protecting children
The Issue: Despite tight money, Ark still helping kids.
Our View: Facility is part of the solution.
As appeared in the Evansville Courier & Press
If we are to reduce child abuse and neglect in this community, then we must do all possible to assure that organizations such as the Ark Crisis Child Care Center continue to operate.
The need for such facilities, which give emergency relief to parents who don't have a strong support system, was brought into sharp focus in recent weeks with the tragic beating death of 3-year-old Kalab Lay and the alleged beating of his twin sister. His parents have been charged with murder and abuse.
Nancy Gump, executive director of Ark, articulated better than we could the importance of the center and what it is attempting to do.
She said, "We need to focus on predictable situations in which abusive behavior happens: poverty, addiction, drug abuse, stress, limited education, job loss and isolation. Focusing on these situations allows us the opportunity to become part of the prevention process."
That was from a commentary penned by Gump that appeared Sunday on the Courier & Press Viewpoint page in a Sunday Soapbox readers presentation on protecting children. The page was motivated by the death of Kalab.
What the Ark center does is offer free emergency child care for children ages 6 weeks to 6 years. The center, located at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Governor Street, is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.
According to a story published Tuesday and written by Courier & Press staff writer Rich Davis, Ark children are frequently those in stressful situations or in foster care.
He wrote that some end up at Ark because they are waiting to get into permanent day care or because there is no one to baby-sit.
He said parents may need to make a doctor's appointment or job interview or court appearance or may just need relief from stress, and they have no where else to turn.
"These kids lack consistency in their life," said preschool teacher Yolanda Norman.
"During the small amount of time they're with me, they get consistency. We bond quickly. I can see a child one day and never see them again, or see a child for six months or sometimes for a long time."
The news report said the center provided 28,000 hours of child care in 2007 and 26,000 hours in 2006, and served 125 different children in March alone.
Indeed, there is important work going on at the Ark center — work that must continue. And that's a concern today.
Gump told Davis that finances are super tight at the center right now. She said that because the United Way fell $500,000 short of its recent campaign goal, she expects her agency's allocation to decline from the $54,000 received last year. She said that more than $50,000 in state money that previously went to Ark has been redirected to other local family programs, although the state did find $30,000 to help Ark this summer.
The summer will also see Ark's big fundraiser, the Keep the Ark Afloat Auction & Dinner in July. It is an event that can bring in nearly $100,000.
To those who have a new awareness of the issue of child abuse and neglect, these are things to remember come July or the next time we are asked to give to the United Way.
As the headline on the Sunday commentary read, when it comes to child abuse and neglect, Ark is part of the solution.