Program working to keep families together

By Jeff Karoub Associated Press DEARBORN (AP) -- Michigan nonprofit social services agencies say they are making progress with a pilot program designed to keep children in their homes and out of a strained state child-welfare system. The prevention program has been assisting families in the Detroit, Pontiac, Flint and Grand Rapids areas since last October. The state Department of Human Services pays for it through the private agencies and targets families that aren't in imminent danger of breaking apart but could if help isn't provided. "We prevent it by providing resources and guiding them," said Siham Restum, who coordinates the program at The Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, known as ACCESS. The program expands the efforts of the state department's Families First of Michigan, which launched in the mid-1980s as a pilot project and has since expanded statewide. It has inspired similar programs in other states and countries. The children in those families are at a high risk of being removed because of abuse or neglect. The families in the new pilot project are referred to the nonprofits by state child care officials or community groups. Dearborn-based ACCESS and two other Detroit agencies it has teamed up with receive cases every day, and Restum said ACCESS has seen more than 80 families so far. The three-month program includes home visits, where caseworkers develop a treatment plan with families affected by mental illness, substance abuse or poverty. The program also includes parent education on budgeting, nutrition and child management, and in-home family counseling. Among the people finding benefits in the program is Darryl McClain, 49, a single father of three who lives in the Detroit suburb of Ecorse. He said a state case worker referred him to ACCESS' Family Preservation/Family Skills Program as the recently released prisoner was having trouble dealing with his oldest son, who had been getting into trouble and developed a substance abuse problem, just as McClain had. "I was away for four years. When I came home ... I was thrust into the duties of being mom and dad," said McClain, who served time for home invasion. He said his case worker, Simone Floyd, "listened and gave me some real good feedback" that "allowed me to exhale and look at who I need to be for my children." He said his son is now in a treatment program and their relationship has improved. Former DHS director Ismael Ahmed, who co-founded ACCESS and served as its executive director before heading the state agency, said the state had been trying for a while to figure out how to keep children out of the child-welfare system. The prevention pilot grew out of a yearlong effort that involved DHS and community workers, lawmakers and families under the care of the state. Ahmed said many recommendations came out of the group, but the centerpiece was simple and direct: prevent children from going into the state system in the first place. "Truth be told, both federal and state programs to date have focused on children in care, and nobody's gone substantially up-river to keep children out of care," said Ahmed, now an associate provost at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The work was being done amid the backdrop of another challenge to child-welfare services: a lawsuit against the state on behalf of 20,000 children that led to a 2008 consent decree in which Michigan agreed to make many changes to improve its foster care and protective services. A court-appointed team monitoring the state's progress reported late last year that it has been slow to make those improvements. "We didn't think we could get to the numbers in the consent decree unless we could stop the number of kids coming into care," Ahmed said. So far, the program has shown promise. State officials say 97 percent of the 2,500 cases statewide have not been referred back to the state. ACCESS and the two Detroit agencies it's working with say very few of their clients have been referred back to the state. McClain said Floyd and ACCESS also have helped him with more practical concerns as well, such as getting a washing machine and a voucher for clothes. McClain, who worked for 20 years for General Motors Co., also is looking for work and hopes employers don't see his background as a "deterrent." "My motivation is to reinvent me," he said. Published: Fri, Jun 17, 2011