Child Abuse Awareness focus of first Thrive Iowa alliance meeting

FORT MADISON – The descent into crises is often a cyclical journey, beginning sometimes with something as simple as a traffic ticket or taking a sick child to the doctor. For families teetering on the brink of financial turmoil a minor setback can have major consequences.  

This can be especially true when it comes to employment.  

Ginger Knisley, Lee County Supervisor and director of the Children First program, wants to see some of those harsh restrictions softened up for families who are doing the best they can to provide and care for their loved ones. 

“I would like to see more flexible workplace policies," Knisley said recently at the Thrive Iowa monthly alliance meeting at Lee County Health in Fort Madison. Knisley was part of a panel of four experts asked to speak about lowering the rates of child abuse in Lee, Henry, and Van Buren Counties, which are all served by the Thrive Iowa initiative. 

"I'm not calling out our local companies, but I think it's just the business culture is not family friendly," Knisley said. ". I think there could be more flexibility and families should not have to be punished for having to take their child to the doctor." 

The conversation was part of a broader topic on how to address the staggering child abuse and neglect cases in Lee County and statewide. Specific to Lee County in the southeast corner of Iowa, where employment and transportation continue to be an ongoing challenge; child abuse and neglect cases are among the highest in the state.  

Keeping in compliance with employer's hardlined rules isn't often sustainable for families and is often harmful because it forces families to make some very tough decisions under duress.  

"The point system is very rigid," Knisley told the room of about thirty alliance members in attendance.  

"If you are five minutes late you get a point. If you have to leave early, you get a point. And it doesn't matter what the reason is. It's just a hard and fast rule that if you gain these many points you are fired." 

She said in many cases there's not much of an appeals process for employees to present. 

" I think that there is just a lot of room for flexibility in that," Knisley said. 

The meeting was led by Tessa Schroeder, the coordinator for Thrive Iowa of Lee, Henry and Van Buren Counties.  

According to 2022 data from Iowa.gov, Iowa reported 11,150 substantiated child victims of abuse or neglect. This comes to a rate of 15.4 children per 1,000.  

Lee County alone has one of the highest child neglect rates in the state, with 25.3 per 1,000 children, according to a report by the University of Iowa’s Initiative for Sustainable Communities. 

The population of Lee County is around 34,000. 

“Child maltreatment is a large issue here in our corner of the state,” Schroeder said in an interview back in March. “Both child abuse and child neglect rates are high.” 

April being Child Abuse Awareness month seemed a fitting time for Schroeder and Thrive Iowa of Lee County to host its first monthly alliance meeting. 

The panel of child and family welfare experts included Knisley; Machelle Pezley,  Social Work Supervisor Division of Family Wellbeing and Protection Iowa Health and Human Services; Arin Jones, Coordinator for Quad County Community Partnerships for Protecting Children; Hannah Lynch – DVIP/RVAP. The panel took questions from alliance members and addressed concerns of a negative outlook by the general public when it comes to state and local government and how some of those stigmas could be changed. 

In addition to the discussion, Schroeder updated the alliance members on the early numbers in the three counties. With the initiative just under way it's too early to see any measurable data as families are just learning about the program.  

Currently there are four enrollees in Lee, Henry and Van Buren Counties.  

Thrive Iowa is a statewide initiative that is currently serving 11 counties in Iowa. 

Thrive Iowa State Director Page Humphrey said the goal is to eventually reach all 99 counties in Iowa, but the program is starting with communities that were determined to be high priority.  

“The sites that we’re implementing early on are prioritized based on need,” Humphrey said in a separate meeting recently. “Factors like the number of children in foster care, families living in poverty, and unemployment rates.” 

Thrive Iowa uses the Arkansas-based Restore Hope model. Restore Hope is a nonprofit organization that began more than 10 years ago to help bring families from crises to stability. 

Paul Chapman, executive director of Restore Hope, recently spoke with community leaders in Warren and Madison County during a collective impact meeting. 

“Collective impact is a structured way for government and community groups to work toward the same outcomes using shared data and measuring outcomes,” Chapman said. 

Chapman started Restore Hope in 2015 with the help of then-Governor Asa Hutchinson as Arkansas was faced with an alarming crisis among young families and high incarceration rates. Through local partnerships, a ‘for the community by the community’ approach, Arkansas communities were able to provide targeted support and guidance to families in need of assistance in the areas that affected them most. 

For updates and more information on the Thrive Iowa initiative, follow Thrive Iowa of Lee, Henry and Van Buren Counties on Facebook.