuyahoga
County Division of Children and Family
Services, is published quarterly. The Newsletter
Committee consists of Mark McMillian,
Eddie Lebron, and Sonya McLoyd. Most
photographs are by Luke Owens, Jr.; with
additional photographs by Eddie Lebron and
others. We will be glad to publish contributions
from readers (on a space-available basis).
All submissions are subject to editing.
Please send contributions via e-mail to
Eddie Lebron,
[email protected]