Safe Babies Court comes to Orangeburg County; program seeks to maintain family ties

Jul. 30—A national program designed to improve family interactions within the Family Court system is coming to Orangeburg County.

The Safe Babies Court program will help connect families with community resources. It will also work with the S.C. Department of Social Services and the Family Court system to provide support for families involved in court proceedings.

Judge Anne Gue Jones, resident Family Court judge in Orangeburg County for 21 years, will be hearing cases that qualify for the Safe Babies program.

Jones said the program could help children remain in their homes and keep families from interacting with the courts again in the future.

"Unfortunately in Orangeburg County, we do see a lot of people that end up back in family court, in the child welfare system with subsequent children, or perhaps they get their children back after they've been in foster care and they get removed again," Jones said.

"This national program has shown that there is a less than 1% chance that families that successfully complete Safe Babies Court will be touched by child welfare ever again," she said.

The program has already been implemented in Richland, Spartanburg and Laurens counties, as well as in 28 other states across the country.

Safe Babies Court works to connect families with services and resources that can help them better provide a safe and healthy environment for their children's development. Safe Babies will coordinate communication between parents, the courts, social services and any programs the parents are recommended to participate in.

All cases will go through Jones, so families will only interact with one judge throughout the proceedings.

"I have always had a desire to help families," Jones said. "That is why I started practicing family law."

Families will be asked if they want to enter the program early on in court proceedings. Families that qualify will have at least one child under the age of 3.

This stage of the child's life is important because it features the most development of any time of a child's life, according to South Carolina Infant Mental Health Association CEO Kerrie Schnake.

Interaction with adults and the court system can negatively impact a child's behavior, problem solving and relationship skills into adulthood, she said.

"This is a program that really is supporting not just the reunification, but an appreciation of that healthy development, and helping parents, helping the system, understand how they can proceed in a way that supports that social, emotional development and health that is shaping the brain," Schnake said.

An infant or toddler is removed from a home due to allegations of abuse or neglect every six minutes, according to the Safe Babies Court website.

"When you boil this down, it's about creating a strong relationship between the baby and the family so that baby can grow forward," Schnake said.

South Carolina's Safe Babies programs are supported by the South Carolina Infant Mental Health Association. Funding for the program in Orangeburg was provided by the South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Health, according to Schnake.

The program hosted a training program at the Orangeburg County Library on July 15. The session was attended by national and state representatives from the Safe Babies Court program, as well as local and county court and social workers

State and national representatives for Safe Babies Court chose Orangeburg for the next expansion of the program based on the need in the area and the judicial leadership offered by Jones.

"This Orangeburg team is so strong. You can tell there's already a sense of community amongst these professionals who work with young children in the child welfare system," Schnake said. "They clearly are committed to the children and the health of families, so this process has been so easy."

Many cases involve substance use or substance exposure to an infant, according to Sharletta Woodall, Safe Babies Court manager. The program can help connect parents with resources and programs to prevent drug use around children and in general.

The program works to teach families and parents how to be independent of the program and its services, according to Sara Remington, one of the national representatives of Safe Babies Court present at the training session.

"(We are) making sure there is a plan for the family to know what to do once we're out of the picture," Remington said. "Who to call if they run out of food, or their electricity gets shut off or they relapse, setting them up for success so that they never have to come back into the system."

The program also works to support new guardians if children are permanently removed from their homes, as well as arrange goodbyes with relatives, according to Remington.

Jones said the program can help families become healthier and avoid further contact with the system, and also lower the caseload for the courts and social services.

"I just do feel like ultimately we're going see some better outcomes from some families in our community," Jones said. "From my perspective, I don't see very good outcomes very often. We close cases and the kids will stay with relatives. It's just so seldom that we see reunifications. It's for that reason it's important to me that we try this program."

Gwendolyn Williams, Orangeburg County DSS family preservation supervisor, said the program will help families work together with DSS and understand that the ultimate goal for everyone is to keep families together.

"Just give it a chance," Williams said. "We're here to help, we are all working together. We are not working against them. So just take a look into the program because they actually help."

Jones said the program is currently looking for a community coordinator to coordinate between different parts of the program and county services. Other stakeholders, like the lawyer who represents the parents in the child welfare proceedings, will also need to be brought in.

"Then we will hopefully get the process up and running and I hope that by the end of this year, we will have at least one family in Safe Babies Court," Jones said.

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