Group Turns to Public for Child-Care Aid : Foster families: A continuing lack of grants has forced ARK Services for Abused Children to shut down vital programs. It is seeking to raise $100,000 from individuals.

After being rejected this year for six grants, a nonprofit organization that helps families offering foster homes to abused children has turned to a major fund-raising effort to keep from shutting down.

In the past three months, ARK Services for Abused Children--which serves many of the 600 foster families countywide--has raised only enough money to operate on a month-to-month basis.

In May, it had to put six of eight programs on hold, including daily short-term child care services and a weekend recreational program, while the staff and volunteers run an all-out effort to raise more than $100,000 from individuals.

“We’re faced with a real dilemma,” said Liz Lafferty, founder and director of ARK. “We want a base of support to weather all the foundation cutbacks and government cutbacks. The money is just shifting out there. And it always goes back to the children paying the price.”

The unexpected denial of grants this year represented about $50,000, about one-fifth, of the group’s budget, Lafferty said. When the rejections came, the agency realized that it might not receive any of the 30 grants it sought, and that led it to turn to the community to create a more stable financial base, she said.

ARK, staffed by about 150 volunteers and four staff members, has relied mainly on grants from foundations and corporations to operate programs. It also receives about $15,000 a year from the county to fund its $256,000 annual budget.

The Orange-based organization offers child-care services, tutoring, recreational programs, therapeutic training and counseling to foster families, who are caring for children removed from their parents because of mental or physical abuse.

“A foster child is an abused child,” said Lafferty. “They have been traumatized either physically, sexually or through extreme neglect.”

The agency also monitors court-ordered visitations between a child and biological family members. Its goal is to help the foster parents provide a stable environment for the children and “to break the cycle of abuse” these children have lived under, said Lafferty.

Gene Howard, director of Orange County Children’s Services, said ARK “is really the only organization that offers this kind of assistance to foster families. . . . They step in and fill the voids that would be there. The demand is overwhelming for a service like this.”

Of the eight programs it ran at the beginning of the year, ARK has continued to provide only counseling and monitoring of visitation services; the rest of the staff and volunteers are working on the various fund-raisers.

Jerry and Jacki Looker of Orange rely heavily on the agency. In the past seven years, the Lookers have cared for 42 children, all of them removed from their parents because they had been abused. They now care for a 2-year-old girl and an 8-week-old boy.

“If it wasn’t for (ARK) taking our kids once in a while, there would be more burnout in foster care,” Jacki Looker said. “It gives me a peace of mind knowing that (ARK) is there. Somebody has to do something for these poor kids.”

If the organization shuts down and child-care services are not resumed, Looker said “it would be an awful hardship on a lot of foster parents. It’s going to be devastating to have it close.”

But ARK leaders are optimistic that they won’t shut down. The fund drive involves several public events and a program called 101 Donations Club, which asks individuals to donate $10-$30 each month for a year. The goal of the drive is to raise at least $36,000 and as much as $250,000.

“I believe the community does care and wants to be involved,” Lafferty said. “If you create a safe and easy avenue for them, they will.”

Among the public events are a racquetball tournament, a magic show benefit and a golf-a-thon.

This Saturday, ARK will run a rummage sale at the lot of its Orange offices, 1717 Orangewood Ave. The sale will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and participants are asked to bring donations or call the center at (714) 978-0340.

The group expects the best returns from the Donations Club, said Lafferty, which could provide a steady, continuous cash flow. That way, volunteers and staff members can spend their time on the programs, she said.

“It’s been real hard,” said Kathy Bass, a volunteer with the monitored visits program. “Even though it’s a stressful time, I think it’s also helped, pulling people together to get this whole thing to work.”

Perhaps the hardest decision for ARK was temporarily discontinuing “play days,” which offers a respite from child care for perhaps 50 foster families. Program manager Lisa Livingston describes it as the heart and soul of ARK, the thing the staff and volunteers do day-to-day that keeps them in touch with the children and the foster parents.

“It’s the program that’s been most affected,” Livingston said. “. . . (The parents) have been very emotional, shocked and desperate. It’s a very difficult thing for us to do.”

The service is in great demand, because foster parents may not leave children younger than 16 alone or use baby-sitters younger than 18. “The foster parents that use our services, only a few have other options for child care,” Livingston said.