CASSOPOLIS — United Way is providing funding of $12,000 for the Cass County Family Court Foster Child Enrichment Project.

The project’s goal is to better serve neglected and/or abused children at risk due to removal from their caregiver(s). While some funding is available to meet basic needs of neglected and/or abused children, the funding received from United Way will be used by Cass County Family Court to address foster children’s unmet basic needs as well as to provide for enrichment services and supplies using a holistic focus to assist the children’s adjustment to out of home placements allowing them not just to survive but to flourish.

“Providing children with items that many children outside the child welfare system take for granted makes a big difference in how children view themselves and the world, which may lead to the children striving to better achieve, as well as impacting how the children are viewed by their peer group and others,” said Cass County Chief Judge Susan L. Dobrich.

In addition, provision of such items and services strengthens children’s connection with their schools and communities; better connections with schools and communities has the tendency to increase literacy and graduation rates. Cass County Family Court is fortunate to receive support from the CASA program, which meets some of the foster children’s enrichment needs. However, there are more children in foster care than the CASA program can accommodate.

This United Way funding provides for foster children’s unmet needs and allows Family Court to collaborate with Court representatives, representatives from DHHS, children’s Guardian-Ad-Litems, children’s therapists, child caregivers, children’s placements, and any other persons with knowledge of the children’s emotional, educational and physical needs to assess and provide for those unmet needs.

“It is very difficult to measure happiness; however, we are able to observe the presence of or absence of happiness,” said Court Administrator Carol Montavon Bealor. “Experience with these cases has shown us that children are happier when their lives are normalized after removal from their caregiver(s) and when the children have opportunities to enjoy activities enjoyed by and taken for granted by children who have not been a part of the child welfare system.

“While receiving school supplies, personal items, a new bicycle or tennis lessons may not seem like it would make much of an impact, it can mean the world to a child who is placed with strangers, in a strange environment, and possibly attending a new school because it normalizes the child’s situation and provides the opportunity for them to better settle into that new situation. We are thrilled that United Way is providing the means for the Cass County Family Court to provide the ‘extras’ our Cass County foster kids deserve.”

No additional staff would be hired to implement this program so that all funds can be used to directly benefit foster children. This project is further enhanced by the Cass Family Court’s track record of collaboration with other community agencies to develop evidence-based intervention strategies.

These same types of strategies have been utilized in Cass County’s problem-solving courts and have expanded into traditional court proceedings, including abuse and neglect.