Positive outlook at Highland Shores CAS

Things at Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society are currently sitting in a positive position.

The organization held its annual general meeting on Thursday night at the Mohawk Community Centre and Board of Directors President Michael McLeod was quite happy with how the previous year went.

Highland Shores CAS finished with a surplus of $1.09 million after finishing 2017 with a deficit.

McLeod did note their organization could be looking at less funding and noted they need to do their best to not react but instead plan ahead.

Salaries and benefits both decreased in 2018, as did travel expenses. Overall expenditures of Highland Shores CAS was down $5.5 million over the previous year.

Total revenues went down as well by $2.6 million in 2018.

Executive Director Tami Callahan says they manage well given the funding they have to work with.

She told Quinte News she will always continue to advocate for more funding as there are always more services they can provide.

Callahan said the coming years are going to be more challenging as they’ve worked within a balanced budget fund but that will come to an end next year.  She remains optimistic however, because the provincial government is looking at ways to do things more efficiently and to her that means using provincial funding in a more equitable way.

She was also happy to hear that children’s aid societies are going to have a seat at the table when it comes to discussions with the provincial government about the Children, Community and Social Services portfolio.

There were fewer children and youth in care in 2018-2019 as well, with only 295 requiring services from the organization that includes Hastings, Northumberland and Prince Edward County.

There was an increase in the number of adoptions last year to 19 and 93% of cases see children and youth placed with extended family instead of going into care.

There was an increase of six children and youth into care over 2017, bringing the total to 134.

Another area of decrease was child protection cases before the court, which went from 170 to 120.

The recurrence of child protection concerns within 12 months of an investigation has not increased beyond 20% between 2011 and 2016.

Callahan says while she is excited by the numbers, those children that are in care are in care because there is no other safe alternative.

Highland Shores CAS completed 2,132 child protection investigations and provided services to 2,104 children and their families on an ongoing basis last year.