Angel on 48th Street The Business of Child Abuse

LA FO$TER CARE: Angel on 48^th Street.

 

The Business of Child Abuse.

 

By Joshua Allen

 
 

There are a lot of decent people in the foster care business.  Foster parents who do anything, spend anything, go anywhere - all for the children. There are Social workers who go above and beyond, who on a regular basis, pay from their own pocket to buy candy, or journals, or tickets to a theme park.  Mentors who give of themselves completely, working with teens through adulthood and are a mentor in every sense of the word.  Administrators who are tireless in their pursuit of the best interest of children.This is about one of them. 

 

Author's Note: I was introduced to Mrs. Wilson by a social worker who has known her for a decade.  She said she wanted to see something positive in these pages after reading so much about greed and corruption and now the death of Viola Vanclief.  So, here you have it - somebody making a difference, making the world a better place. 

                           
 

Mrs. Wilson has lived here for over two decades, she is proud of her home, and the pride shows in its upkeep.  There remains a dignity to the neighborhood. People still watch out for one another. Yet, time has not been kind.  The neighborhood used to be safer, one could walk late at night without much worry. That may have changed over the years but her home remains the same. It is perhaps - because of this – even more dignified, located on a street that retains a neighborly quality even if that can't be said a block away.

 

Wilson's home now has a gate around the porch and prudently, it is almost always locked.  This gated home is a place where Foster Teens have graduated from Dorsey High or Manual Arts High School to then go on to a dignified life working productively, raising their children, and moving away to newer homes in Victorville or Ontario, where hopefully, there are still front and backyards and kids are told to come home before supper or before it's dark. Sadly, it is not like that in Wilson's  neighborhood.  Mrs. Wilson has a name for what goes on around the corner.  Not quite unprintable, but best left unsaid.

 

Perhaps three dozen foster teens have passed through Mrs. Wilson's home during the past 15 years. Many return now, to visit, to see how 'Mom' is doing. To most of these grown ladies Mrs. Wilson is Mom in every sense of the word. Many are grown and have husbands and children, while others have good, honest jobs with productive work that contributes to society.  Wilson's 'kids,' foster teens who came to her now have futures; something that seemed lost before they arrived at her home.   These ladies, these ex-foster teenshave one thing in common: They call her "Mom," and this was and still is their home. They visit often.

 

"I treat all these girls as if they were my own daughter. Everyone is equal here," said Wilson. "I don't like the term foster child. Some of these girls have no hope when they come here."

 

Wilson has fostered teenage girls who have suffered every imaginable evil.  She has seen it all.  Girls who were forced out to make their way on the street before they have reached puberty. Girls who were beaten by mothers and fathers and boyfriends.  Twelve-year-old girls left alone in their homes while their parents drank or gambled or sold themselves (or them) for drugs. Many of these girls were sexually abused by their step fathers or fathers or some other male relative.  Actually, there is not a lot of talk about fathers one way or another. That's just the way it is.

 

While never routine, the horrors from the girls' pasts are not an uncommon story here. Perhaps that is a good thing. The knowledge that other girls have gone through similar situations, have suffered and come through,  and have made good lives for themselves can be comforting. Being around  and speaking to others with experiences like your own demonstrates to them that they are not alone. There is a word for this in psychology text books, it is called universality. All these girls have come to the home of Mrs. Wilson.  For them it is a shelter, a sanctuary.

 

Wilson is old school and proud of it.  No, there is no 'woodshed,' in back. She wouldn't last a day in foster care if there were. But she is old school nonetheless.  The rules are simple but strict. Most important is respect. Respect for the home, respect one another, respect for teachers, social workers, for birth parents - especially if parents are trying to make things right.  However, most of all, the girls must have respect for themselves. Because that is how the healing begins. 

 

Some girls can't abide the rules and leave in anger for another foster home - sometimes a group home. It is a pity really, because Mrs. Wilson has saved a lot of lives and experienced professionals of all types knowsthis. Drugs, gangs, crime, violence - not tolerated.  Back talk? -  Not a good idea.  Make an effort at school and with your studies.   Finish your homework, do your chores.  Treat each other well, no foul language.Care about each other.

 

Some girls come with boyfriends outside the home and need careful supervision. Some are pregnant with attendant trips to the doctor, therapist, or tutor - you name it.  Others come with tattoos, piercings as well as bruises and scars - many scars. 

 

The girls learn modesty and decency; words not often heard from a system that is perhaps too concerned with being nonjudgmental. The girls can attend any Church or house of worship, and while religious freedom is encouraged, they often accompany Wilson to her regular church where they become part of the community. These are "her girls." 

 

Wilson will work with birth parents if they want the best for their child and they are trying. However, many parents do not. She will do everything she can to help the teens return home.  But while in her house, these are her girls.  And she is Mom to all.

 

Mrs. Wilson can be wary of therapists and social workers. Some she likes, some she doesn't. "Nobody is going to come into my home and tell me what's what," said Wilson. " I earned this home working for decades for the county and with a small dry cleaner." Social workers and therapists, and anyone else looking to help should know, you don't just walk into this home and announce that you are going to help. Help comes with time and love. Help comes when you are accepted enough to be believed.  You earn that, and it's not easy.

 
 

Foster care means trips to the doctor, trips to the dentist, trips to medical evaluations, trips to the therapist,trips to court.  There are frequent visits with birth parents and school meetings adnauseum.  Foster care means opening your home to agency social workers, investigators, County social workers, nurses, and community care licensing.   Foster care means stacks of paperwork for each child and it all better be filled out correctly.

 

Mrs. Wilson does all of this for each girl in her home, and somehow graduates a high percentage from high school, a much higher percentage than the norm. Many go on to junior college or vocational school. Others have run away, gone AWOL  to be with boyfriends or relatives not vetted by the county, or sadly, they go to live on the street. Unfortunately, this is not unusual. But more than a few runaways have returned because they realize what they gave up.  And they are welcomed back. Others are never heard from again.

 

The ones who remain make a commitment and are rewarded with a family, with love, with a home and a promise. A promise that Mrs. Wilson (Mom) will do everything in her power to help these girls succeed.  She helps to heal wounds and the scars of horrible violations of neglect or abuse that have come from the people these young women should be able to trust the most - their blood. A home with Wilson is a reward for trying.

 

The girls learn to give back, to help each other and the community. They learn about bank accounts and check books. They learn about car loans and scholarships. They learn about dignity and babies having babies. Mrs. Wilson has seen it all. She has been there during personal times of bad health and family crisis. This is what she does. This is what the Lord wants from her.

       
 

But not all girls want help, and the trick is trying to change their minds and their way of thinking.  Sometimes when an adult chooses to be lost, make bad choices, you have to back off and let them make their own choices no matter how miserable.  You don't have that luxury with children.  You have to try with each and every one, no matter how street smart, no matter how tough.  You have to try.

 

That's what a parent does.

 

Joshuaallenonline.com

joshuaallenonline@gmail.com

LA Fo$ter Care: A Hitchhikers Guide to Foster Care: Follow the Money.

The Business of Child Abuse:

By Joshua Allen



Speak privately to any number of Foster Care Social Workers and the questioner learns something fast. The care and wellbeing of abused and neglected children is not the primary focus or priority of Foster Care Agencies. Foster Care Agencies first priority is geared towards growth (increasing revenues) and towards passing County Audits and inspections. I have interviewed dozens of foster care social workers over the years and the above is a constant and frequent theme. There are exceptions of course, and many individuals in these agencies do have as their intent the best interests of foster children.

This does not negate however the foolishness of a system that is geared towards passing county audits or inspections over the wellbeing of abused and neglected children. Agencies are terrified of audits and county inspections. They are terrified because the county uses these audits to discipline or close them down if they are big offenders towards the care of foster children or because of financial malfeasance and misappropriation of funds.

Yet, it is hard for a foster agency to be closed down by county officials no matter what they've done. Just think about Martin Luther King Hospital and you can get some idea about how effective the Board of Supervisors are when confronted with a corrupt or incompetent organization. Foster Care Agencies stay open and generate large salaries for their owners (and friends and family) despite misappropriations of hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of years and despite numerous warnings and red flags to county officials. http://file.lacounty.gov/Auditor/audit_reports/Children%20and%20Family%20Services%20-%20Adoption/cms1_070613.pdf Agencies stay open when owners and administrators intentionally violate regulations and guidelines and over pay themselves tens of thousands of dollars each year only to be made to pay it back for the single year they were audited. http://file.lacounty.gov/Auditor/audit_reports/Children%20and%20Family%20Services%20-%20Adoption/cms1_080315.pdf Agencies stay open when they can't properly account for hundreds of thousands of dollars and spend years arguing with the county about it. http://file.lacounty.gov/Auditor/audit_reports/Children%20and%20Family%20Services%20-%20Adoption/cms1_132473.pdf And here is why. Agencies stay open because they play (and pay) politics. And if "money is the mother's milk of politics," abused children are the mother's milk of agencies.

Politics is about relationships, and a foster agency thrives because of relationships. A good relationship with a particular DCFS office, a Supervisor or even a County Social Worker who are responsible for placing Abused and Neglected Children into their foster homes is worth a large percentage of Agency revenues. Agencies do everything they can to cultivate these DCFS relationships because of the millions of dollars involved.

Relationships with County Analysts and State Licensing officials who are responsible for policing, inspecting and checking into any incidents or irregularities insures an agency runs smoothly. If an agency doesn't have a good relationship with their analyst they are in big trouble since violations of regulations can be found anywhere and at any time, basically whenever they look. This could then impact their ability to place further children in their certified foster homes and maintain revenues.

And equally important are an agencies relationship with Foster Parents, who provides the bed space and revenue streams that keep the whole project going and growing. You must keep foster parents happy or they will leave for greener pastures.

Agencies play on the nature of their work to win support from local politicians, radio hosts, community activists and well-meaning businesses and organizations who they exploit for everything from toys or event tickets for the children (good) to free airtime, advertisements, and cash gifts. Who doesn't want to help abused children?

To add a veneer of legitimacy, an agency will sometime recruit an upstanding member of the community to sit on and balance out the board of directors that may be have too many relatives or paid employees of the agency owner or be unbalanced in other ways. And although in theory board members are only supposed to be compensated with an occasional meal and gas money some of them will fight to the death before giving up their seat or allow themselves to be replaced. In two decades I have never seen a board member penalized for allowing an agency to commit malfeasance but I digress.

Generally, Foster Care Agencies are audited every year or two to check for irregularities with social worker and foster parent paperwork, quality of care in the foster home and insuring that foster parent and social worker files contain appropriate degrees, certifications and fingerprint checks. (Over the years I have seen more than a few foster care social workers thrown out after it was discovered that had forged their degree so I have to wonder how frequent occurrence this is in the real world of corporate hiring).

Agencies are audited fiscally much less frequently and this should change. Fiscal audits often occur when the county has received a number of complaints either regarding child care issues or financial malfeasance. A common denominator when an agency is investigated is a preponderance of complaints from disgruntled employees who may or may not have truth behind their claim. An agency that fires more than a quarter of their workforce per year is asking for trouble but amazingly this still occurs.

In theory non fiscal audits of files are supposed to be yearly but are rarely so unless the agency is on the county radar. Audits are usually postponed for weeks and months after being announced. Agencies use threats of upcoming audits to motivate social workers and other personnel to get their act together and have all paperwork and foster homes in order. Sometimes the county will warn the agency in advance which files and foster homes they plan to check and inspect. And the agency knows that files of any and all children on psychotropic medication are the first to be examined.

An audit lasts anywhere from a day to several weeks and include inspections into the paperwork for anywhere from 10 to dozens of foster children. Auditors will also visit a few foster homes and conduct perfunctory interviews with foster parents and foster children to insure the agency is performing up to minimal standards. Sometimes Spanish speaking foster parents with little or no English are interviewed by a county official with little or no Spanish. (Or for that matter, little or no common sense).

How well the agency, foster parent, and social workers do in assisting or helping foster children work through the multitude of psychological and academic issues they face on a daily basis is not the question. In reality, the important thing to both the Agency and County is the quality of documentation. In other words, are the T's crossed and I's dotted.

County and Agency foster care social workers are almost always evaluated as an employee from the quality and completeness of their paperwork. This is sort of fair I guess, at least as far as it goes; due diligence keeps the lawyers away and to some at least, is the only way the county and agency can evaluate the care and quality of their own work. Well at least their paperwork!

Agencies obsess about these audits and discussions about passing them takes up a huge percentage of time during staff meetings and trainings. A social worker depressingly learns the bulk of their time is to be spent in documentation and ensuring due diligence. There is a dark joke in foster care about drive byes, but this is not about gang shootings. The myth is about the social worker who calls the foster parent from their car and has them bring the baby or toddler outside and hold them up, or perhaps spin them around to ensure to the worker the child is healthy, alive and unmarked. The same social worker would then go back to their computer and spend an hour or two documenting the encounter.

Now about lawyers; after the auditor, the biggest fear an agency has is from lawyers. Every foster child is assigned a lawyer to represent their interest in court. These lawyers are the lowest paid attorneys in the county system. At the same time foster children are assigned a lawyer, their birth parents are also assigned a lawyer to represent their interests in court. And, as if 2 lawyers weren't enough, (is it ever?) the county has their own lawyer to represent them separately since county interests may not be consistent with the interests of the foster child.

So basically there are 3 lawyers for each case. Reaching any of these lawyers on the phone is about as easy as breaking out of Alcatraz. And go figure, the lawyers are overworked and have too many cases to do the job properly. Most foster children as well as birth parents wish they could have more time with them working on their case. Actually birth parents would probably just settle for a returned phone call.

An abusive parent who has enough money to pay privately for a decent lawyer will probably have their child returned a lot quicker (with some monitoring) than the typical birth parent that becomes ensnared in the county system. Does this surprise anyone? (Actually, an abusive parent who has enough money to hire a lawyer is much less likely to have their child removed in the first place).

Joshuaallenonline.com

Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com