Another article about Family to Family in Cuyahoga County

Fixing families Cuyahoga County program aimed at saving children while also saving their parents is well worth the effort
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH, August 12, 2006

Repairing and reuniting troubled families whose children are in foster care has gotten a bad rap over the years. That's more than understandable when kids occasionally end up injured or dead after being returned to their parents. But keeping families together deserves respect when it's done right, and when abusive or neglectful parents truly mend their ways.

By many accounts, Cuyahoga County's 14-year-old Family to Family program, created by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has had success in reducing the number of children in foster care - which soared in the 1990s after a spate of child deaths at the hands of parents.

Thanks to the program's emphasis on helping families and the county's interest in making foster care the last resort, not the first, fewer youngsters are in the county's care. Of those who are, most remain in Ohio, instead of in out-of-state homes, and more are in the care of relatives or foster parents, rather than institutions.

Don't underestimate how hard it is to make programs like Family to Family work. They require lots of collaboration between the county and a variety of agencies, as well as a willingness among hostile parents and the county to find common ground on behalf of children.

In addition, these programs are easy to dump when disaster strikes and there is a child death. Fortunately, Jim McCafferty, the even-keeled director of Children & Family Services, has done no such thing.Instead, he has kept working on the program, making Cuyahoga County a national model.

The program's first priority is the well-being of children. It keeps foster children as close to their biological families as prudence allows, so that the parent-child bond can remain as strong as possible.

And instead of banishing abusive or neglectful parents, which many would be tempted to do, Family to Family connects parents with agencies in their neighborhoods that can tackle drug, alcohol or mental problems.

Its most difficult task is to reach out to everyone involved when a child's fate hangs in the balance. The department tries to make sure that the parents and the child are at the table with their supporters, listening to everything the agency has to say.

McCafferty says, wisely, that Family to Family is no panacea. The department still will have child injuries and deaths. It will still have budget problems.

And, although he left this clear truth unstated, it can't save all parents. Some may be too overwhelmed or too ill-prepared ever to handle the responsibilities of child-rearing.

The county shouldn't hesitate to make sure their children are removed and their parental rights severed, if need be.

But when parents show that they are willing to change their lives and do what's right by their children, the county should meet them halfway. It's important that programs like Family to Family exist to give them that chance.