New board, few answers

Highland Shores takes first steps in the County

The first board meeting of the freshly assembled directors of the Prince Edward Children’s Aid Society offered few outward signs of the turmoil that must surely swirl inside the walls of the organization these days.

Last month the troubled local agency, under fire for a series of sex abuse charges, prosecutions and convictions against six different foster parents in connection to children in their care—placed there by the local CAS—has made several big changes in the organization. It has parted ways with longtime Executive Director Bill Sweet and all but two of its board members, and begun a process to amalgamate with Highland Shores Children’s Aid—itself a product of the amalgamation of Hastings and Northumberland’s CAS agencies. It says more changes are coming—including installing Brad Bain, the current director of child and youth services at Durham Chidren’s Aid, as the interim director of services in Picton. But on a Wednesday evening in Belleville last week, it seemed business as usual. Mostly.

There were discussions about board processes (coordinating two boards simultaneously does indeed pose some practical challenges). Discussions about finances (the larger agency is lagging its budgeted operating performance—but less so than the provincial average. That seemed acceptable to most). The agency also purchased a new phone system but curiously declined to say how much it had spent.

There were discussions too about the board’s advisory committees, which examine aspects of the agency ranging from service and quality to finance, as well as gather feedback from community segments through its youth and aboriginal advisory committees.

There was good news about fundraising; the Belleville Rotary Club presented a cheque in the amount of $9,000, the proceeds of a golf tournament the service club holds each year on behalf of Quinte Children’s Foundation, the fundraising arm of Highland Shores Children’s Aid.

There were many good and important issues discussed and presented around the table on Wednesday, but one had to strain to hear the issues of families and children discussed directly in the two-hour meeting. Nor was their curiosity apparent about the issues that had suddenly thrust the Prince Edward County agency into its fold.

Chairperson Darcey French says there are at least three important reasons why this was so. He says the board is still just gathering information about the circumstances in Picton; that the board conducts its business in a decidedly process-oriented approach; and that there are issues of privacy that must be respected.

“Our first priority was to create a stable service for the families and children in Prince Edward County,” explained French, a board member for four years and the Hastings CAS lead during the amalgamation process with Northumberland. “As far as what went on in this community—it will take time to figure out what it looked like. We are not there yet.”

French says the board’s chief role is to ensure the Executive Director Mark Kartusch is held accountable to the goals and standards that he and his staff are expected to achieve.

“The issues we go through each month are that extensive because our expectations of the executive director and his staff are very high,” said French. “Once a quarter in our agency— though not typical everywhere in the province—Mark signs off on a factual certificate that says all the procedures have been followed; that we’ve had no incidences, or if we’ve had an incidence here is what it was; here is how it was addressed; and here is how we will prevent this from happening again.”

The executive director defends the emphasis on rigorous processes and procedures as a means to empower good decisions throughout the organization.

“The reason we have these is to ensure consistency and predictability,” said Kartusch. “I want to rebuild the confidence in the community, but most important to me is to ensure we have strong and effective processes. These are essential to protecting children in out community and keeping them safe. That is my number one priority.”

Will this community ever know what happened at the local agency? What was the nature of the failure that occurred? Because some failure facilitated vulnerable children in becoming prey to a sexual predator. And without answers to these questions, how can anyone— even the new directors of the agency—know with confidence that it won’t happen again?

Kartusch can’t answer these questions yet. “First, I want to find out,” explained Kartusch. “I don’t have all the facts yet. I need to get those first and then I will be in a better position to know what can be disclosed to the community.”

He knows there is a crisis of confidence in this agency in this community currently, but he says much has been done in the past weeks and months to fix the problems in Picton.

“Change has been under way for months,” said Kartusch, “not just two weeks ago when Highland Shores and PEC CAS decided to merge. For example, the processes involved in approving foster homes have been improved. In fact across the province there is a new assessment process around approving foster homes. A different level of intensity to it.”

He is sensitive too about the effect these issues are having on the many good and decent foster families who have served this community and continue to do so.

“Foster families will tell you they live in a fish bowl,” said Kartusch. “The vast, vast majority of cases foster parents are wonderful and amazing people that find it in their hearts and skills to open their homes to children.

“Our job is to keep children safe—particularly when we take them into care. We must continually find ways to improve on that.”

But is the executive director or are any of the board of directors close enough to the families and children whom they serve? None appear to endure the socioeconomic hardships that would seem to put families and children most at risk.

Darcey French says that ensuring the board maintained a “finger on the pulse’ of the families and children they serve was among the board’s guiding principles when it was formed and developed in the amalgamation process. This, he said, takes different forms.

“Any person can contact a board member, for example,” said French. “You don’t have to go through the agency. I have had people call me; ‘this is what happened what are we going to do about it’.”

He pointed to other ways the board works to maintain contact with families and children—specifically its youth advisory committee.

“These are the kids who have grown up in the system— some of them have been in care for as much as 10 years. They are pretty honest about what is needed.”

French also spent a weekend at a camp run by Highland Shores this past summer

“The kids let me know what they were worried about,” said French. “They were clear about what works and what doesn’t. But it also gave me some insight how staff nurture and care for these children.

“You can lead in technical ways or you can lead in moral or ethical ways—we choose to be morally invested.”

Perhaps it is too soon to expect full answers about what went wrong at the Prince Edward County CAS— how it failed children in its care. For now those questions remain unanswered. It would be a mistake for Highland Shores or provincial officials to assume this community will be satisfied with this.