SAN ANGELO, Texas (ABP) — Although Texas officials have taken some criticism for removing hundreds of children from a religious compound, the Baptist agency caring for them has earned praise from the most important people: the children themselves.
Baptist Child and Family Services, an agency affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, was charged with caring for hundreds of children removed from the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints compound near Eldorado, Texas, in April. They coordinated the children's care in nearby San Angelo for three weeks, after which 75 moved to the BCFS Youth Ranch near Luling.
“You're nice,” a 6-year-old girl announced last week as Nanci Gibbons, the agency's executive vice president, walked past her on the ranch play ground.
“Why, thank you,” Gibbons replied, “but how do you know I'm nice?”
“Because your shirt says 'BCFS,'” the girl answered, “and you know what BCFS stands for, don't you?”
“Is it, 'Beef, Chicken, Fish and Sausage?'” Gibbons guessed, quoting the nickname many of the children had bestowed during their stay in San Angelo.
“Oh no,” the girl said firmly. “It means, 'Best Care for Children.'”
“For the children to recognize that the folks in BCFS shirts are there to help and be nice is the best compliment we could get,” BCFS chief executive Kevin Dinnin said. “Though there are significant differences, there is a common denominator between what we are doing with the FLDS children and what we did for Hurricane Katrina evacuees and victims of the Sri Lanka tsunami and what we're doing to help fight the international sex trafficking in Moldova — we didn't create the situation, but are working to meet the needs of those affected.
“Job one continues to be respecting each child's dignity and making them as content as possible. Our overriding concern is to provide the children with safe, clean places to sleep, access to medical care, healthy food and people who care about them.”
Placing 75 of the 462 children — taken from the polygamist compound on suspicion of abuse — at the Youth Ranch allowed Texas Child Protective Services to keep many sibling groups together.
It also kept BCFS in overdrive mode to staff the facility and activate support programs with local school districts. One of the mobile medical units was also stationed at the ranch.
In the move from San Angelo, one constant for children was the men and women in BCFS shirts.
“In San Angelo, our staff — all wearing BCFS shirts — quickly became known as the people you went to when you needed something, whether it was organic baby food or just someone to listen. And now the 75 children waiting to know what their future will be have promoted us several ranks, it seems.”
The San Antonio-based agency was alerted April 4, just as the operation to remove the children from the compound got under way, to be ready to receive 24 children at the Youth Ranch. But the next day Dinnin was asked if BCFS could supervise sheltering operations in San Angelo “for up to 150 women and children.” At the operation's peak, the shelters housed 550 women and children.
As “incident commander,” Dinnin and BCFS were tasked with providing oversight and coordination for all the agencies responding to the crisis. During the three weeks the children and mothers were housed in San Angelo before a court ordered the children placed in child-care facilities across the state, approximately 1,000 state, county, and city personnel and volunteers worked under BCFS supervision.
The agency interacted daily on critical incident decisions with the commissioners of the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Gov. Rick Perry's staff and other local and statewide elected officials.
BCFS deployed 55 employees, including most of its senior administrative staff, and more than $1 million in assets. In addition to two mobile medical clinics and a mobile feeding unit, BCFS provided communication technology for the operation, including VHF radios for communication between all responding agencies, satellite uplink for Internet telephones, 28 laptop computers, plasma-screen and projector displays for incident management and direct, real-time, visual incident-management communication with the Texas State Operations Center in Austin.
While state child-protection officials and Texas courts decided about placement of the children, BCFS ministered to emotionally stressed women and children around the clock; respected the FLDS adherents' religious practices by providing organic, non-processed meals and acceptable toys and play activities; treated outbreaks of chicken pox and respiratory infections (FLDS children do not take inoculations); created an alternate phone system when the cable to the shelters and command post was accidentally cut; developed contingency plans for all possible court rulings; processed mountains of laundry; and handled all purchasing.
When the courts ordered the transfer of the children to facilities across the state, BCFS used GPS technology to track the bus convoys dispatched around Texas.
“To categorize the sheltering operations as 'highly successful' is a gross understatement,” Dinnin added. “To quote Chief Colley of the Governor's Division of Emergency Management, BCFS was the 'rock star' of the San Angelo operation. We do appreciate that — but being noted for providing ‘Best Care for Children' is the highest compliment possible.”
In the past few years, BCFS has gained a national reputation for its expertise in such operations. Last month the Federal Emergency Management Agency asked it to be a “subject-matter consultant” to develop a “functional template” for special-needs shelters.
BCFS also is in charge of training Texas cities in setting up such facilities and recently began doing the same for the state of Nevada.
The BCFS incident-management team has undergone a nationally recognized training program and is credentialed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency in various aspects of emergency management. The team's 55 members were pulled from BCFS programs across the state. Most worked 14- to 18-hour daily shifts on the front end of the operation.
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— Craig Bird is director of communications for Texas Baptist Child and Family Services. Robert Marus contributed to this story.
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