Advocacy by definition is slanted towards whomever needs pleadings on his/her behalf. In our work we are pleading for fair and equitable treatment of parents who are involved with a Child Welfare System. We are recommending that they be given preventative help so removal is not required, that they be shown compassion and understanding when they are hurting because of the life-altering separation from their children, and that they be afforded the respect and dignity that they deserve as human beings.
TRANSPARENCY 101 is about giving parents a system that refuses to let bias and judgement destroy their families. It is about being honest with our own shortcomings as those in the helping profession. And, it is about giving these parents, and anyone else who may want the tools to do so, the chance to see how the money is really being spent in the Child Welfare System of our country. Here we provide the link for anyone who wish to see their non-profit dollars at work. How IS the money being spent??
The Foundation Center provides the 990 Finder which is a search tool to find any nonprofit or foundation 990 Statement required by the IRS. These handy documents show the public how tax-deductible money is being spent.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FOUNDATION CENTER 990 FINDER
Transparency and the FLDS Raid
Parent Guidance Center has found it increasingly interesting that DFPS has flooded the media with "information" about this particular mass removal while the occurence actually usually takes place in secrecy - 15,920 times this past year to be exact, or 43.6 kids a day, or 1.8 kids an HOUR, in 2007 in Texas alone. There is no fanfare. There are no reporters asking questions. There are no "information updates" posted on their website for the parents or families. There are kids removed from their homes and parents with little or no information about what will happen next. Then, the nightmare of the CPS case begins for the parent who will endure this heartache for at least a year. As the children are removed to foster care, DFPS quickly closes the curtain of information on the case to anyone including the parents themselves. How odd the FLDS case is to receive so much attention. The world is merely watching what CPS does every day and did 15,920 times last year.
On average then, while I was updating this website, 2 children were taken. While you were sleeping last night, 14 kids were taken. And by the end of this day , 20 or so more kids will have been removed from their homes. No reporters will be there. No parents will be asked for their side of the story. And no update will be given about their children to them or anyone else. They will wait in terror and silence as they wonder where their children are for 14 days until they will sit in a courtroom, alone and probably without representation, to find out little shreds of information about where their children have been and how they are doing. They will have been denied even a simple phone call and any form of communication with their scared and confused children.
So, Transparency? It doesn't really exist even with all the reporters and the updates it is just public relations. There will be no documents backing up the updates or apologies for bad information, misinformation, false information, and lack of true information, when discrepencies are discovered. In my field of Parent Advocacy, I call this the game of "making it so." And thus, whatever the truth of the FLDS case is, with no actual transparency, DFPS has been faced with the biggest game ever of "making it so" and now we'll never really know for sure. What I do know is that it is just business as usual, except that in the FLDS case, the 464 or so children would have accounted for about 10.6 days or about 257.7 hours worth of removals by Texas standards.