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January 15, 2008 By Adam Stone
what they've seen of MST, especially in its ability to make geographic issues come alive.
The Southeast Yakima Community Center serves a black community adjacent to a Hispanic community. Director Ester Huey says she sees it all the time: local kids placed into foster homes in distant towns.
"But until I saw that map, I didn't realize the breadth of the problem," she said. "You can talk to people about an issue, concern or problem, and they just don't seem to grasp it the way they do when they have a graphic in front of them."
Huey suggested MST maps could generate a new understanding, and perhaps a new willingness to help.
"When you can see that a child was taken from this particular home and placed 30 or 40 miles away, when you see all these children streaming out of the community, then you begin to understand how they become high-risk children, because the separation for them is total," she said. "We want to develop foster homes in this town, to keep those children in an area where they are familiar with their church, their school, their neighbors."
Some are concerned about the mapping idea, suggesting the visual element might prove too stark for some observers.
"It might cause some problems," said Karen Jorgenson, executive director of the National Foster Parent Association, based in Gig Harbor, Wash."If people saw that everyone was coming from one neighborhood, it could put them off at first. It might say to them: 'Hey, this is in your neighborhood,' and perhaps make them defensive rather than eager."
On balance, though, Jorgenson is optimistic about the mapping program. "We have been trying very diligently over the past several years to keep kids in their neighborhoods, to make sure they don't have to change schools," she said. "This sounds like something that would be very useful."
Cox, meanwhile, thinks these maps could change the face of social service.
For years, he says, the public has relied on paid professionals to take care of abused and neglected children. By putting geographic facts on the table, the social service world has a chance to convert the public at-large into active participants in the endeavor to care for those in need.
"We want to give them regular data on the children that come from their own communities, because the children belong to them. They belong to that community," he said.
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Great story. S&T can be purchased for about $30, $99 with the GPS receiver hardware. The $150 price in the story seems a bit steep.
But what happens when the parent or abuser sees them in the community, but living with another family. Will there be backlash? Will that child and their foster family be stalked and harassed? Is it sometimes better to totally remove the child in danger and send them to a new area? How can a child at risk, be taken to another household in that area, if the area is a high crime, drug paralyzed, and dangerous community. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. This is why, I believe that statistical information aids in making those decisions.
Yes, the price has come down for Microsoft Streets and Trips since I started using it for data in 2005.
Every neighborhood has its own strengths and legacy. There are champions for children in every neighborhood that can be depended upon. A placement decision by definition can only be made when it is safe to do so. A 'safe decision' to return the child back to the neighborhood is made when family, extended family, community, Child Protection Officials and Foster Parents are engaged and motivated to follow through with the changes that ensure more safety than would normally be afforded to the child. It is, in this case, fortunate for the child that it is also a familiar placement. This safe and familiar placement can be made more much more often than it is presently. It does improve outcomes. In fact, the biggest variable statistically shows that placing the child back in the neighborhood when it is safe and using a Family to Family approach yields better outcomes. Please study the statistics published for Cleveland and the surrounding county on their web site.
By way of knowing the true genesis of this project, it would be worth reviewing this article in the Child Welfare League of America (published in late 2005): http://www.cwla.org/voice/0509briefs.htm
We have safeguards against such things. Only a safe placement will do.