The Sparrow’s Nest Ministries’ Analysis of Market Needs

Existing Landscape for At-risk Children in Maryland and Prince George’s County
Maryland has a growing child population with many children living in poverty. In 2004, there were 1,394,808 children under 18 living in the state of Maryland. (Child Welfare Strategic Plan, 2002) Unfortunately, 11.4% of these children were living in families below the poverty line. Poverty places children at serious risk of abuse and neglect. (Barbell & Freundlich, 2001) In 2003, Maryland Department of Human Resources found a total of 25,686 Maryland children living in poverty. (Citizen Review Board for Children, 2007)

In Prince George’s County, approximately 10% of all children under 18 are living with families in poverty. (ChildStats.gov, 2003) The Prince George’s County Public School system reported 43.2% of its children are economically disadvantaged, with 18.6% currently living in single-parent households. All these factors: poverty, homelessness and single parent households, place great number of families at increased risk of child abuse and neglect. (Barbell & Freundlich, 2001). As family needs increase and intensify and other service systems are unable to respond, child welfare has become the system that is expected to intervene. The result is a growing reliance on foster care as the service to respond to crises affecting children and families (Barbell & Freundlich, 2001).

In October 2005, the In-Home Services Policy Analyst for the State of Maryland took a closer look at the population of at-risk children in Prince George’s County, Maryland. They found that a total of 542 children in Prince George’s County were in Child Protective Services from July 2004 to June 2005. (State of Maryland Department Human Resources, 2005) These 542 cases were all cases where child abuse or neglect was indicated (i.e. creditable evidence of abuse or neglect). A total of 3,440 cases were investigated during that same time period. Prince George’s County has the second largest number of children in Child Project Services in the state behind Baltimore City. Many of these children will end up in the foster care system. According to the Annie Casey Foundation, most children who enter foster care do so following a substantiated report of abuse or neglect. This is true in Maryland and Prince George’s County where The State Resource Plan for Out-of-Home Placement Report found that most of the children in need of out-of-home placement entered the system because they are unable to remain at home due to abuse, neglect or other family circumstances.

On June 30, 2005 Prince George’s County had 491 children in foster care. Of the 491 children 308 were by local children (62.7%), 61 children from adjacent jurisdictions (12.4%) and 122 were children from non-adjacent jurisdictions or other states. Source of Children in Foster Care in Prince George's County - June 2005 local adjacent jurisdictions non-adjacent jurisdictions

Future for At-risk Children in Maryland and Prince George’s County
The State of Maryland has closely examined the future needs of at-risk children within the state and Prince George’s County. Part of this process included developing a state resource plan for out-of-home placements. Based on the State’s plan, the State of Maryland had the following recommendations:

increase the foster care placements in Prince George’s County and, encourage the development of group homes in Prince George’s County in order to realign capacity versus need from one jurisdiction to another. (Governor’s Office for Children, 2006)

The Plan felt that a critical indicator for marking progress will be that Prince George’s County demonstrates that the majority of its foster care beds are filled by children from inside the county. There is also a special need in Prince George’s County for placements for siblings and teen mothers. (Governor’s Office for Children, 2006)

Recommendations for the Future of Out-of-Home Placements in Maryland
According to a recent focus group study by the Maryland Public Policy Institute, it appears that there is a constant flow of children in and out of Maryland foster care homes. (The Maryland Public Policy Institute, 2006) The typical foster care child left the system when they aged out. Former foster care children indicated their preference for living in a group setting similar to the TSNM model. It created a more level social playing field and the children could form their own social network. (The Maryland Public Policy Institute, 2006)

The study also found that often after leaving traditional foster care Maryland children had not mastered basic life skills and were ill equipped to manage their own affairs. (The Maryland Public Policy Institute, 2006) The focus group study made several recommendations based on their findings including having on site/on call counselors and therapists and increasing stability; all which could be greatly improved by the TSNM model. A Vera Institute of Justice study also supported the TSNM model. They found that older youth in foster care have high aspirations and recent others’ low expectations. They also reported that they would have benefited from stronger adult encouragement and role models together with a community that offered more stability.

Conclusion
There are a great many at risk children in need of out-of-home placements in Prince George’s County. This need would be best filled by a program that offered greater stability and more support services. The State of Maryland as well as Prince George’s County is searching for positive alternatives to traditional foster care to fill this growing need. Currently there are no facilities in Prince George’s County similar to the positive residential program TSNM would like to create. TSNM is uniquely positioned to fill this need with its innovative nontraditional residential program.