Latest news with #ShetlerFast
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Yahoo
CAPS Rally addresses commitment to safety for children
GOSHEN — The attendees at the CAPS Rally Thursday morning in Elkhart were reassured that leaders in child services were going to take a stand for the children of Elkhart County. It was also evident in the presentation that children also feel the gleam of hope. Rebecca Shetler Fast, CEO and president of CAPS, opened the event talking about the equal want in the community to watch out for children in need and build and encourage the hope for their future, together. CAPS reached 3,400 kids in the past year and more than 2,000 families, Shetler Fast pointed out. The organization also spent more than 1,775 hours advocating for children. CAPS' forensic interview team conducted more than 581 interviews for information about vulnerable children. Shetler Fast then presented photos and videos of what hope looks like through the eyes of children in honor of Child Abuse Prevention month. She selected a few of the hundreds of drawings made to show. 'We had hundreds of pictures of hope that kids drew. A testament to their resilience, and I think the imagination of kids,' she said. 'A middle schooler painted hope as a beacon of life, stretching across the ocean guiding her way forward. A high schooler found hope in the riot of colors based on nature, a reminder of the wild and unpredictable that there's beauty.' She continued, 'An elementary student saw hope in a butterfly and the support from the Big Sister, reminding us that hope comes from the people who will believe in us. Preschoolers pressed their hands into paper creating a tapestry of light. Bright, undeniable reminders that children are the way from the darkness.' A variety of speakers took turns speaking about their experience in child services including Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker, who said she will never forget the moment a young girl held her hand as they went to court to prosecute her abuser. ''What hope looked like for her was not to be afraid anymore,' Becker said. 'And so when she was holding my hand as we were walking in, and she gave me a little squeeze right before I let her go, and she got up on that stand and she talked about some of the worst things that anybody could possibly imagine. That little girl told her story to a bunch of strangers and after the conviction came in, when I got to talk to her and explain to her what had happened, she looked at me, she hugged me and she said 'I am not afraid of him ...'' Another speaker was Director of Elkhart County Department of Child Services Jim Cornish, who emphasized the importance of empowerment and resources to families and even admitting he personally could not be the parent he is without support, education and resources. He said that ultimately as an agency, DCS's goal is to be out of business, for there to be an environment where children could live where the department doesn't need to exist, where they have everything to succeed. Cornish ended his speech with a call to action. 'Most families just need that one person that says, 'Hey, I see you need help, I see you need resources. Let me be that person to give you help. Let you be that person to direct you where you need to go,'' he said. 'And if you can't be that one person, encourage somebody else to be that one person. One person recruits, and another person does, and then we get more help from them to work with.' James Stewart-Brown, magistrate of the Juvenile Court, shared with the room that in the community alone within the last year there were 5,400 cases recorded for abuse and neglect and how that struck him. Although there was an upside, he said, because that meant there were 5,400 people who picked up the phone and they did something about it. 'That's a huge amount of hope right there,' he said. To close the event, CAPS' president invited all the county officials to gather at the podium for the county commitment which included Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson, Elkhart County Commissioners president Brad Rogers, Elkhart County Councilor Adam Bujalski and Nappanee Mayor Phil Jenkins, who was unable to attend but had words shared on his behalf. All leaders gathered and recited their commitment to the children county wide. 'So let the commitments and partnerships fertilize today and serve as a catalyst toward making Elkhart County the best and safest place for children and families not only in Indiana but across the nation,' they said. 'This work starts now and we are dedicated to see it through. We hereby pledge our commitment to the safety and well being of all children across Elkhart County.'
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Public health funding cuts in new state budget would undo some HFI gains
GOSHEN — State lawmakers are undermining efforts to improve Hoosiers' health by proposing 33 percent cuts to public funding, local health officials warn. House Bill 1001, the two-year budget bill that advanced to the Senate last week, cuts local public health spending from $150 million annually to $100 million. That would largely reverse dramatic funding increases made under the Health First Indiana initiative just two years ago. 'Speaking from the board of health and personally, that HFI funding potential decrease is just really tragic for our state,' Elkhart County Board of Health Chair Paul Shetler Fast said Thursday. The $225 million total directed toward local health departments in the last budget cycle was meant to help Indiana catch up to the rest of the nation. The boost was based on the recommendations of the Governor's Public Health Commission, though the amount was less than half of what the commission said was needed. 'We had been under-funding public health for years. That was recognized,' Shetler Fast said. 'We brought it up to kind of an average level of funding. And now it's going to drop, if this goes through, well below that again.' The commission's findings highlight the fact that Indiana is one of the unhealthiest states with nearly rock-bottom health funding. Indiana residents die two years earlier than the national average, a life expectancy that has been declining since 2010. Indiana ranks below most other states when it comes to health issues like infant mortality, obesity, smoking and mental health. The state's overall public health ranking fell from 26th to 41st within a generation. One of the commission's goals was to increase per-person public health funding to reach the national average of around $91. Indiana's average was $55 per capita, with individual counties ranging from $1.25 to $83. 'A reminder of why that was passed, is there's this huge disparity also in our state, with the rural areas, poor areas, tending to get less health services,' Shetler Fast said. 'Rural communities around the state tend to be some of the worst impacted if that gets cut.' 'We can't do it on our own' Elkhart County spent less than $20 per person before it opted in to the new funding formula, according to Elkhart County Health Officer Melanie Sizemore. HFI requires a 20 percent local match, which in the second year of the program every county committed to providing in order to receive a share of the $150 million allotted for 2025. Elkhart County received just under $2.5 million for 2024 and around $5 million for 2025. It's money that factored into the department's planning, Sizemore said Friday. 'We've always had a Plan B in the back of our mind, but thinking that we were going to get this particular set amount helped us understand how we can make Elkhart County healthier without growing our staffing and that sort of thing,' she said. 'That is a concern by county council, that we stay about the size that we are. So granting out these funds is what needs to happen in order for the work to get done.' The extra funding comes with the obligation that health departments provide pass-through grants for other local organizations that provide health services. Last year, Elkhart County directed $300,000 in one-year grants to programs that met priority needs in the county in the areas of maternal and infant health, mental health and sexually transmitted infections. This year, the department gave $1.1 million to 12 programs. Sizemore said the 33 percent cut in state funding would hurt the health department's ability to fund programs that seek to improve the health of Elkhart County residents. 'That would affect our ability to grant dollars out into the community at the level that we do,' she told the board. 'That is a deep concern because we cannot do the work alone.' She added Friday that mental health, in particular, is an area where the department relies on community partners to provide services. Grant recipients have included Clubhouse programs for adults with mental illness, a mobile integrated health team who responds to mental health crises and Oaklawn Psychiatric Center. 'A lot of that work, we can't do on our own, particularly the mental health area,' Sizemore said. 'We do not specialize in mental health, so we have to give money to help make that happen for Elkhart County. And if that money goes away, that means there are that many fewer services available if needed. It's concerning.'
