Present Appearances

With the onset of the corona virus pandemic and the issuance of “stay at home” orders closing schools and businesses in many local communities, child abuse reports have plummeted across the country. The agencies, which provide support for families and children as abuse cases move through the justice system, reported serving 40,000 fewer children nationwide between January and June of this year than the same period last year, from 192,367 children in 2019 down to 152,016 this year, a 21% drop, according to the National Children’s Alliance, an accrediting body for a network of 900 children’s advocacy centers. Reports of abuse have declined dramatically, they say, not because it isn’t happening, but because with everyone “sheltering in place”, teachers, doctors and others have fewer ways of catching it.

“An 18-year-old sleeps in a doorway of a public building with nothing but a tattered blanket to shield him from the cold wind. He took little more than the clothes on his back when his foster parents demanded that he leave home. He hasn’t been in touch with his biological parents in years. None of his friends’ parents will allow him to spend a night on their sofa. And he’s unfamiliar with the nearest homeless shelter.” (Social Work Today, Vol. 19, P.24, Nadine Hasenecz, MSW, LSW)

Great responsibility yields great reward.  This is especially true of SARCOA (Southern Alabama Regional Council on Aging), the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) serving senior citizens of Barbour, Coffee, Covington, Dale, Geneva, Henry, and Houston counties of southeast Alabama.  By continuously seeking ways to better serve the rapidly growing senior population through planning, coordinating, and developing community levels of service, SARCOA is able to make a huge difference as one of 13 AAA’s in Alabama, and one of more than 650 AAA’s in the nation

The Covid-19 Pandemic has overwhelmed hospital emergency rooms in many of America’s largest cities forcing doctors and nurses to find themselves in triage mode perhaps for the first time in their careers.

Social workers practice in schools, hospitals, psychiatric clinics, juvenile courts, prisons, police departments, and a range of other settings. Current practice demands collaboration between social workers and the professionals who dominate these agencies. But the Covid-19 Pandemic has presented case workers with a variety of new challenges.

The doctors, nurses, police, firemen, and EMTs who have been applauded as the frontline heroes of the corona virus pandemic richly deserve our respect and gratitude. Right behind them in the shadows, however, is a large contingent of hardworking heroes who are keeping Americans fed, picking up their trash, providing them life-saving medicine, delivering their groceries and packages, preparing their food, cleaning their hospitals, caring for those who are most vulnerable, and keeping us safe—often while earning low wages and few benefits. These are the humble people whose heroic service to society is notoriously overlooked.

“2020 has been a year of societal upheaval so massive it is like a rent in the Universe...and a tipping point has been reached.” (NPQ, Spring, 2020)

Nonprofit Role More Vital Than Ever

In this unprecedented environment the vulnerable population designation that is nonprofit’s primary area of concern is spreading wider and deeper across American society.

Sometimes, all an organization needs is a little organization!  This was the case for Michigan’s Departments of Community Health, DHS, and Education. In 1994, these organizations came together to form the Systems Reform Task Force with a primary goal to, “achieve better results for multigenerational families who receive services across multiple human service and educational systems.” The task force recognized the need for improved technology to simplify administrative processes, improved communication across systems, and reduced barriers to services for families. Specifically, children under DHS supervision frequently needed services across multiple systems. 

COVID-19 Diagnoses in Juvenile Facilities
Known Cases as of June 24
658 youth, 771 staff 

Annie E. Casey Foundation

“If there was ever a good time to make sure that not a single young person spends a single day in detention or placement unless there is an immediate and severe risk to community safety, this is it,” says Nate Balis, director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group. “This is the time for juvenile justice agencies to scrutinize every detention and placement decision and to review — if not reconsider — every policy that leans toward confinement.”

Sometimes grassroots efforts are great, and sometimes the grass needs to be mowed!  This is the case for the Randolph County Dept. of Social Services (RCDSS), an agency that provides residents of Randolph County, NC with access to programs that promote economic independence and family stability. Specifically, services are meant to assist families and individuals to live in safe environments and remain self-sufficient.

Randolph County’s business is not unlike many of the other clients served by FAMCare. The department’s home-grown system of PDFs and clustered data simply was not working anymore. Although robust records were kept over the years, the department soon found itself needing increased efficiency with better reporting capabilities.