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Thursday, February 7, 2008
Advocates May Lose Funding
Mountain View Telegraph
A program that advocates for abused and neglected children in the area might lose more than 20 percent of its budget.
The Rio Grande Valley Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, operating as a nonprofit since 2002, is part of a worldwide organization whose volunteers advocate for children in court.
"(The money) is real important to us," said CASA Executive Director Audrey Henry. "There's a good chance that we might not get it."
According to Henry, CASA depends on Victims of Crime Act federal money channeled through the state. The Crime Victims Fund, established by the Victims of Crime Act, was recently cut from $625 million to $590 million, meaning New Mexico will receive less money this year than last, said Robbin Brassie, VOCA grant administrator, in an e-mail forwarded by Henry.
The state Legislature will decide— possibly by the end of the session— if CASA will keep receiving the funds as they have for the past five years, Henry said.
CASA receives $28,450 annually of VOCA money that funds some positions and pays for training and mileage costs, Henry said.
Rio Grande Valley CASA uses 30 volunteers who advocate in court for children from Torrance, Socorro, Sierra and north Catron counties. Currently about 65 children have been taken out of their homes in the area and are either in foster homes or in treatment facilities.
Volunteers go through 40 hours of initial training and 12 to 15 hours of follow-up training annually.
Henry is the only full-time employee. She has two part-time employees, Diana Stavros and Ginni Jones, who also work cases.
CASA volunteers are sworn in by any one of the three Seventh Judicial District judges to uphold the laws of the constitution, to maintain confidentiality and to provide information about the child and the case to the judge.
Last Friday Valree Lopez, county office manager for Torrance County Protective Services, a division of the state Children, Youth and Families Department, conducted a two-hour training for nine CASA volunteers and paid staff.
Lopez supervises seven paid social workers from her office in Estancia. She said the burn-out rate for social workers is about two years. Lopez has worked as a social worker for 19 years.
"A social worker works the whole case and follows legal mandates. CASA volunteers focus on the kids to make sure that everyone is doing what they should do for the kids," Lopez said, explaining how the two separate groups work in tandem to support the children.
Both women said the most difficult part of their jobs was sending children back home when they believed it was not in the best interest of the child to go— although the first choice is for the child to return home.
"It doesn't always go the way you want it to go. 'Time's up.' 'You didn't care enough that you would stop screwing up like this.' 'What did you mean that she's in jail for dealing drugs?' That's really disappointing. But there's times when the parents do come around," Henry said.
According to statistics from CYFD in the first three months of 2007, there were a total of 161 allegations of child maltreatment in Torrance County. Of those cases:
52 children claimed physical abuse and 34.6 percent of the claims were substantiated.
Four children claimed sexual abuse and 50 percent of the claims were substantiated.
105 children claimed physical neglect and 41.9 percent of the claims were substantiated.
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