Benefit held for foster children

STAFF WRITER

Some Pike County children won't spend Christmas with their families this year. They'll join hundreds of other Kentucky children who celebrate the holiday in foster care centers or homes.

When Jay A. Graham became vice president of the Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children more than two years ago, he visited several different foster care facilities. He said he was naive about problems facing today's youth until he stepped back and saw the truth.

“In my little mind, it was hard for me to fathom that parents would do these things to their children,” Graham said, referring to stories children told about physical, sexual and mental abuse. “But this really does happen. There are horror stories out there.”

Some people believe that issues affecting abused or neglected children don't personally affect them, but Graham believes otherwise. During the 2005 fiscal year, there were 1,127 reports of physical, sexual, emotion abuse and neglect in Pike County, and 67 percent of the cases were substantiated. There are more than 70,000 unsubstantiated reports of child abuse in the state annually, Graham said, and more than 80 percent of children facing neglect or abuse problems grow up to become abusers who live in Kentucky communities.

KBHC fights to break the cycle.

The agency works to place younger abused or neglected children who are deemed as wards of the state in foster homes. The growing number of children in need outweigh the number of available foster parents.

KBHC is lobbying Frankfort for additional child care funding and asking people to contact the government in support of increased funding. The state contributes $13 million of KBHC's $20 million annual budget, Development Director Roger Ford said, leaving the agency with a $7 million need every year. The rate of funding, based on the level of care provided to children and the location of the facility where children reside, hasn't been increased at the state level since 1999, Graham said.

Bellsouth, represented by David T. McFaddin, hosted a benefit reception for KBHC at the Landmark Inn Tuesday to help raise additional funding and several area residents turned out in support.

“I think it's just wonderful,” said supporter Will T. Scott, a U.S. Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice. “What they're doing here is for the children and there is no higher cause.”

KBHC began nearly 137 years ago as an orphanage in Louisville for orphans of the Civil War. Since then, the organization shifted its agenda to better suit the growing population of abused children. The Louisville location was recently transported to another county and several foster care facilities are located throughout the state. One facility is located in Ivel in Floyd County and the organization also runs a residential treatment center for teenage girls in Morehead.

KBHC has a contract with the state, which means that when social workers determine that child abuse is prevalent in a home, they recommend placement through the organization.

KBHC helps more than 300 children and teenagers every day, bringing them physical, emotional and spiritual support for life problems. The agency, carrying 350 employees statewide, provides counseling services, education services and it addresses other needs of the children, some of whom spend their entire life in the foster care system. The agency also provides around-the-clock support to foster parents.

Stories of abuse and neglect are changed to stories of success for some children who leave KBHC as successful members of their communities. Graham talked about one child who became a CEO in one of the state's largest hospitals and is now the director of a philanthropic organization, and another child who grew up to become the mother of a church pastor.

KBHC, the largest non-profit agency in the state, carries an affiliation with the Baptist faith in its title, and some funding, an approximate 2 percent of the annual budget, comes from Baptist organizations and churches, but Graham said the religion does not dictate how the Board of Directors conducts business.

To learn more about the organization, become a foster parent or donate, visit www.kbhc.org.