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COFCCA Member agencies serve all of New York State, caring for more than one
million children and families annually through the multiple and varied programs
they operate.
 These
services include:
- Preventive and protective services
- Family preservation
- Independent living services
- Adoption
- Foster care
- Special education
How Voluntary Agencies Protect New York's Abused and Neglected
Children
A Cry for Help
Every week in New York State, one or more children die from abuse or abandonment.
100,000 more children face the danger of living in unsafe homes. The New York
State Child Abuse Hotline receives more than 7,000 calls a week. And those are
just the documented cases: Experts believe that 85% of abuse-related deaths are
either not reported or are misidentified as "accidents."
Child abuse and neglect is a terrible and growing problem. Voluntary, not-for-profit
agencies are a crucial part of the solution.
State Government and Voluntary, Not-For-Profit Agencies: A Proud History
New York State has a long, proud history of working with voluntary, not-for-profit
agencies whose role is to protect vulnerable children from abuse or neglect. But
even before government became involved, non-profit agencies responded to the needs
in their communities. Many of these agencies started in the mid-1800s as charitable
orphanages, housing children who would otherwise be condemned to the streets.
Today, these same agencies work with families to safeguard children.
The State's commitment to helping children began in 1875, when the New York State
Legislature enacted the Children's Law to rescue hundreds of homeless children
sleeping along railroad tracks and forced to sell penny newspapers to buy food.
In recognition of the quality of care provided by charitable institutions, these
children were placed in the non-profit agencies at public expense.
Then a century later, in another historic shift reflecting public concern about
keeping families together, the New York State Legislature passed the Child Welfare
Reform Act in 1979. The Child Welfare Reform Act provides help to families whose
children are at risk of being removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect.
These community-based preventive services avert harm while strengthening families
to nurture their own children.
Protect the Children
Protecting children is what voluntary, not-for-profit agencies do - providing
more than 70% of all community-based family preservation and foster care services.
Although each case may warrant a different approach, these services are generally
grouped into three categories: preventive care, family foster care, and group
or residential care.
Preventive Services: Remove the Risk, Not the Child
The first step in protecting children is to try to keep them safely at home with
their own families. Preventive services are community-based services designed
to keep children with their families. These services may include: parenting classes,
substance abuse programs, respite crisis nurseries for young children, counseling
and crisis intervention services for battered women and their children, outpatient
treatment for mothers who have used drugs, early-intervention programs for children
of teen parents, mediation services that prevent costly evictions and Family Court
involvement, youth centers, AIDS counseling, and job training for parents on welfare.
While all of these services are designed with specific needs in mind, they share
the common goal of creating a safe, caring and nurturing home environment for
children without removing them from their families.
Family Foster Care: When Removal is the Only Way to Protect
the Child
A drastic situation calls for a drastic solution: removing the child from the
home. Voluntary, not-for-profit agencies search communities for prospective foster
parents: recruiting, interviewing, training and providing 24-hour support once
a match is found. . Foster parents care for 90% of all children requiring out-of-home
care. In almost all cases, contact with the birth parents is maintained through
visits set up and supervised by the agencies. Often, in the child's absence, the
parents can get the help they need to become responsible, caring adults. If, however,
the child's biological parents remain unable to provide a safe home, free from
ongoing abuse and severe neglect, the child can be adopted. More than 80% of adoptive
parents in New York State start as foster parents.
Group/Residential Care: When a Child Has Special Needs
There are many devoted foster parents who are willing to care for a child with
special emotional, mental, or physical needs. But there are some children who
cannot yet live within a family. Most of these children reside in group facilities
operated by voluntary, not-for-profit agencies.
Group homes are apartments or small houses located in urban and suburban neighborhoods,
accommodating from 4 to 12 youngsters. Children in group homes are carefully supervised
and mainstreamed into the community: they often go to public schools, use community
services such as the local library or recreation center, and form social ties
with children who live in more conventional home settings.
For children who need intense supervision and special care, residential treatment
centers are the answer. There, children live in cottages on campus settings. They
are provided with on-campus schools, round-the-clock counselors, and a variety
of therapeutic activities. Some of these children will be adopted. Others will
remain in foster care until they "age out" of the system between 18
and 21.
For those who remain or enter foster care past age 14, voluntary agencies provide
independent living services. These services help prepare young adults to live
on their own and find their place in the world once they leave foster care. The
services include, but are not limited to: academic support, vocational training,
career counseling, and training in budgeting, cooking, cleaning and other life
skills.
The Road Ahead
Without the help of voluntary not-for-profit agencies, the future for many "at-risk"
children would be grim. A life of homelessness, crime, debilitating physical and
mental health problems, and even death would result. Adequate funding for these
services prevent a potential burden to society, before it can manifest itself
as such, by saving tax dollars on more expensive services such as psychiatric
hospital and prisons. More importantly, thousands of children and families have
connected with mainstream society through these programs. They have gone on to
lead productive and fulfilling lives.
New Times, New Roles for Voluntary, Not-for-Profit Agencies
Voluntary agencies throughout New York State are committed to providing the full
range of services required to heal families--forming consortiums to provide a
full range of services to children and families in their own communities. Agencies
are poised to respond to opportunities to 1) reduce the time children spend in
foster care, 2) support families through preventive services, and 3) when appropriate,
expedite adoptions. But agencies need resources to train staff and foster parents
for these new challenges.
The Special Role of Government in Protecting the State's Children
Allowing children to be starved, beaten, neglected or abandoned is not only wrong,
it is against the law. Our elected leaders in state and county government have
a legal and moral obligation to protect New York's children from abuse and severe
neglect. About 75% of children who have been abused or neglected rely on voluntary
agencies to protect them from further abuse. Agencies cannot do their job without
the support of government.
It is up to the Governor and the Legislature to provide adequate funding for
voluntary agencies. The counties help to fund the rates set by the state. When
services are under-funded, budgets get balanced on the backs of abused and neglected
children. The Governor, the Legislature, and counties need to protect children
by protecting children's services from arbitrary budget reductions.
You Can Help Save the Children
New York State's voluntary agencies protect abused and neglected children by working
to heal birth families, helping foster families, facilitating adoptions for children
who cannot return to their birth families, supporting children who can't live
with a family, and preparing young adults who will age out of foster care. But
voluntary agencies cannot do this critical work alone. They need the full support
of their communities, local and state government, foundations and the New York
State legislature.
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