DCS to set up board to assess troubled families

Representatives from the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services were in town this week to talk with representatives of several Warren County organizations about setting up the county’s Community Advisory Board, mandated as a part of the state’s Multiple Response System.

On hand were Jessica Tucker and Kim Knotts, Resource Linkage operatives from DCS, along with Kathy Nesmith from the local Red Cross, Pat Basham of McMinnville Housing Authority, Susan Moore of CHEER Mental Health and Monica Knight from Families in Crisis.

‘It’s been legislated by the state that we have a Community Advisory Board in each county across the state of Tennessee,’ said Knotts. ‘What these Community Advisory Boards are doing is working together with local organizations, not taking away from what you are already doing, but acting as a clearing house of local resources to help families. Just trying to get everyone in the community together so they can have a better idea of who offers what services and what services are available.’

Knotts says the idea behind Community Advisory Boards is to help connect families in need of assistance with community organizations which can provide that assistance, as well as develop a personal relationship with these families to help them learn to overcome their problems, rather than being dependent on governmental programs, or in some cases, subject to governmental intervention.

‘What we really want to do is get the family more dependent on their communities,’ Knotts said, ‘and more self-sufficient, so they know what’s out there, they know how to access it and what they need to do to get it, instead of having to depend on the department. We want to help them learn how to stand on their own feet.’

Another goal is to help identify those who are abusing community assistance programs, such as those offered by churches and charitable organizations, and profiting by requesting assistance from more than one program.

‘We want to set up a tracking system so that people know who is doing what, who is asking for what,’ Knotts said, noting there are some individuals who abuse the system by going to different churches or organizations each month for rent assistance, thus avoiding paying their own rent for up to a year in some cases before they are discovered.

Knotts explained what the Multiple Response System is about.

‘There is the investigation track, which will still be sexual abuse, serious abuse, like broken bones, drug use, things like that. Then there is the assessment track,’ Knotts said. ‘Which will be more like dirty homes, unhealthy diets and situations like that.

‘We want to see why they’re having these problems, what’s going on, and not just going in and treating them all the same. Sex abuse cases are different than maybe a mom who is having a hard time, dad has left, she has no money, can’t pay for utilities, the kids have nothing. Those are the kinds of cases where DCS wants to take a different approach and see if they can make a positive change in these families lives.’

According to Knotts and Tucker the DCS will continue to facilitate the formation of local Community Advisory Boards, and hopes to have the Warren County board set up by some time in August.

For more information about the local CAB or the Multiple Response System, contact Knotts at 931-646-3063, or Tucker at 931-646-3072.