Policy and Practice August 2016

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Policy&Practice August 2016 6
In December 2015, the Monterey
County community was devastated
to learn of the grisly murder of two
children and the severe physical
abuse of a third child. The children’s
caretaker and her boyfriend have
since been charged with murder,
torture, and child abuse. There were
several child protective services and
law enforcement referrals that did
not have sufficient cause for foster
care or court dependency prior to the
tragic incident. When children die
at the hands of a parent or guardian,
the shared sense of outrage has deep
impacts throughout the commu-
nity and within our child protective
services system. But, our calling is to
channel that outrage and mourning to
action that mobilizes the community to
not only work harder to prevent fatali-
ties, but to improve community-wide
child well-being.
According to the Commission to End
Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities,
every year between 1,500 and 3,000
children die as victims of maltreat-
ment. The commission frames its
report as “Within Our Reach.” Bringing
this mission of ending child abuse
and neglect fatalities into reach takes
dedicated community-wide action to
address the well-being and standing
of children in our communities as a
whole. It takes the coordinated part-
nership between child welfare, law
enforcement, heath care services, edu-
cation, and our many community and
faith-based partners. It takes concerted
commitment to action at the local,
state, and national levels.
In the immediate aftermath of a child
death, such as the one mentioned, it is
expected that the child welfare agency
conduct a critical incident review
and take every appropriate action
locally speaking
Roadmap to Child Well-Being
to improve its processes; but, those
inwardly focused system improvement
efforts alone are not enough. Child
abuse and neglect occurs in the context
of a host of stressors that take a toll
on child and family well-being: over-
crowded housing, poverty, community
violence, and unstable employment
opportunities. These stressors also
take a toll on public systems committed
to improving community quality of
life—human services, health, law
enforcement, and education. A more
meaningful system improvement
process recognizes this broader context
and works toward strengthening the
overall public and community-based
network that needs to work together for
child safety and well-being.
In Monterey County, like so many
other communities, the economy is
largely based on lower paying jobs—
agricultural, hospitality and retail
in our case—and the cost of living
is driven up by a broken housing
market that is too often beyond the
reach of working families. These
circumstances place heavy stresses
on child and family well-being. At
the same time, organized gangs and
a thriving drug market poach on the
vulnerabilities that come with these
stressors and fuel violence. In our
public and community-based service
By Elliott Robinson
Author photo by Arlene Boyd / Photo Illustration by Chris Campbell