Monday, February 18, 2008

Visitation scales back after losing funds




So, the biggest unsettling issues in the minds of NCP has been -

"Why am I on supervised visitation?" I didn't do anything to deserve this!

Why can't I see my kid more than x amt of time.

Well, read on, then sign our petition to STOP THIS SYSTEMATIC ABUSE!

Everything from D.V. classes to "supervised visits" to the amount of time a NCP spends with his/her child are federally funded, as is CPS and all the other "services" they put families through.

Our children are NOT money makers for the states to abuse...

GIVE US BACK OUR CHILDREN!

Stop the "incentives" used to tear families apart!
Yes I agree there are some parents that don't deserve to be alone with a dead cockaroach never mind a child, those parents are abusive, manipulative and deserve FULL SUPERVISION.
Nontheless, those parents are NOT the majority, stop victimizing EVERY PARENT, and focus on the truly abused children, and the real abusers.
Visitation scales back after losing funds

Published February 12, 2008

GUNTERSVILLE — The Marshall County Visitation and Family Center laid off three employees Friday as officials try to figure out a way to get funding following a grant mix-up.

The Marshall County Commission has paid more than $56,000 of the center’s expenses but cannot afford to pay any more.

The center has been operating without funding since Oct. 1 because a Department of Justice grant — believed to expire Sept. 30, 2008 — actually expired Sept. 30, 2007.

Salaries and other expenditures have been paid by the county for the past four and a half months, officials said.

The center laid off three of its five employees in an attempt to scale back costs.

“It’s a good program,” said Commission Chairman Douglas D. Fleming. “Nobody’s against it. We just don’t have the funds to fund them. Hopefully, they’ll get a grant approved and we can get reimbursed.”

County Administrator Nancy Wilson said the county is not amending the budget just yet because officials are hopeful for some type of grant approval in the future.

“We’re not going to go through all that trouble until we have a definitive answer,” Wilson said.

The nonprofit Visitation and Family Center is a United Way of Marshall County organization and primarily is funded by federal grants. It is governed by a board of directors.

The center is located on Worth Street in Guntersville and provides supervised visitation for noncustodial parents who have had their visitation rights discontinued by a court.

Executive Director Christina Morgan heads up the center.

Commissioners pledged their support of the center during a meeting Monday, saying they will do what they can.

Presiding Circuit Judge Howard Hawk thanked the Commission for its support up to this point and praised the work at the center.

John Young of the District Attorney’s Office said the center’s board plans to meet today.

“We are applying for a new Safehaven grant,” said Young, adding the submission deadline is the end of February.

Young said the grant mix-up partly involved dealing with the “many layers” of the Department of Justice.

Cherie Crowe, the visitation program coordinator and grant writer for the center, said laid-off employees are volunteering their time to keep the office running as efficiently as possible.

“All of us have dedicated and committed ourselves to the program,” said Crowe. “We’re going to give our time to the agency. There’s just no way we can work 40 hours or even 20 hours for nothing. We have families.”

Crowe said the center has 35 active cases involving 58 children, 46 noncustodial parents and 42 custodial parents. The center is also serving 12 Department of Human Resources cases.

“We’re going to do our best to work as much as we can,” said Crowe. “There’s no way we can serve all of them. It puts these 58 children in harm’s way.”

Crowe said the lack of funding also negatively impacts the center’s Fatherhood program, which has 41 participants. The program helps teach men how to be fathers and link them to helpful resources.

“One of the Fatherhood case managers was laid off Friday,” said Crowe. “We’ve got two Spanish-speaking employees laid off.”

Crowe said the Spanish-speaking employees helped the courts and the domestic violence coalition communicate with abused Hispanic women.

“Our mission is we service the most vulnerable of cases of children exposed to domestic violence, child abuse and high-conflict divorce cases,” said Crowe. “We’re here to be objective and supervise visitation.”

Despite the current situation, Crowe remains positive about the future.

“I have been optimistic and I continue to be optimistic,” she said. “We have the model program for the state of Alabama. We do great work here. It’s very needed and it’s a shame that this has to happen to us when we were running so smoothly. We thank the commission for supporting us this far.”

Original Article-

Sand Mountain Reporter

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I an Cherie Crowe...named in the above article. It is a pity we live in a society that needs "supervised visitation" but obviously we do. I have been supervising visits for over eigth years and agree it can be used agaisnt a parent but those cases are few. The majority of our cases are due to child abuse and neglect. Supervised visitation is anything but a punishment of a noncustodial parent but is used to preotect the child AND both parents until the courts can determine a better solution. Do we deal with cases of parental alienation...yes, we do. In fact..many times our center EXPOSES these parents who abuse the system. Our staff can determine in dealing with both parents and the children...who teh real victim is...the child..or the parent. I can give you testimony after testimony to the good work we do...from custodial parents...and previous non-custodials. Our visitation center is dedicated to the well being of the children we serve...most children deserve access to both parents...unfortunately, some parents don't deserve access to their children.