By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Tucker County Prosecutor Savannah Hull Wilkins and the Randolph Tucker Child Advocacy Center have been working together to improve services and response from Child Protective Services.
“I was thankful for the opportunity to come back and say, its not bad news, its good news we’re able to help those children that are needing to be helped because before we were not able to help them,” Evick said.
In March, Randolph Tucker Child Advocacy Center Executive Director Margot Evick presented a yearly report to the Tucker County Commission that showed low numbers for cases in the county. Those low numbers, Evick and Wilkins attributed to a lack of communication with CPS and cases not being investigated in the county.
“I know in March when I was here and presented our numbers were really low and I know since July I was able to put together the full report for you all and our numbers jumped tremendously through April, May, June and July, bringing us up to more of a typical year we were about 20 kids shy of what we normally see,” Evick said.
Wilkins said that with improvement periods imposed on parents and other filings, some cases can stretch out as much as 18 months. Tucker County at one point, according to Wilkins, was down to one active case and none in the works to follow.
“You can’t tell me that there aren’t kids in the community that aren’t in bad situations that need some intervention,” Wilkins said. “So Margot and I were extremely concerned.”
Wilkins said that the pair talked to Judges, CPS and made procedural changes. CPS is attending more meetings with Wilkins and Evick and engaging in more communication with both women and their offices.
“We got a new CPS Investigator that is much more interactive with me and so the case numbers have just gone up,” Wilkins said.
Wilkins said the situation in Tucker County had begun to scare her because it was evident in the community that there were children in need of CPS services that were not getting the attention needed from the department.
“But it was getting kind of scary, in my opinion because I know there are kids out there , we all know there are kids out there, that are in bad situations. I think the people in the community see it,” Wilkins said.
Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau commented that the numbers presented to the Commission in March were a false reflection of the situation in the county. Evick said the numbers while maybe not worse than they would have been, were at least the same.
“At least the same. They just weren’t being reported or investigated,” Evick said.
Wilkins said that now she gets a copy of every CPS referral so that she can follow up once a month on cases. Group meetings are held once a month to discuss cases and go over case files. In these meetings options are discussed that could include such solutions as simply obtaining access to services, utilities or education, Evick said. Before, there was no communication and no new cases were being referred.
“Its not just about justice, its about making sure we’re putting the systems in place for these families to be successful,” Evick said. “And so by our team being able to look at all of these reports that are coming in and talking about it and saying, ‘Hey, maybe we just need to put parenting in place’ or maybe we just really need access to food or can somebody help get their water turned back on? Those kind of conversations can happen as a team to make sure that we’re really taking care of them.”
CPS Workers assigned to the Tucker County area are generally from Mineral and Grant Counties, Wilkins said and generally do not know the area or families as well as locals would. Wilkins said that in the referrals she receives she knows which families come up over and over or come up in other cases. This new communication allows Wilkins and Evick and their team to talk to CPS workers and point them to teachers who may have raised concerns or other contacts to further investigations.
“The fact that the numbers are going up, in my opinion, is better because it means we are helping the kids,” Wilkins said.
