Local Pastor Steps Down as State Child Welfare Board President
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
Above photo: Local Pastor Tim Allen receives the Presidential Award of “Volunteer of the Year” from CASA of the Pines Director Natalie Thornton, in recognition of his work on behalf of the state’s children.
CROCKETT – First Christian Church Pastor Tim Allen recently stepped down from his position as President of Texas Council of Child Welfare Boards, who recently passed a rule allowing him to continue to lead the group. While Allen will remain on the board and very active locally in child welfare issues, he has grown frustrated with inaction and infighting among the different groups which are supposed to work together to take care of the state’s children in need.
Allen has long decried official inaction, especially regarding the thousands of children “misplaced” in the system, possibly falling victim to traffickers, sweat shops, or worse. Allen has been an advocate for children and children’s issues but values results more than talk and has recently become dismayed by the competing agencies and rules.
Allen’s six years as state-level president has given him unprecedented access to lawmakers and those working for child advocacy. It has also led him to try and reform the competing systems, which risk putting form before function – and potentially leaving the kids to fend for themselves.
Allen has seen a rise in faith and community-based organizations, disillusioned with how official state agencies were handling issues regarding child safety.
“The state of Texas wasn’t really taking care of our children the way we wanted them to. I always say it’s like a church that started worshiping the method, and they forgot the message – it’s about the children,” Allen said. “The state legislature turned told CPS “Child Protective Services and DFPS (Texas Department of Family Protective Services) that we need to start using community sources.”
This has led to a shortage of case workers at government institutions, with many case workers opting to work for the faith and community organizations, where the pay is often better and there is less red tape and bureaucracy to deal with.
This has led to backlash from the state agencies, who fear a loss of control. The conflict is similar to those between public and charter schools, where each side can resent overfunding over the other side, with each arguing they know better and can use the funds wiser.
Raising $38 million dollars in Texas from local organizations, Allen is convinced the people are ready to help, but fears official disapproval may harm the effort, overall. The state is moving slowly, reluctant to concede the faith-based groups are having so much success and raising that much money.
Allen, who also works with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children) in Houston County, also spoke of the state shutting down many of the residential treatment centers, leaving many kids with nowhere to go. Some of the children Allen works with directly are spread out to other parts of the state, leaving some with no place to go at all. By cancelling these projects, the state must assign multiple case workers to the child, sometime renting a space in a motel for them and spending additional money which could be saved if the community organizations were allowed more freedom.
“They’re hoping this system fails, so that they can have the control they had before,” Allen explained. “That’s where my frustrations come from, battling an uphill battle with them and they forgot what their mandate was – to take care of children.”
Allen sees these faith-based organizations as the answer to the daunting task of taking care of so many children – 10% of the nation’s children in need are in Texas. Allen himself penned a letter to the Texas Attorney General’s office, warning them new CPS regulations which go in counter of religious groups might cause those groups to pull their support from the official system and direct it to the community groups – potentially millions of dollars.
Allen will remain on the board and remain active in issues affecting kids, proving by example in our region that the smaller organizations can and will work, even if he and his associates face a tsunami-sized backlash from government officials.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
