My Word: Keep our children safe

Release date: 1/17/2010

I felt weak in the knees and immediately had to sit down when I opened the Orlando Sentinel on Jan. 7 and saw the glaring headline, " Florida in 2008: 20% rise in deadly abuse of children."

The annual report from Florida's Child Abuse Death Review Committee affirms a problem that child-welfare and domestic-violence professionals know all too well: Financial pressures place tremendous stress on parents, too many times resulting in harm to, and even the deaths of, children.

Florida has made great strides through prevention programs such as Healthy Families, which the report cites as having proved to "prevent child abuse and neglect before it ever occurs." However, state budgets have kept legislators from expanding prevention programs to help the growing number of families in crisis. Families struggling to find jobs, pay rent, avoid foreclosure, buy groceries, pay utility bills, maintain reliable transportation and care for their children.

My heart breaks for the 201 young lives lost to abuse and neglect last year, but these tragedies strengthen my resolve as an advocate. With the need for services clearly on the rise, our legislators must seek solutions beyond budget cuts if we are to keep precious, vulnerable children safe.

Florida also has had great success with diversion programs, using its unique Title IV-E pilot program, which enables child-welfare professionals to provide immediate help to families and children in need. An example is Family Connections, a program of Community Based Care of Seminole, Kids House of Seminole, Seminole County Sheriff's Office and Children's Home Society of Florida. Hundreds of families have been helped before reaching a crisis that endangered their children and at a cost that is far less than services traditionally funded by IV-E dollars.

In other states, Title IV-E federal funds may be spent only on services for children after they've been removed from their parents. However, Florida's pilot program, which is set to expire in 2011, allows funds to be redirected to help families before the situation escalates, before children are harmed. If Florida loses this flexible funding, even more families will be denied the help they desperately need. I shudder at the consequences.

Beyond protecting current funding, Florida's legislators must take bold action to solve the state's current financial challenge by pursuing new revenue and reducing government expenses through increased efficiencies. Florida's people are the state's most valuable resource, and we must prioritize funding to preserve vital services for our most vulnerable residents.

Despite a 30-year career battling abuse and neglect, every time I learn of a new case of child abuse or a child's death, I get the same punched-in-the-gut feeling that I experienced myself as an abused child. Our state and federal legislators have an obligation to see that all of Florida's young children are safe, healthy and prepared for life.

David A. Bundy is president and Chief Executive Officer of Children's Home Society of Florida and is a board member and advocacy chair for Children's Home Society of America.