Organization aims to eradicate child abuse in the region

April 15, 2008
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

For nearly a year, Tracy Wayne Richardson has introduced his grinning puppet, Rowland, to Del Rio school children, dropped to his knees with kids on colorful carpet in an office playroom, and counseled struggling parents and young people to keep the family together through tough times.

Richardson, case manager at Baptist Child & Family Services, 310 Margaret Lane, is an imposing figure who uses funny hats, a broad smile and gentle demeanor to persuade—rather than intimidate—kids, moms, dads and siblings to find common ground for resolving volatile home situations. In that multi-faceted role, Richardson also serves as Universal Child Abuse Prevention (UCAP) specialist.

“April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month,” Richardson said, adding, “Mainly, we want to work on raising community awareness of this problem and the need for people to report it when they see it or know of it going on. It’s a time to focus on ways not only to protect children, but also to prevent abuse from ever occurring.” Abuse, he explains, takes many more forms than most people imagine.

The laundry list of horrors covers failure to provide for a child’s basic needs; physical injury from hitting, kicking, burning, shaking; using a child for sex; impairing emotional development or sense of self-worth; and subjecting the kid to constant criticism, threats, neglect or rejection. Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) officials say simple neglect is the most common form of abuse. “Yes, children die simply because they’re put in situations where they are not supervised,” Richardson said. Though he doesn’t know the dispositions or outcomes, Richardson said there were 467 complaints of child abuse logged in Val Verde County in 2007.

“Our role here at Baptist Child & Family Services [BCFS) is to prevent that by developing good parenting skills,” he said. “CPS deals with it when it’s already happening.” BCFS operates throughout five counties in this region: Crockett, Kinney, Schleicher, Sutton and Val Verde. Richardson personally travels these counties at least once a month. “And our case counselors go there twice a week to give assistance,” he says.

The organization has no regulatory authority, but Richardson believes a key message is for observers of child abuse—in any capacity, whether as neighbor, family member, friend, or the child—to report the incident(s) to law enforcement or CPS authorities. “When we’re talking to kids in schools, we try to get the message to them to tell somebody,” Richardson stressed. “We really push that: To tell, to tell, to tell!.”

On an educational plane, with adults, the BCFS program “Families for A Future” includes parenting workshops and youth workshops “to strengthen violence-free families and communities.” The free parenting lessons include “building blocks for successful family function,” such as lessons of parent modeling/training, child and adolescent development, parent/child relationships, developing strong ethnic and cultural roots, and links to other community resources.

Youth workshops in “Families for a Future” offer workshops on violence, communications, self-esteem, and family and community as a family. Families who complete these training opportunities are rewarded with an expense-paid family retreat in the scenic hill country and streams near Leakey, Texas.

The STAR Program, headed by Executive Director Jackie Hansen, provides, as the program’s acronym suggests, Services to at-risk youth, including short-term counseling at home at the BCFS office, crisis intervention, parent and youth training, follow-up service, and emergency residential placement.

Despite the organization’s name—Baptist Child & Family Services—Richardson explained that it is not chiefly funded by Baptist churches or conventions. Only three percent of the BCFS budget here comes from those sources, and the remainder from grants and awards. Workers here admit that they have occasionally heard concerns from participating families about the religious identity connection, not wanting children in particular to be indoctrinated by religious dogma during counseling. “We’re not a church, we’re not a religion, but we are faith-based,” Richardson said.

Raquel Frausto, program director of Families For A Future and the BCFS Star Program, emphasized that religious practices are not urged upon participants. “As a staff, we do pray together. But, we never ask clients to pray, unless they ask us to pray with them,” Frausto said. Frausto and Richardson pointed out that the staff at BCFS is a mix of many religious affiliations and personal worship choices.

Richardson promotes the importance of avoiding and reporting child abuse with numerous school visits with “Rowland.” “We can give presentations to civic clubs, and are always looking for audiences to give our message to,” Richardson said. He is also available to facilitate focus groups for seventh and eighth-grade students, and arranges special programs for children of migrant parents, and more children struggling because their parents are incarcerated.

The organization has also introduced “Safety Into Summer” programs at elementary and middle schools in Del Rio and Eldorado, Texas. “This is aimed at prevention of problems with youth by practicing Internet safety, not opening doors to strangers, and other difficulties kids can have when they’re home alone,” Richardson said. BCFS recognizes the dramatic changes dual-career and single-parent households have wrought in society, and so-called “latch-key kids” are one of those manifestations.

Richardson said the gratification for his intense work comes often comes from surprising situations. “We get a lot of parents coming back to us, saying, ‘We took your advice, and tried what you suggested. And it’s working,’” he recalled. At a local restaurant, a child who had heard and participated in the dialogue between “Rowland” and Richardson tugged the latter’s sleeve, and asked, “Do you have any kids?” Richardson replied affirmatively, and before the second-grader returned to his parents, he blurted out, “You must have been the most awesome dad!”

Richardson encourages readers to be able to recognize child abuse, and report it immediately by calling 1-800-252-5400 or by using the Statewide Neglect, Abuse, and Exploitation Reporting System hotline online, www.txabuse@hotline.org. Local assistance is available at the BCFS office in Del Rio, at 830-768-2755 or, toll free, at 1/877-441-4188.