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NYS Commissioner: Why
By Jeremy | November 27, 2007
LPAC Holistic Leadership Series
Hon. Gladys Carrion, Esq., Commissioner NYS Office of Children and Family Services"How Faith Communities Can Help with the Crisis of Children and Families of Color"Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera of Latino Pastoral Action Center hosted Commissioner Gladys Carrion of the NYS Office of Children and Family Services yesterday as part of their Holistic Leadership Series. Past speakers have included Chancellor Joel Klein, Rev. Dr. A.R. Bernard, Dr. Tony Evans, and Rev. Luis Cortes. Below are my notes. Pictures to follow. Commissioner Carrion is homegrown, from legal service lawyer in the Bronx to Aspira to United Way. Still lives in the Bronx. OCFS employs 4,300 people and manages a $4.2 billion budget. Regulates and funds pretty much everything that relates to children in NYS Began as a legal services lawyer in Bronx representing parents charged with abuse and neglect. In most cases their failure was due in large measure to poverty Failure of systems has resulted in her system (foster care, juvenile justice, after school, etc)
Foster Care
Overwhelmingly the children in foster care are black and latino. ACS needs faith communities to help ensure safety for our children. ACS shouldn't have to remove so many kids from families. 47,000 in foster care in NYS ten years ago. Great reduction now. (27,000?) Why aren't there more Latino and black families that will accept foster children? We need families to mentor primarily single mother families. Too many men are absent. Almost every day there's at least one child fatality. Many times, communities are aware of unsafe condition but fail to report it. Last week, a child died in Bronx. It's a community tragedy because no one reported ongoing domestic abuse. ACS is there to help, but need community involvement. In NYS, there are 37,000 families in preventive services, which means someone reported signs of abuse. Gov. Spitzer wants to see "transformational change." Require community involvement with or without government funding. Foster kids should not age out homeless. Working with Housing secretary to find solutions. Working with mental health commissioner to bring programs to juvenile justice. Critical to have governmental supports, but government cannot provide transformational change. Government provides safety net. Churches and community organizations provide personal transformation. We need community advocates to be more vocal. Tons of advisory boards and inter-agency work groups, but very few Asians, Latino and blacks. Yet the children being served primarily come from those communities. Too many kids leave foster care unsure of who they are. Advocates must provide the link. We need blacks and latinos at the table when policies are being made. We need nominees for appointments. Where are the black and Latino nominees? Legislators must see us in Albany.Juvenile Justice
ACS manages jails. Facilities should be a second chance, but too far away. 37 residential facilities for juvenile offenders. Some are 6-8 hours away from NYCV, yet 80% of kids in system are from NYC. Looking to relocate prisons closer to city so ACS can "wrap arms around families" with supportive services. 80% recidivism rate. 89% of children are of color, black and brown. Trying to get supportive services into juvenile detention. Perspective: We are managing boarding schools for boys. Need to move from being a pipeline to prison to one which educates our kids. ACS needs support of local pastors. The upstate prisons are economic development upstate. They represent jobs, so closing them down is politically volatile. Union opposition. We have to divert kids, relocate facilities, and make them smaller.Community programs
We need to invest in brain cells, not jail cells. Even our kids who've made grave mistakes need supports so not to fall into recidivism. Need to reform local public education. Why do we need kids to become a captive audience in order to get GED? Must negotiate with DOE to get credit for work done before incarceration. Difficult for kids to return to schools after release because re-enrollment is discretionary. No real after care system now. Must develop one. When kids return home, where do they go? Sometimes, go to court to "extend placement" because would be homeless on their release. No current funding stream for diversion programs and after care. Must stop demonizing juvenile offenders. They made a mistake. Don't define them forever based on who they were at 16. Community programs must open up to formerly adjudicated youthChild Care System
Heavily regulated to ensure the health and safety of our children. But have we over-regulated? Need for quality programs. Need a seamless system from birth to four for impoverished children. Current systems don't talk to one another (pre-K, head start, etc). Must provide quality options for impoverished families _________________________________________Q & A
Q: What capacity building does ACS provide to help grassroots agencies to get organized? A: Janice Bibb Jones has unit that provides technical assistance: www.OCFS.state.ny.us / 518-474-9461. But the agency doesn't "do organizing," and that's what's key locally. We need a movement to support change. Hispanic Federation provides grant support for organizing. Q: (Ruben Austria) Often point of connection breaks down between system and community groups because of grassroots inability to complete reports etc. A: Procurement process and reporting beauracracy is very difficult. Changes can only happen on the margins because "state law is what it is." Still committed to streamlining. In process of organizing a task force to look at how to streamline. Q: 1 - Amachi program provides mentoring for children who are incarcerated, but problems dealing with the legal department. How can you help? 2 - How can we help place muslim children in muslim homes? A: 1 - Hired a new general counsel. 2- Rodney Pride is point person in agency to work with community groups to provide placement. Need to deliver quality families. Government cannot do enough. Foster care is hard. Additional Q & A ...in and 18 gambling up oklahomastollen credit aapilotsroyale after casinogambling for canada agescores 700 creditbureaus credit addressesgames shorter alabama casinocasino shorter alabama games MapTopics: children, community, justice, new york, poverty, youth, youth ministry | 2 Comments »
November 27th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Its a state for children all around the country. My in-laws have adopted 8 children (3 sets of siblings) and currently have one 9 month old baby boy living in their home. all the children are from families and mothers that we have know. Local workers in our state report that the church is not very great at responding to the need of foster care, yet she says, “the heathens are lining up to take children into their homes”. ie The gay and lesbian community, cult families etc. We need renewal in the church that moves beyond our comforts and secure lifestlyes. Yet, there are so many needs. Thanks for posting this…this is something i might borrow myself.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Great post, Jeremy! Extremely informative and helpful. One of my dreams is to ignite a movement of young Black and Latino families committed to adopting Black and Latino foster children. May it be so, my friend. Thanks for the nudge.