Love&Obligation

HALOS aids children's relative caregivers who don't get foster-care financial help

Brad Nettles
The Post and Courier

Joyce Barker plays Monday with 1-year-old Jarcore Frazier and 5-year-old Claytina Frazier, two of the five children in her care. The two children are the 60-year-old Barker's great-great niece and nephew.

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HALOS (Helping And Lending Outreach Support) provides much needed resources and services to abused and neglected victims served by the Charleston County Department of Social Services Watch »

Editor's note: This is part of an occasional series on poverty in the Lowcountry and its far-reaching effects.

SherryLee Jefferson was glad to welcome Larry and Alexis into the family a year and a half ago. The children, now 10 and 8, were in bad shape, failing in school, with troubles at their previous home.

Jefferson, 31, became the children's guardian Oct. 6, 2006. Next month, she'll appear in family court petitioning for full legal custody. It's been a challenging period of her life — she has four other children to look after, an older daughter with serious health problems, some part-time work selling Avon products and baby-sitting — but Larry and Alexis are doing well now. At A.C. Corcoran Elementary School in North Charleston, their grades are way up. Alexis gets straight A's; Larry is reading now and beginning to excel.

"They're wonderful children, they're wonderful," Jefferson says. "I wouldn't change them for the world."

Though there is a lot to do for such a big family, Jefferson gets help from her mother, Laverne, and common-law husband Solomon, a heavy-equipment

operator at The Citadel. And all the children are more comfortable since Jefferson found a "heaven-sent" house to rent.

When the Department of Social Services discovered problems at the previous home, the agency swept in to rescue Larry and Alexis, eventually helping to arrange for their new home. If Jefferson were a licensed foster parent, she would be eligible to receive a much-needed monthly stipend from DSS. If she were a foster parent, however, she would have only temporary custody of the children, and that's not what she wants.

Permanent legal custody (the goal of DSS and the best status for the children involved) means an end to the bureaucracy, the monitoring and interviews, the court appearances — and any state stipend. It means DSS can get out of Jefferson's life.

So she is not a licensed, temporary foster parent (though, technically, she could have applied for that upon first contact with the agency). Jefferson is a relative, first cousin once removed, providing "kinship" care and, therefore, ineligible for foster-care financial assistance.

It is common knowledge that relative caregivers are preferred over nonrelatives. Studies have shown that the transition from home to home is less traumatic when children are already familiar with their new family, and that relatives are more inclined to provide adequate care and more likely to be accepted as authority figures than nonrelatives.

Yet the majority of relative caregivers in Charleston County are poor, according to Census statistics. Adding children to the family invariably causes financial strain. The DSS budget, however, is not limitless, providing money only to registered, transitional foster-care families. Relatives are left with a suddenly bigger financial burden but no corresponding increase in income.

One local organization is working to fill the gap. Housed at DSS, Helping and Lending Outreach Support is a nonprofit that was established 10 years ago by Dr. Eve Spratt in Charleston. Based on a Texas program that provided assistance to social workers, HALOS' mission is to help abused and neglected children headed for foster homes, to lighten the burden on DSS caseworkers by furnishing families with certain essentials.

Stepping in

HALOS Executive Director Kim Clifton says the initiative, which has about 40 active community partners (mostly churches) and gets high marks from DSS, is one of Charleston's "best-kept secrets." During the last five years, the organization has received federal and charitable grants that have helped boost its operation, Clifton says.

Last September, HALOS received a $74,000 grant from the Sisters of Charity Fund to launch its Kinship Program, an effort to set up support groups for caregivers and monthly meetings at which community resources, information, counseling and general support can be provided.

Clifton says this kind of networking is essential for the approximately 4,000 relative caregivers in Charleston County. Statewide, there are 90,000. More than half are grandparents.

Pam Brooks, DSS community development coordinator and HALOS liaison, says the nonprofit appeals to the Lowcountry's sense of moral obligation.

"In the faith and business communities, I think organizations are looking for hands-on ways to give back," Brooks says. "They like that they're helping in their own community."

And caseworkers are HALOS' biggest fans, she says. That's because the program makes it easier for them to interact with families and, sometimes, to close a case. For example, one caseworker recently testified that she was not getting along with a parent. The parent "hated her," resented the intrusion and thought the caseworker was challenging her. One day, the caseworker showed up with gifts for the child, provided by HALOS. The mother suddenly realized that the caseworker wasn't hostile toward her, she was only trying to be helpful.

"It totally changed her attitude," Brooks says.

Often, foster families are missing basic household necessities, such as a crib or bed, preventing DSS from closing a case, Brooks says. An infant cannot be deemed safe and secure in the new home if he has no place to sleep. But when HALOS provides a crib to the family, "sometimes the last thing needed," the state-supervised transition from home to home can be completed, she says.

Limited resources

Joyce Barker, 60, looks after five children now. One is her granddaughter. Two are the children of a niece. And two teenagers, sister and brother, though unrelated to her by blood, are like family. They call Barker "Granny." Always have.

Though Barker qualifies for and receives food stamps ($520 a month), disability ($172 a month), Social Security ($478 a month) and a small DSS stipend ($210 a month), she is not receiving financial assistance for the two teens, Amber and Andrew Rembert. She is supporting the family with $1,380 a month, paying just enough of her bills to keep her services working.

Andrew, 17, is off to Claflin University in the fall, on scholarship. He says he wants to be a teacher, "to give back." Accustomed to looking after his 14-year-old sister, he is long familiar with responsibility. He helps Barker around the house and works at a restaurant. He moved in a few months ago, but feels at home on Arbutus Avenue. It was like moving in with family, he says.

"He's always had his head together," Barker says.

HALOS sponsored Amber, providing school supplies, clothes and a few other things. Barker likely will get full custody of her soon, but no financial supplement.

Brooks says the Charleston County DSS manages both foster care and "treatment plan" cases. Children in the treatment plan are still at home with parents but actively monitored by the agency. "They can be removed at any time" if caseworkers determine that abuse or neglect is still a problem, she says.

DSS focuses on service — managing cases — while HALOS provides some material support, Brooks says. The partnership is flourishing because of its complementary nature. "There is no overlap," she says. And caseworkers don't have to call churches and beg for help or dig into their own closets anymore, as many have done over the years. Now, HALOS can step in and relieve some of the caseworkers' burden, Brooks says.

Mindy Corrigan and her husband, David, both 29, gained custody of their 5-year-old niece last year. "It's OK with me, because if it wasn't me, it would be foster care, and I couldn't watch that happen," Mindy Corrigan says.

At Christmas, HALOS delivered a $20 Wal-Mart gift card to the girl, something the organization does for about 1,200 children as part of its Holiday Giving program.

It was a very nice gesture, though a little assistance with day-care bills might have helped more, Corrigan says.

The need

In addition to the new Kinship Program and Holiday Giving, HALOS administers five other initiatives.

During the summer, the organization sends more than 100 children to camps run by the cities of Charleston and North Charleston. This provides caregivers with a break by offering weekday supervision, Brooks says.

Birthday Salutes instills a sense of self-worth by acknowledging birthdays with a gift. The Back-To-School Drive (now under way) provides children with supplies and uniforms. The Self-Esteem Enhancement program makes scholarships available to children who show an interest in music, drama, dance, art and sports. And the Special Needs effort ensures that families, and the elderly in the DSS system, get essential items such as beds, hygiene kits, clothes and baby supplies.

Clifton says HALOS is trying to offer a little extra help to families of the 4,000 children in kinship care to make it easier for those families to keep the children. Sometimes the sudden appearance of another child is too much for families, she says. Sometimes they give up.

She says she wishes government would step up its assistance. DSS caseworkers are still overworked, and the agency is understaffed, she says.

"If government is to get involved in helping kids, it's obligated to help kids," she says. That includes children in temporary foster care and children who are placed permanently with relative caregivers.

It makes sense to place abused and neglected children with members of the family, she says, but it's a cruel twist of fate that these caregivers don't get any financial help.

"In South Carolina," Clifton says, "it's just, 'Thank you and good luck.' "

Happy ending

SherryLee Jefferson's new house is at the end of a cul-de-sac, safe, quiet. She keeps it clean (with help from the children, all of whom have chores) and enjoys the big yard. It's a big change from the housing complex downtown where she used to live.

The children have a swing, a small deck and an above-ground swimming pool for the hot summer months. The landlord wanted $1,075 a month for the place, but to help Jefferson, settled on $650.

The newest members of the family, Larry and Alexis, are beginning to thrive. They sleep in a bunk bed provided by HALOS.

On July 3, the family is visited by John Garcia, a court-appointed volunteer, part of the state-funded Guardian Ad Litem program. He comes to assess the condition of Larry and Alexis, to determine whether the interests of the children are well-served. He likes what he sees.

Reach Adam Parker at 937-5902 or aparker@postand courier.com.