FAMILY SERVICES
The CPN 2021 campaign is centered around stewardship of our community resources and the effects of disparities on the well-being and long-term health outcomes of our neighbors experiencing poverty and crisis. The 2020 pandemic ravaged Wake County’s low-income communities and families as susceptibility to the virus and financial insecurity caused shortages and disparities across the board. Family Services Roundtable will be partnering with the Health Service Roundtable to support on-going community initiatives opening access to services and strengthening protective factors around our families and youth. The CPN will support initiatives that promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for youth and families.
Protective factors for families and children include, but are not limited to: supportive family environments, concrete support for basic needs, nurturing parenting skills, stable family relationships, and parental resiliency. With the wellbeing of the parent, so goes the wellbeing of the family. Attributes of the core health determinants — employment, education, housing, and access to health care, mental health services, and supportive social networks — protect the wellbeing of the family at large.
The Connection
Its Time to Stop Confusing Poverty with Neglect – Great Article! There has long been correlation between poverty and child maltreatment. Maltreatment is, of course, inclusive of all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment. But, for a moment, let us focus on the broad strokes of neglect. Neglect is defined by state and federal law in both civil and criminal statutes and most often accepted as an Act of Omission – a failure to provide that resulted in a harm imposed.
Without disputing the act against or deprivation experienced by a child, can we use the equity lens and change the focus from the aftermath and prosecution to pre-crises prevention. There is clear and disproportionate representation for people of color both experiencing poverty as well as involvement with the Child Welfare and Fostercare Systems. Incidents and address in maltreatment of children is stratified by socioeconomic status and access to resources. According to the latest Children’s Bureau Child Maltreatment report which used 2015 data, over 75 percent of all children who were victims of maltreatment were from neglect.
What does it look like in Wake County? Learn More from the Wake County Child Abuse Prevention Plan (CAPP). The following data is featured in the CAPP. In FY 2019, Wake County CPS received 13,729 intake calls of which 4,284 families were assessed for abuse:
84% were for neglect,
10% for abuse,
3% abuse and neglect,
1% dependency and neglect, and
2% other.