Child Protection Teams
Four different multi-disciplinary teams are convened and facilitated by KidSafe. Each of these teams address the specific needs of different populations of children and families by drawing on the strengths of numerous professionals and community members to help these families.
The Child Protection Teams are empaneled under Vermont law, Title 33VSA4917. It is the role of the Child Protection Teams to coordinate services by bringing together the right people in a respectful and supportive environment, to assist families in addressing the challenges faced in caring for their children safely. Altogether over 30 different professionals from human services agencies, schools, medical health providers and other community-based services participate regularly on one or more of the Teams that KidSafe facilitates. Additionally, many individual community members and providers who work most closely with the family attend meetings in order to provide the family with individual support that is crucial to the delivery of our service. These team meetings are convened free of charge to the service recipients.
The community-based Child Protection and Family Support Team brings coordinated case planning services and early intervention to many children who are often not served by the formal child welfare system. The county-wide Team responds directly to concerns of abuse and neglect developing a plan for safety support for children and their families. For human service professionals who want to make a referral to KidSafe for a child or family with whom you are working, please click here.
The CHARM (Children and Recovering Mothers) child protection team coordinates services for opiate dependent pregnant and post partum women and their children.
The Triage Child Protection Team that meets with Family Services Division staff within the Department for Children and Families to address the needs of high risk children and families.
The Early Childhood Malnutrition project provides support to families with young children in the area of nutrition and healthy development. This group developed a new assessment tool for pediatricians and family services workers to help identify and report "failure to thrive" in young children.
Systems Change
The KidSafe Collaborative Council, a partnership of public and private agencies and community groups, works at the policy level to improve the protective, legal, medical, and social systems that respond to child abuse. Members of the KidSafe Collaborative Council include stake-holders in the criminal justice system, state child protection agency (Department for Children and Families), human services, schools, and the community at large. KidSafe Council meets on the fourth Thursday of every month from 2:30-4:30 pm at the Costello Courthouse in downtown Burlington. Catherine Simonson from the HowardCenter: Child, Youth, and Family Services and Mary Woodruff, the principal of Winooski Middle School, are the current Council Co-Chairs. Meetings are open to the public. If you are interested in attending a meeting and would like to be notified of the next KidSafe Collaborative Council meeting date, please check our calendar.
KidSafe coordinates a citizen-based Community Advisory Board to our local district Family Services Division (Burlington) of the VT AHS Department for Children and Families (DCF). This Advisory Board, co-led by a consumer, works to improve policy and practice via input and action by consumers and community members. The Community Advisory Board generally meets on the first Wednesday of every month from 5:45-7:45 pm, and is facilitated by KidSafe Director, Sally Borden.
Training and Education
Protecting Vermont's Children: Your Responsibility as a Mandatory Reporter
KidSafe is available to conducts trainings for community organizations and staff on the role and responsibility of mandated reporters of child abuse and neglect in Vermont. Every year, we provide training for more than 100 professionals and students about mandatory reporting. We present the trainings in partnership with the Burlington District Family Services Division staff. If you are interested in having KidSafe come to your organization or company to provide training, please contact us.
In 2001, the KidSafe Collaborative Council Policy Committee began work on an important training project that is now a standard for training across the state of Vermont. The KidSafe training toolkit addresses a key strategy of the Vermont Injury Prevention Plan 2001 which identified early intervention and support as one of the key strategies for the prevention of intentional violence such as child abuse. 1
The toolkit was produced and distributed in 2003 as Protecting Vermont's Children: Your Responsibility as a Mandatory Reporter. The training binder includes a video (also available as DVD) and printed manual based on the Vermont statutes (Title 33, Chapter 49) for mandated reporters of child maltreatment, along with a model protocol to guide the process of reporting. Training toolkits are still available: if you would like one, please contact us.
The training covers who needs to report, recognizing the signs of child abuse, knowing when and how to report, and what happens after a report is made. Our narrator is Dr. Lewis R. First, Chief of Pediatrics at Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care. This training crafts a useful and consistent message about reporting child abuse and neglect, helps to dispel some commonly held myths, and better ensures the safety of Vermont's children. To download a copy of the tool kit printed pages or to learn more about reporting child abuse concerns, please visit our About Child Abuse page.
The toolkit was distributed widely to visiting nurse associations, pediatric offices, community health centers, child care centers, schools, early childhood councils, parent child centers, police departments, and other state and community-based agencies at no cost in order to train the maximum number of mandated reporters around the state.
1. Carney, Jan K., MD, MPH, Commissioner. Vermont Injury Prevention Plan 2001, pps 10-13. State of Vermont Department of Health, 2001.