Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Warren County Children’s Advocacy Center Director Melissa McLean speaks during a child advocacy forum held on Thursday night at the Conewango Club. The event was intended to explain how the system that responds to child abuse and neglect works as well as the role various agencies play in the process.

By JOSH COTTON

jcotton@timesobserver.com

In many ways, the system in place to respond to instances of child abuse and neglect works in the shadows.

That can lead, naturally, to people not knowing what to do when they suspect abuse or neglect.

A forum held by CASA of Warren & Forest Counties on Thursday night at the Conewango Club brought the major players of the system together to discuss not only the system itself but the part each agency plays.

“This is not (a topic) that feels good,” WCSD Superintendent Amy Stewart said.

The child abuse system is “amost invisible to most people and how it all works,” she explained. “I think we’re trying to bring to light tonight how it does work.”

Given their interface with children in the community, it’s not surprising that school staff make many of the initial reports of child abuse or neglect.

“We have to get it right, identify abuse when we see it,” she said, and “listen when they (children) start talking to us and we have to know what to do with that information.”

Those initial reports go to county Children and Youth Services.

“We take it all very seriously,” Stewart said. “We don’t want to be that person in the way of that child’s story coming to fruition.”

Meredith Ketcham leads the agency — Children and Youth Services — that investigates those reports.

“(It’s) pretty much a mystery of what we do,” she said. “I cherish the opportunity to explain and give a human face to what we actually do.”

Ketcham said there are 38 employees at CYS.

“The only way we ever get involved,” she said, is when “somebody who cares actually calls and starts the investigation.”

She walked attendees through the various processes and programs that they work through with families.

“We always want to try to keep our families together,” she said. “We are the worst parents in the world, my agency. (We are) not designed to parent children.”

Depending on the situation, the CYS intake department will make a determination on the validity of a report and can hand the case over to caseworkers who will work directly with a family on a family service plan, which details the goals that would need to be met for CYS to close a case.

She discussed the legal standard that must be met when a child is removed from the home. Even in those situations, she said, “the first goal is always return to parent.”

Some of the reports received can quickly pivot into criminal investigations.

City of Warren Police Chief Joe Sproveri said police will often discover abuse and neglect situations when responding to calls.

In crisis situations, determining what exactly happened can be a challenge.

“You have to learn how to trust your gut,” Sproveri said. “You have that sixth sense….”

Interviewing adults involved in these situations is a responsibility that falls to the police.

“I don’t care who you are, sitting across an interview room” from someone who sexually or physically abused a family member presents a situation where “we have to be able to keep our cool and make sure we don’t violate their civil rights. Sometimes you even have to sympathize with them.”

Sproveri said that rates of abuse against children is double in rural communities and that his department handled 47 incidents of crime against children (which led to 11 arrests) in 2019, 28 in 2020 and 42 (with seven arrests so far in 2021.

“To me it doesn’t sound like a lot,” he said. “When you think how small our community is… one child victim a week is significant.”

He said many of the cases that don’t lead to charges often include a custody battle.

“Obviously this is a very serious problem we’re facing,” he added. “We all agree that one child victim is one too many.”

When interviews of children are required, that falls to Melissa McLean at the Warren County Children’s Advocacy Center.

“Warren County is fortunate that we have people that are passionate about this kind of work,” McLean said. “It’s heavy, even if you do it everyday.”

She said CAC is a collaboration of many agencies. In the past, a child would have to tell and retell their story throughout an investigation. Now the interview can just happen once.

“The kids get to sit in a comfy space… and we sit and we have a conversation,” she said. “We have a child-like conversation. It’s child driven.”

She offered advice to what someone should do if a child discloses abuse to them.

“The first thing that I say… don’t panic,” she said. “The best thing that you can do is listen, absorb and then report it as soon as you can. If a child is telling you something of this magnitude, you have already earned that trust.”

If a report is substantiated or safety cannot be maintained, then a child may be removed from the home and placed in a foster home, with family or in some type of facility.

CYS has to go before a judge to seek an order affirming their decision to remove a child.

That’s where CASA can get involved.

Melissa Sproveri, CASA of Warren & Forest Counties’ executive director, said the organization trains volunteers who can then be appointed by a judge “to represent the best interest of a child in court.

“The goal,” she added, “is to keep children with their families if we can. Sometimes that’s not the case. The judges use us as an extra set of eyes and ears.”

She said the goal is for the CASA volunteer to be a “constant person” in a child’s life. “We want to help and celebrate the successes, overcoming the obstacles these kids are facing.”

Currently, the organization has six volunteers speaking for nine children. Three additional volunteers are currently in training.

Their deliverable is a report to the court as “another set of eyes for the court, for the judge.’

It can be confusing — two child abuse agencies both led by people with the first name Melissa. They pointed out that the CAC functions on the criminal court side while CASA volunteers are working in civil court.

All of the agencies represented on Thursday have a role to play.

“Without interventions and assistance and community support,” McLean said, “we are not going to have a whole, well person.”

“It’s very convoluted,” Melissa Sproveri acknowledged of the entire system. “It’s a really big can of worms…. At the end of the day we need financial support. We wanted to kind of get this message out there. We are all puzzle pieces of the child’s bigger picture.”

“It’s a very scary and very heavy place,” she added, “but we have some good people.”