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BY BILL VALLADARES When a distraught mother in Maryland failed to reach authorities by phone after her son landed in a Carroll County jail in the fall, she turned in desperation to Vickie Fulbright for help. "She was a concerned mother trying to find out if her son was OK," said Vickie. "She told me, 'I don't know why I'm calling you, but I found your name on the Internet.' " The woman's son had been arrested for violating a restraining order. His girlfriend filed the complaint after locking him out of their apartment. According to Vickie, the young man, who moved to Georgia after serving in Iraq, suffers from depression and mental illness as a result of the war. "His mother assured me he was a good boy who never had problems with the law before this incident," said Vickie. "But he had gone off his medication and she wanted to let someone know he would be all right if he took his medicine. She didn't know if her son even had an attorney assigned to his case." Vickie, who has a good relationship with the sheriff's secretary, took the woman's contact information and called the sheriff's office. The deputy sheriff returned Vickie's call the next morning and she in turn called the mother. The deputy sheriff also gave the Maryland woman's phone number to the public defender. "The young man's mother told me it was the first time she'd slept since her son had been arrested," said Vickie. "This is what collaborating is all about. I'm a big believer in collaboration and we have great relationships with all our partners." According to Vickie it was the Carroll County Collaborative Web site that led the Maryland woman to her. "I haven't done much to the Web site, but even the basic information I posted after going through the training was enough for that parent to get to us from another state. It's good to know we have a link to the outside world." Vickie and the Carroll County Family Connection Authority are working toward making it easier for parents inside the state to find them as well. Before designing its three-year plan, the collaborative sent out a survey asking clients to rate how the benefits it offers impact them. According to Vickie, of the clients surveyed—both those who have been involved with Family Connection for years and the new ones—100 percent responded that parental involvement impacted issues in serving them. "The community assessment process is an effective tool for directing collaboratives," said Vickie. "I was surprised that parental involvement rated higher than teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates, which people viewed as issues stemming from the parental involvement issue. For instance, there's a huge drug problem here. The state placed 200 children in foster care, much because their parents are on drugs. If we're taking children away from their parents we need to help them."
Vickie and a group called Youth Connections brought to Carroll County the Live Oaks Youth Shelter, which opened in April 2006 and now serves 63 children. "This is an example of just what collaboration can do," she said. "But we're not doing a lot of work with families in this collaborative. We need stronger initiatives for families." Vickie mentioned that some possible solutions for increasing parental involvement might involve local churches providing mentoring-type relationships or adopting families and driving parents without transportation to school meetings. "Lack of public transportation is a huge issue," she said. "We have some things in place, but not enough. I'd love to find out what other communities are doing." Finding solutions to these issues in her community is why Vickie joined Family Connection. "This job is a Godsend," said Vickie, who joined Family Connection after retiring as a customer service manager at Kroger for 20 years. "This is what I need to do. It changed my life and my family's. It's amazing to see communities come together serving parents and families." Note: If you would like to share some of the initiatives your community has instituted to increase family involvement, please e-mail them to Vickie.
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