COMMUNITY CAN ACT ON BUDGET CRUNCH

Missouri's budget situation, real or imagined, is already having some serious impact on families and lives.

Mental health community-based facilities have seen treatment dollars shrink, and this year is no exception. What that means is less help for people with alcohol- and drug-addiction problems and the possibility that some of those most in need will not receive services. That, of course, leads to more family distress, and so it goes on.

Folks responsible for investigating child-abuse reports find themselves stretched to the limit due to staff shortages and hiring freezes. The start of school usually means an increase in reports, so the situation is compounded. Who, then, decides who gets first attention?

School-based services provided through Caring Communities initiatives have seen and will continue to see reductions, both in the variety of services available, and also in the number of schools where those services are available.

Therapy services that have been provided by in-school therapists through arrangement with Community Counseling Center and Caring Communities may see reductions as well. Those readily available services have seen documented results of better attendance, improved behavior and improved academic performance. The already stressed school-district budget can't restore those lost dollars, and the mental-health dollars may not be there to keep these things afloat as Caring Communities sees even more budget reductions this fiscal year to an as yet unknown extent.

Mentoring services for youths who are seeking educational and employment counseling and support as well as mentoring and other services for teen-age mothers are at risk of being drastically reduced as well.

So what does this mean? It means that millions of dollars in state funds will be gone. In order to keep those services in place, some quick and effective local initiatives need to be developed.

The Community Caring Council was an idea conceived by Mary Kasten when she was a state representative. It was conceived out of frustration resulting from not being able to identify who was providing what when asked for information by constituents.

That was many years ago, and the council today still remains a forum for sharing information among the various service providers in the area.

But now is the time for the community to really get involved with the council to determine what it wants the community to be like.

As a designated state partnership, the council is responsible for developing a community three-year plan, which has certain desired outcomes such as healthy, safe, intact families, children in school and doing well, parents working and children ready to go to work as young, productive citizens.

The plan contains lots of goals along the way to those desired outcomes and lots of strategies to help reach those goals. In the past, the plan has had input from service providers and consumers, but a large segment of the population is not involved. That is the challenge the council is issuing to the community at large. We need your input, your ideas, your expertise and some of your money.

Any dollar that is brought into Cape Girardeau from any state or federal funding sources is very likely to be aimed at one or more of those desired outcomes mentioned above. So there are lots of programs around doing similar things, but some people are still falling through the cracks. That's why everyone needs to be involved in developing this plan, buying into the plan and monitoring results.

In the next few weeks you will likely get some correspondence from the Community Caring Council about the plan and asking you to get involved. We urge you to do so. Everyone benefits from having the community as a whole invested in its well-being.

The important thing is to have the needed services available, not who provides them. Stay tuned for further developments. If you want more information, call the council office at 651-2099.

Tom N. Davisson is the executive director of Community Caring Council in Cape Girardeau.