LOCAL TEACHERS, HUMAN-SERVICES REPS HEAR REPORT ON ST. LOUIS CARING PLAN

The director of a Caring Communities program in St. Louis shared information about his program that might help Cape Girardeau begin a similar program

Khatib Waheed, director of the Walbridge Elementary School Caring Communities Program, spoke with about 35 representatives from Cape Girardeau public schools and local human services agencies Tuesday.

Cape Girardeau's Community Caring Council along with the public schools are working together to develop a similar program here.

Both organizations this year received grant money to develop a system to deliver social services to families similar to the Walbridge program.

Dennis Reagan, chairman of the Community Caring Council, said: "I'm really glad to see the teachers and their interest. It's going to take everyone working together to make this work.

"It's something I think people have for a long time recognized a need for but not really know how to do it or if they would have the support."

The Walbridge Caring Communities program began in 1989. Today it is referred to as a model for other communities throughout the state.

"We focus on the child and individual needs and how the environment impacts that individual child and family," Waheed said. "Sometimes we hide behind a policy or procedure instead of looking for ways to help that family. And you can't really help the child without helping the family.

"For so long we have had fragmented social services. Everybody kind of went their own way and we expected families and children to manage all these different inputs," he said.

At schools, he said, "Teachers were not prepared to deal with the non-academic problems children were bringing to school. They were ready to teach, but they were not trained to deal with these other problems."

Waheed said it makes sense to house the program at a neighborhood school because parents feel more comfortable closer to home.

"When we force them to come two or three or four miles to a district office, we take away some of their leverage," he said.

Waheed said organizers all through the process have tried to approach problem-solving with an open mind. "Many of the traditional ways are not working," he said.

The goals are to insure that children remain in school while increasing their levels of success; remain safely in their homes while avoiding out-of-home placement; and remain out of the juvenile justice system.

Walbridge school is in north St. Louis. Most students are black and 90 percent live below the poverty line. Drug abuse, crime and violence are all too common, Waheed said.

The Walbridge school is open to the neighborhood 14 hours a day.

Prevention and intervention services are provided for children and families. While the services are school and home based, they are provided by community agencies, not the school.

Waheed said the only staff person hired by the district is a teacher aide who covers classes while teachers meet with parents and human services caseworkers to discuss children.

Prevention services include tutoring, a latchkey child-care program, job placement and leadership development. Intervention services include an anti-drug task force, case management, day treatment, drug and alcohol counseling, Families First, and health fairs.

The program costs about $900 a year per child.

"In Missouri we spend $17,000 to incarcerate an individual for one year," Waheed said. "Many of the children we serve and the families from which they come, unfortunately, seem destined for that end.

"We believe in putting those dollars at the early end of the scale. At the end of 13 years we have spent $13,000 and still have $4,000 left to help send that child to college."

The program is funded through Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Health, Department of Mental Health and Department of Social Services, the St. Louis Public School District and the private Danforth Foundation.

In addition grants have been received from the University of Missouri-St. Louis Extension Service, the Missouri Department of Public Safety, Drug Free Schools and Communities and a business consortium called Civic Progress.

He said parents or caregivers are viewed as consumers of the services being offered.

"You are the boss in your home. You have the right to select any of the services we may recommend," Waheed said.

The program's advisory board is represented by fourths one-fourth from social service and mental health agencies, one-fourth from school, one-fourth from parents and neighborhood residents, and one-fourth from community, business, religious and elected leaders.

"The idea is to give the slant to the neighborhood," Waheed said.