By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–Henry County Juvenile Court Judge Vicki Snyder announced Wednesday that Henry County has received a $100,000 grant to begin Safe Baby Court and is one of just five counties to receive the grant.
Henry County Safe Baby Court Coordinator Drennan Mayberry explained, “Safe Baby Court (SBC) is a new approach to dependent and neglect cases with Department of Children Service (DCS) involvement. Each SBC case must involve at least one child in the family who is 36 months of age or younger. SBC is designed to provide wrap-around support services to families with parents who have substance abuse and/or mental health issues.”
The primary goal is to reduce the time to permanency for these young children and get them in a safe, stable environment and, hopefully, reunited with their birth parents, he said.
“Parents must volunteer to be in SBC much like drug treatment courts. SBC looks to reduce reoccurrences of maltreatment and reduce the traumatic effects of brain development in this tender age. Each case will have a team which includes the SBC Coordinator, DCS staff, behavioral health providers, a CASA advocate, attorneys, and the Juvenile Court Judge,” he said.
Henry County CASA stands for Court-Appointed Special Advocates and there are now several people who volunteer for the CASA program.
CASA issued a statement Wednesday saying the local volunteers are “so very proud to be part of Safe Baby Court in our county. A big “thank you” to Senator Haile from TN’s 18th District for initiating this special program in our state and congratulations to Judge Vicki Snyder for her hard work and dedication in bringing this opportunity to Henry County. We are truly blessed.”
Drennan explained the grant allows the Henry County court “to have up to 20 cases/families at any given time. Our first year we are going to max out at 10 cases; we want to start off on the right foot and make sure we are doing things the right way. We want to give these children the best attention and services we can.”
Senator Ferrell Haile was on hand for the presentation.
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