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Some child services now in local hands
By RYAN DAVIS © St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2001 Pasco County becomes a testing ground today for major social service reform. Services for children of troubled families have traditionally been controlled by the state. They will begin today to be turned over to Family Continuity Program, a St. Petersburg-based non-profit agency. By April 5, Family Continuity will oversee services such as foster care, adoption of troubled children and counseling of troubled families. "We hope to be a model not just for the rest of Florida, but for other states as well," said Jeff Richard, Family Continuity's executive director. Family Continuity completed its takeover of these services in Pinellas on Feb. 2. Pinellas was the second county in the state to have its entire array of child protective services -- from investigations of child abuse to foster care/adoption -- turned over to local agencies, state officials said. Manatee was the first. Pasco will be third. Pasco and Pinellas will be the country's largest testing ground for such widespread localization of services for children of troubled families, Richard said. "It's a big, scary project," said Pam Gary, the president of the Pasco County Foster Parents Association. Starting Sunday, the Times will monitor the grand experiment's results through the experiences the Gary family, which includes eight foster children. There are 199 foster kids in Pasco County, a Family Continuity spokeswoman said. Pam Gary and her husband, Mike, oversee one of the 104 Pasco foster homes. State law mandates that, wherever possible, the DCF turn over services for children of troubled families to local agencies by 2003. It's called community-based care, and it's part of Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to make government smaller. Family Continuity originally was scheduled to begin taking over Pasco services Dec. 1. It was postponed largely so the changeover would not coincide with the holidays. It agreed last year to a five-year, $112-million contract with the state for Pasco and Pinellas counties. - Ryan Davis covers higher education and social services in Pasco. He can be reached at 800-333-7505, ext. 3452 or by e-mail at rdavis@sptimes.com.
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From today's Pasco Times |
