Program Gives Parents Hope For A Second Chance To Raise Children

Special Report: Program Gives Parents Hope For A Second Chance To Raise Children

By Kim Genardo, NBC17, 4 days, 6 hours ago

Updated: Feb. 26 7:34 am
http://mync.com/site/48409/ WAKE COUNTY, N.C. -

More than 500 children in Wake County are curently in foster care and under the care of Child Protective Services.
There are many reasons parents lose custody of their biological children; drug or alcohol addictions, domestic violence, child abandonment, and financial pressures are just a few examples.
"Whenever it's safe, we want childen with their own families," said Alma Shelton of Wake County Human Services. "We believe children are better off when they can live safely with their own families."
Shelton oversees the new PUSH program, Parents United To Stay Hopeful, a parent advocacy program to help parents whose children were recently placed in foster care successfully reunite with their loved ones.
"The main thing is we're trying to encourage parents in a very difficult situation to know they can be succesful in reunifying with their children," said Shelton.
Michelle Richardson abandoned her newborn in a Zebulon McDonalds on Dec. 7, 2006.
She spent 13 days in jail on child abuse charges and then with the help of her attorney and social worker spent nearly one year working to regain custody of the son she left behind.
In her first television interview since the incident , Richardson told NBC 17 News: "I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do. I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest because of a bad decision I had made. I couldn't change it, all I could do was move from that day forward to bring me to who I am now for myself and my kids."
She delined to comment further other than to characterize her bad decision by saying: "it was mentality."
Today she is a single mother of three children, including the baby she adandoned. Richardson is also helping other parents figure out the child welfare system.
She is a Parent Partner in the PUSH program and receives a part-time stipend for educating struggling parents about their rights, and helping them better deal with social workers, foster parents and other service providers.
"They may be in the system like I was, the first time in the system with no idea what to expect," explained Richardson. "So as a reunified birth parent we have the knowledge to pass on to other parents that we learned from our experience to help them reunify and be able to reunify quicker."
Richardson leads monthly parent orientation groups along with a Wake County Human Services employee at South Central Church of Christ in Raleigh.
"Our parent partners have credibility," said program manager Alma Shelton. "In other words, they've walked in the shoes of the parents who are new to us (Wake County Human Services)."
In just four months time, a dozen parents have successfully completed the 3-session Parent Orientation Group meetings. They receive a certificate to present to the judge in their case.
It's only one step toward reunification, ultimately parents must prove to Child Protective Services they can provide a safe and stable environment for thier biological children.
Shelton said of the program, "We believe it's a strategy to help parents who are in dire circumstances and struggling. Basically we believe in parents and I believe in families."
It took Parent Partner Maxcine Bland of Raleigh two-and-a-half years to regain custody of her three children after a long battle with drug addiction.
"I want parents to know you never have to walk alone. You never have to walk alone during this process," said Bland.
Both Bbland and Richardson got their second chance and now both women want to give other struggling parents hope they'll get their second chance too.
However, Shelton said the grant money for the PUSH program will run out by the end of this year.
They run the program on the cheap based on a stipend model. Parent Partners like Richardson recieve $12.50 per hour for their part-time work. Shelton is seeking financial support to hire a program coordinator.
Shelton estimates they may be able to help 50 additional parents in orientation groups and 200 people with training sessions before the funding runs out.
Watch our NBC 17 News special report in the video monitor above, as well as Parent Partners Michelle Richardson and Maxcine Bland in their own words.

http://wake.mync.com/site/wake/news/story/48409/program-gives-parents-hope-for-a-second-chance-to-raise-children