Countywide : Cut Feared in Help for Neglected Children

County social workers are circulating a petition in an effort to persuade the Board of Supervisors to save a program that helps abused and neglected children and their families solve problems and avoid separation.

The Family Maintenance Non-Court Program of the county children’s services division faces cuts as part of the county’s bankruptcy woes, county officials said.

According to county public information officer Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Martini, the county’s proposed cut for the Social Services Agency budget, of which children’s services is a part, is 47.8%. How much the program and its parent agency will be affected by the cuts has yet to be announced.

Senior social worker Gary Govett said the program, which is not mandated by federal or state government, provides children and their families intervention services in an effort to keep people out of the courts and welfare system.

At least 45 social workers have signed the petition, which says that if the program is “severely reduced” or eliminated, the level of sexual, physical and other forms of abuse and neglect of children will increase.

In addition, more children would be separated from their families and placed in protective custody, adding responsibility to the already overburdened law enforcement agencies of Orange County, Govett said.

“The children who depend on us to advocate for them would suffer,” he said. “They deserve to not be abused. The county is not required to keep the program but if it is eliminated, calls for children who need protection would be rejected.”

Senior social worker Christine Kostrikin said the program keeps many battered and neglected children from entering “the traumatizing (court) system.”

About 40 community activists, who belong to Los Amigos of Orange County, this week pledged to support the social workers and added their names to the petition.