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September 2002

Storm brewing over child abuse issues

Michael Hallett

Michael Hallett sees the perfect storm threatening Florida but he's not talking about a hurricane.

Hallett, an associate professor of criminal justice, is coordinating an effort to make community agencies aware of the approaching storm and take the necessary precautions to assure that the victims are not children.

Like "The Perfect Storm" written by Sebastian Junger, in which several metrological conditions combine to form a monster nor'easter, Hallett is referring to a confluence of factors threatening children's services in communities throughout the state. Any one factor is bad, but combined they create a crisis of unprecedented proportions that is generally unrecognized by communities.

The trend of delegating social welfare responsibilities to state and local governments is one of the major factors contributing to the problem, according to Hallett. This has resulted in increasing privatization and asking local and state jurisdictions to cover larger portions of the cost of services themselves. "While government agencies are smaller, their responsibilities in many cases are not. Florida has also not taken full advantage of federal funding available for child welfare-in the interest of 'reducing the size of government.' While on paper the funding amounts appear equal to or larger than in the past, agency workers are asked to do more with less."

The recent statewide news stories involving the "loss" of children in the care of the Department of Children and Families is only the latest but one of the most visible indicators of the problem, he notes. "At root, this is a resource problem-for training and base salaries. With what they've got, DCF does an excellent job, overall. Imagine the pressure of working to literally save children's lives, with overwhelming demand and external criticism. That is extremely unproductive and has got to stop right now."
Another factor is the changes in the way federal grants are awarded in recent years. There has been an emphasis by federal agencies on making larger but fewer awards to collaborative partnerships in communities. Frequently federal agencies require a local match and there must be more assurances that these programs will be self-sustaining by the local community after federal funding expires.

Sharing information and resources as part of a collaborative effort is something community agencies dealing with child abuse are going to have to do more of than in the past, Hallett says. "Much of their information is confidential and these organizations have been understandably reluctant to share information because they fear they may be evaluated in a negative way."

The end result is community agencies are unprepared for the approaching storm. "If you're involved in a political environment in which there is a reluctance to share resources and an even stronger reluctance to share information, then we are crippling ourselves in terms of trying to be competitive for grants," he says.

Through a $50,000 grant from the City of Jacksonville's Department of Community Services, Hallett is coordinating an effort to make agencies aware of the problem while completing a needs assessment report for the community. Last month, representatives from about 30 community agencies gathered on the UNF campus to discuss how Jacksonville will serve child abuse victims as both the state and federal agencies turn over those responsibilities to city governments. "Local agencies are understaffed, under funded and overwhelmed by the demand for services," Hallett notes. "Statewide, abuse investigators' caseload is well over twice the recommended level."

One method Hallett is developing to attack the problem is the creation of a new community database. By compiling information from agencies on target populations, existing resources and available services, Hallett is hoping to foster more collaboration among organizations in applying for federal funding. "Our first step is to attempt to get a larger share of federal resources being left on the table, in some cases. In order to be successful, more agency collaboration will be required" Hallett said. "And 'collaboration' today means agencies are having to leverage some of their own resources right up front in order to get funded. "

The costs of not adequately preparing for the approaching storm will be severe. Hallett can rattle off a litany of social problems associated with child abuse including increased rates of crime, teenage pregnancy, depression and suicide among abused children who do not receive treatment.

"Children are a voiceless, non-voting and vulnerable population. Unless people are continually made aware of their plight, it is easy for them to be swept aside and forgotten" he says.