Lisa Tucker Cauley is the Division Director for North Carolina’s Health and Human Services for child, family, adult, and regional support. She said the Success Coach program can even help a single parent with three kids, for example.
“So, one of the things a success coach could do would be help the parents strategize and figure out of these three children that need to do all these activities, how am I going to make it work,” said Tucker Cauley. “What are the activities that have transportation that’s provided? How do you manage the schedule?”
Tucker Cauley said this program could also help judges rule in favor of giving a child back to their families quicker, after being taken away.
“One of the ways they could go home sooner is because this service would be available, and counties would feel comfortable telling the courts we think that children need to go home,” she said. “Courts make the decision. So, you could go to court and say, ‘I think this child’s ready to go home,’ and they would know they had Success Coach as a follow-up program.”
Families across the state can now apply to the program through three agencies and organizations: the Children’s Home Society, the Boys and Girls Home of North Carolina, and the Catawba County Department of Social Services.
Meanwhile, Tucker Cauley said the state health department is looking for more social workers to train within the program, so it can continue helping families across the state. State Health officials are planning to invest more than $16 million in state and federal funding over the next three years toward this effort. A spokesperson said they are not aware of any federal cuts that will impact the funding for the Success Coach Services Program at this time, but they will continue to evaluate the long-term impacts any potential loss of funding they could have.
