Child abuse is an omnipresent problem even in a small community
like San Benito County, but it’s one that a new county organization
will soon look to end through education and prevention.
Hollister – Child abuse is an omnipresent problem even in a small community like San Benito County, but it’s one that a new county organization will soon look to end through education and prevention.
On Tuesday, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors will vote to establish a new Child Abuse Prevention Council that will help the county maintain eligibility for state funding for education and public awareness of child abuse, whose frequency in San Benito County alone is alarming.
Between January and March of 2005, 99 San Benito County children were placed in foster care due to abuse or neglect at home. In 2003, the county responded to 950 emergency calls reporting child abuse. And in just one month that year, December 2003, the county received 112 reports of the crime.
But funding sources for prevention are limited. San Benito County typically receives about $170,000 a year – the bulk of its budget for child abuse programs – in state funding, according to Community Services & Workforce Development Director Kathy Flores. And recently, California changed its guidelines so all counties must have a broad range of representatives working on child abuse prevention to secure those funds. The new council, which could consist of up to 20 members, will be responsible for appropriating state money to various education and prevention programs including Family Resource Center classes on how to play with your kids and how to draw the line between appropriate and inappropriate discipline tactics.
“They try to give them (parents) an awareness of what is ‘normal’ in childhood development, what kind of behavior is typical for children of different ages, what kind of stimulation children need to develop as they’re supposed to,” Flores explained. “That way they’re more likely to stay away from disciplinary actions that might constitute abuse or neglect.”
The Child Abuse Prevention Council will be made up of representatives from different sectors of the community including a foster parent, a representative from the religious community and a law enforcement official along with members of the now-defunct Child Welfare Commission, the CAPC’s predecessor.
“It’s really a more broad representation on this council, but the duties are going to be basically the same as the Child Welfare Commission’s,” Flores said. “That is, they’ll have the same mission of looking out for children.”
Projects already on the horizon for the CAPC include further collaboration with the Family Resources Center and foster parent recruitment, Flores said, as many of San Benito County’s foster children get sent out-of-county with nowhere to go due to the shortage of local foster homes.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at jq*****@fr***********.com.
