GROUP USES TEAM EFFORT TO HELP SCHOOLCHILDREN

In an era when educators recognize the benefits of team teaching, a small group from the Cape Girardeau School District have demonstrated team caring can benefit children's lives.

At Jefferson School, Betty Freeman, site coordinator for Caring Communities, leads one of four caring teams in the school district.

"This is definitely the team approach," said Freeman. "We bring in whoever it takes to get it done for our families."

Caring Communities is an interagency collaborative program conceived in 1992. The program brings together counselors, social workers, administrators and health professionals in a school environment to serve students and their families.

The program's chief objective is to use state agencies to help fulfill the emotional, physical and financial needs of its participants.

A grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education funds the program.

The group was started in 1994 because services and resources in the community were so fragmented, said Division of Family Services social worker Marie Walker, who has been with the program since it started at May Greene School in 1994.

"What they tried to do was bring the services together in a place where they would be accessible to the families," she said. "The best place is in the school."

In the past, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington and May Greene schools all were designated Caring Communities sites.

Many changes were made after the school board adopted new boundaries last spring to coincide with the planned opening of Blanchard Elementary School.

Although the Blanchard didn't open in August as planned, the site coordinators, social workers, counselors and parent educators associated with Caring Communities have worked extra hours and between various buildings until Blanchard opens.

Freeman has worked between Washington and Blanchard, but eventually will move to Blanchard.

Freeman said, "I'll just make the best of it until we get it all worked out."

The enrollment shifts this year have caused an increase in the number of referrals to Caring Communities. Freeman has received one or two referrals a day and conducts up to four home visits daily.

Things may slow down after Blanchard opens, especially if the program is able to operate independently as planned at Blanchard, Franklin and Jefferson.

"We're hoping that we'll get a full-time social worker for the new school," said Walker. "Each school site really needs to have an independent staff. That will help us to really be fully effective in our schools."

Family involvement is the key to Caring Communities' success. When a child is referred to the project, special meetings called staffings are immediately scheduled to bring together anyone who might be able to help the child and his family.

Mothers and fathers are part of the treatment team, providing information about home life and other factors. Also participating in the staffing are the school principal, appropriate teachers, counselor, social worker, therapist, parent educator and a county health nurse.

Kathy Parsons, a Community Counseling Center school-based therapist with the program, said she and others often work long or odd hours to meet the needs of participants.

After workers look at the child's life, they make referrals to various agencies for help. The meetings and subsequent help provided are kept confidential.

"We try to prevent hotlines from being called on families who are already stressed out enough," said Walker. "If it's something minor that can be worked out, we try to handle it right here."

~Caring Communities workers often make home visits to learn about a child's life. Quite often, making a home visit to investigate one referral can result in the discovery of other needs a family may have.