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Newsletter
What is the problem?
For the sake of understanding, imagine someone getting in a car wreck, having been rushed to the hospital, only to be given an expired coupon for a first aid kit. This is the reality for over 9,000 kids in custody of Tennessee’s Department of Children Services (DCS). Please note, this number does not include the number of children in relative care. The problem, to put this plainly, is that the most minimal of resources go to the most vulnerable: survivors of traumatic childhood events.
What are the facts?
- DCS and the Tennessee Medicaid healthcare program TennCare work hand-in-hand to deliver care to children in DCS and relative care custody.
- TennCare has an annual budget of $14 billion while DCS has $193 million.
- The number of professional pediatricians, dentists, and counselors that accept TennCare are low and decreasing.
What is 364Store doing to help?
There are plenty of compassionate individuals who work tirelessly at DCS for the sake of traumatized children. We do not want this writing to be about a government entity being not-so-great at their job, rather a call to action for those willing to listen. 364Store dedicates a significant portion of net proceeds to go towards our “Opportunity Fund”. We work closely with community leaders and churches to help fund treatment in any form for traumatized children.
What is society doing about this currently?
A portion of your Federal, State, and Local taxes go towards a solution to this problem in the form of DCS. Some churches and nonprofits step up to fill the gap where appropriate, but ultimately, the combination of bureaucracy and emergency do not mix well. A child having been removed from a physically and mentally life-threatening situation will have to wait upwards to 6 months before receiving an ineffective session of counseling (more on this later). With DCS’s annual budget of roughly $193 million and proclaimed mission to protect children… one would expect the most basic needs of a vulnerable child in an emergency to be met.
How can you help?
Firstly, tell the people who represent you in government that this is an issue that needs immediate attention. This can be done through phone, email, letter, or anything that gets the message to them. The following are a few talking points to research and mention:
- Change the State mandate of reunification of the family if possible to the best interest of the child. You have no idea how much that would change the approach to helping these kids heal.
- Get these kids help ASAP. Provide vouchers for legitimate trauma counselors if no competent trauma counselors who take TennCare are available.
- Get the parents whose kids were taken away the same help: competent, well-trained trauma counselors. Let them do all they can.
- Change the way foster parents are treated. We have a shortage of foster parents for a reason.
- Address the fact that there are not enough trauma counselors that take TennCare. People don’t take TennCare because of how ridiculous they are to deal with and they don’t pay well at all. These counselors can afford to pay their bills or their student loans but they can’t do both.
- Have a non-bureaucratically, incompetent, private sector, top trauma counselor do ongoing training to help get the ones who are coming into the field or already in the field up to speed.
Secondly, join our monthly newsletter! We do our best to keep you up to date with any relevant political news and share some of our heartwarming stories… of which there are plenty and counting!