By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
One night last year, Spencer police found a 15-year-old boy on the streets trying to find a way to go home.
The teen lived in Forsyth County and had no way to get there.
Chief Robert Bennet called Rowan County Social Services to see if the department could assist.
Social Services officials responded they didn’t have a procedure to deal with transporting non-violent juveniles across county or state lines.
Bennet persisted, asking for a supervisor.
Eventually, they worked out a way to get the boy home using agencies in multiple counties, trading off at county lines.
“We found a gap in services,” Jeff Morris, chairman of the Community Child Protection Team, told the Rowan County Board of Commissioners on Monday.
The panel, set up a decade ago to monitor how agencies provide services to children at risk, served up new recommendations.
The Child Protection Team recommended Rowan develop new procedures to deal with transporting non-violent juveniles or guardians when they live in another county.
Other recommendations include:
– Having the Child Protection Team take the lead in developing and implementing a plan to carry out the Intensive Child Fatality Review Recommendations that are expected in early 2009 following the death of a 9-month-old child while he and his family were receiving child protective services from the Department of Social Services.
A child fatality review committee consisting of Wanda Allen, Arnold Chamberlain, Susan Thomas, George Wilhelm, Sandra Wilkes, Leonard Wood and John Weill, state fatality reviewer, met Dec. 11-12 to review the case.
– Establish a planning committee to address risk factors for children enrolled in the school system without a parent or guardian.
– Increase awareness of childhood obesity.
– Identify resources for teenagers to assist youths who move from foster care to adult living.
Commissioners endorsed the recommendations from the panel, including continued support.
During a discussion of the overall program, commissioners Vice Chairman Jon Barber asked Morris and Sandra Wilkes, director of Social Services, what cuts they anticipate in state funding.
Wilkes and Morris said they have heard nothing specific but are aware of the talk in Raleigh.
Barber urged them to watch carefully, citing the importance of the programs.
Contact Jessie Burchette at 704-797-4254.