Down East agencies still Keeping Children Safe

MACHIAS – With $3 million of federal funding ending next month, the Safe Start Initiative that focused on children exposed to violence within Washington County is making a transition into the hands of two local agencies.

Keeping Children Safe Downeast is the name of the program that was developed as a four-way partnership in 1999. It was spun off as a stand-alone project – with the partners’ continued input – with an office in Calais and a full-time staff of four.

It was one of 11 pilot projects nationwide, all working to develop Safe Start communities. Each project received $3 million over five years from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

That money, which was administered within the state by the Department of Health and Human Services, runs out at the end of October. Three of the staffers will move on to other jobs, while Sandra Prescott, the project director, takes on retirement for good.

Formerly a state legislator and later for 20 years the executive director of the Washington Hancock Community Agency out of Milbridge, Prescott took on the Safe Start leadership two years ago after retiring from WHCA.

Other than a pending trip to Hawaii, Prescott said she has no plans other than serving on the town of Machiasport’s harbor committee.

Prescott was thanked personally many times on Tuesday at a luncheon that recognized the professional efforts of several agencies, groups and individuals countywide that helped the project live up to its mission.

Tim King, Prescott’s replacement at WHCA, and Carol Carew of the HealthWays Regional Medical Center of Lubec symbolically signed a memorandum of understanding in front of the 90 luncheon attendees.

They will take on the Keeping Children Safe Downeast project by keeping the “brand” visible and viable. Other groups that work with families, counseling and mental health, emergency response and law enforcement, have committed to continuing the elements that they already have been involved with during the Keeping Children Safe years.

The Passamaquoddy at both Pleasant Point and Indian Township has been a key partner in the program from the start. The Passamaquoddys will continue to be resources for reducing the impact of violence in the lives of children between birth and age 6, which has been one of the program’s goals.

“We are known nationally for some of our initiatives,” Prescott said in her remarks. “We have become a national model for how things can get done locally.”

Among other measures, Keeping Children Safe provided training for dozens of professionals who have daily contact with Washington County children.

These include court and law enforcement workers, early childhood educators, other family support professionals, plus those additionally involved with child welfare and faith communities.

They have all agreed to carry on the Keeping Children Safe projects on their own, even if unfunded at this point. Once the separate projects take off on their own, new funding sources will be tapped over the next five years, Prescott said.

Bill Goddard of the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie Institute has handled the initiative’s evaluations throughout the program’s five years.