Maine nonprofit rallies at State House to close National Child Abuse Prevention Month

AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) - April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. On its last day, the nonprofit organization Walk A Mile In Their Shoes rallied outside of the State House to demand change.

In 2023, Maine Kids Count reports Maine as having the highest rate of child maltreatment in the nation. While national trends go down, Maine’s continue to rise.

Walk a Mile in Their Shoes say since 2021, 48 children have died in Maine.

In their report “Unsupported” released in December, Walk a Mile spoke to caseworkers, families, educators, and more to investigate the causes and possible solutions to the terrible epidemic in our state.

“DHHS is the most powerful agency in the government and the largest,” explains Walk A Mile In Their Shoes founder and former state Senator and Maine Secretary of State Bill Diamond. “And what we have done is we’ve issued a report that we released last December, that was a result of traveling around the state for 10 months. Talking with people who work with the department, caseworkers, foster parents, law enforcement, all the folks that deal directly with them and we asked them, ‘What is the problem that you see?’”

All speakers at the rally demanded change in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

“This child abuse epidemic needs to be addressed through collaboration, resources, strong leadership, and most importantly, transparency,” said social worker Emily Small at the rally.

As Superintendent of Schools for Calais and Robbinston, Mary Anne Spearin spoke of the possibility of a strong relationship between DHHS, schools, and community if the department kept educators more in the loop: “Schools feel abandoned, we do not get responses when they do make reports to DHHS. We don’t feel that it’s a proactive system, it’s a reactive system.”

Calls for the dissection and separation of DHHS were heard from various speakers, pointing to the large size of the department which could allow things to more easily fall through the cracks.

One especially moving speaker featured at the rally was Victoria Vose, the paternal grandmother of 3-year-old Maddox Williams. Williams was a Stockton Springs toddler who was murdered by his mother in 2021.

“June 20th marks three years since my precious grandson Maddox tragically took his last breath. Maddox’s death was an unnecessary failure by the department. Procedures in place to protect my grandson were not followed,” Vose shakingly said.

Despite the hurt Vose says she feels every time she has to relive the nightmare of her grandson’s death, she says keeping his story and memory alive is paramount.

“Mentioning Maddox’s name, it’s difficult but it needs to be said,” Vose says. “I just don’t want his death to be in vain and if it helps one child, it’s worth it.”

One attendee was Shawn Packard, 27, of Waterville, who spent ages 12 to 18 in foster care after escaping abuse.

“Twelve is an unlucky number for me, I actually ended up in 12 different homes,” Packard recalls from his experience directly in the system. “It’s no better than it is today back then. It’s a scary place and I think a lot of it is just nobody’s listening.”

Reunification was something Packard fought hard against while in foster care. While it may be helpful for some families, Packard says it risks children re-entering unsafe environments that originally got them into foster care in the first place.

While DHHS was a large focus for critique throughout the rally, Diamond made it a point to say the purpose of the rally was not to upset or entirely blame the department: “If the department will just realize we’re here to help. We’re not here to continue to point fingers. The reason we point fingers and shine the light on what’s happening is because nothing is happening.”

In a response, DHHS says: “The Department welcomes the perspectives of all those devoted to improving the health and safety of Maine children and families. We have more work to do to strengthen the child welfare system and value the contributions of foster families, advocates, and other partners in pursuing meaningful and effective solutions.”

Maine’s Office of Child and Family Services, which operates under DHHS, has recently joined the National Partnership for Child Safety, an organization aiming to improve child safety through child protection innovations.

The department has also focused on reducing caseworker vacancies, which they say has dropped 25% since January this year.

With newly-approved investments in child welfare from the Legislature, DHHS says caseworkers will be better paid, trained, and supported to help manage workloads. The improved budget will also include new roles in individual districts as well as dedicated funding to better serve children and families living in rural areas who are in the child welfare system.

DHHS says these new improvements will “help give teams led by caseworkers the time and expertise for investigations, reunification, and support for children and families. Our child welfare staff are vital to improving child health and safety and we will continue to do all we can to support them.”

Copyright 2024 WABI. All rights reserved.