Thank you for reading our November/December issue of The Advocate. It’s hard to believe that this is the last issue of 2023. It’s been quite a year, and a very busy couple of months here at the DCA.

We have 10 new employees and one promotion to share with you, along with an astonishing 23 GALs who were either sworn-in for the first time or re-affirmed their commitment to the children of the state through their volunteer work.

Speaking of volunteers, our Foster Care Review Boards have a 35% vacancy rate.

Fortunately, the FCRD launched its new website in December, and among the improvements is an easier way for citizens to view the list of vacancies and learn more about the application process.

We also highlight new programs that will debut in 2024 and will no doubt make a big difference for children in our state, especially in the areas of kinship care, children’s behavioral health, and improved ways of reporting and gathering data on child fatalities.

So much has been accomplished this year, and there is so much to look forward to next year. Let me say how thankful we are to be able to do this work and for your continued support.

I wish you the happiest of holidays surrounded by loved ones!

Cass Elias McCarter Guardian ad Litem

Program Assistant - Horry

Melissa Herr

Melissa Herr started on November 2, after serving for two years as a GAL volunteer. Previously, she worked as a personal injury paralegal for 14 years. She holds her associates degree from Horry-Georgetown Technical College in legal studies and her bachelor's degree in public health from Coastal Carolina University.

Melissa is an Ohio native but has lived on the Grand Strand since high school. She has a son who is a senior in high school, and she enjoys spending time with family, traveling, cooking, reading, and volunteering with the local family shelter.

Melissa is excited to be part of the team and looks forward to continuing to be the voice of the child.

Cass Elias McCarter Guardian ad Litem

Program Coordinator I - Charleston

Dawn Davis

Dawn Davis started on November 17.  She comes to the GAL Program with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a minor in criminal justice. She also brings prior DSS experience from both Virginia and South Carolina. As a foster care case manager with Charleston County DSS, Dawn received great applause for her open communication and hard work from the GALs with whom she shared cases. 

She was born in California, but moved frequently with her military father. Dawn married her childhood friend and has two children. Being with her family is Dawn's priority. She enjoys enhancing her daughter's interest in art, her son's passion for history, and their shared appeal for the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas (as her office décor attests).

Dawn entered this field to advocate for children and help them get resources to acquire coping skills to process their trauma.

Cass Elias McCarter Guardian ad Litem

Program Assistant - Oconee

Aubrey Owens

Aubrey Owens started on November 2. She previously worked at the SC Department of Juvenile Justice for eight years. She loves working with children and has been a photographer for more than 20 years.

Her hobbies include costuming, crafting, and entertaining at events like Renaissance festivals. She also like to spend time working on her car and spending a week each spring at a car meet in Georgia.

She is looking forward to continuing to work with the children and youth in her community.

Continuum of Care

Midlands Region Program Director

Debra King, Ph.D.

Debra King started on October 17. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she earned her bachelor’s from the Tuskegee Institute with a double major in elementary education and special education, with a focus on developmental disabilities.

She holds a master’s in special education (concentrating on emotional conflicts) and an education specialist degree in special education (focusing on learning disabilities) from the University of West Georgia. She received her doctorate in educational psychology with two minors (education of the gifted and talented, and supervision of instruction) from the University of Georgia.

Prior to joining Continuum of Care, Debra worked in private practice in Greenville, South Carolina. She was also a psychology professor at Clemson University and a visiting professor in educational psychology at the University of Georgia. She began her career as a lead behavior therapist in a psycho-educational program using developmental therapy and was a certified teacher of grades 1-8 and special education grades K-12.

Debra is very interested in advocacy efforts related to IDEA and Section 504 of ADAAA. She is part of a national initiative to make permanent housing accessible and affordable for citizens of all ages.

Continuum of Care

Wrap Facilitator, Midlands

Lola Smith

Lolita Smith, who prefers to go by Lola, started on November 2. Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, she graduated from Benedict College with her BSW in 1989. Over her 25-year career as case manager, she has worked in both Columbia and Atlanta, Georgia. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in social work from Grand Canyon University.

Lola has dedicated her career to the advancement, empowerment, and advocacy of children and adults with special needs. She looks forward to learning and growing in her new position as a wrap facilitator with COC.

She has two daughters and two granddaughters.

2nd Annual Holiday Door Contest Winners

We’re delighted to highlight the incredible talent and creativity here at the DCA, and we were happy to see so many entries for the 2nd Annual Holiday Door Contest! This year, one winner was selected as the best from each division, and those four winners competed for the honor of being named the agency winner.

Agency Winner:

GAL Sumter Office

“Little Drummer GAL”

In addition to a great door design, the Sumter office actually wrote new lyrics for the song “Little Drummer Boy” to reflect how Guardians ad Litem all across the state help neglected and abused children:

Come, they told me

A personal guardian is assigned to me

Finest advocacy services they will bring

Advocating for children like they are queens and kings

Visiting children at foster care or kins

Advocating for children until the very END

Advocating to get the children in an appropriate place

Making sure the children are provided for and safe

Guardians’ ears hear children over the grown-up noise

Playing drums loud for them and being their voice

Guardians advocate for children strong, tall, and true

Sworn before the judge to do all they can do

Rum pum pum pum pum

Rum pum pum pum pum

FCR Division Winner:

FCRD Hallway

“Twelve Days of Christmas”

It was a team effort that carried the day—er, 12 days—for Foster Care Review (only one door shown here for space reasons).

COC Division Winner:

Region B Office

“Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”

In true rock star fashion, Region B Santa couldn’t be contained, breaking free of the door to make space for all of his fans!

DCA Division Winner:

Rob Schaller

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”

Play the video below to see the interactive elements, including lights, music, and the lifting of “fog” that helped save the day.

Expanding Behavioral Health Services for Children

DCA Director Amanda Whittle, a member of the Medical Care Advisory Committee, is delighted to share that at the committee’s November meeting, the SC Department of Health and Human Services introduced new advisements that will increase the array of services for children’s behavioral health in South Carolina in 2024:

Intensive In-Home Services

SCDHHS is adding Intensive In-Home Services (IHHS) to the Medicaid State Plan to provide a broader array of care options along the behavioral health continuum as well as reduce spending on less empirically-supported out-of-home options with poorer long-term outcomes.

Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and Homebuilders are the two evidence-based practices that have been selected for implementation of IIHS for children and adolescents. The primary goals of IIHS include improved family functioning and keeping youth in their homes, communities, and schools, and out of trouble.

Crisis Stabilization Services

SCDHHS offered and awarded 13 South Carolina hospitals a total of $45.5 million to build specialized hospital-based emergency department units dedicated to behavioral health crises. The goal of this funding is to embed crisis stabilization services in emergency rooms for individuals experiencing mental health issues, thus reducing the need for both unnecessary stays and delays in hospital emergency rooms and inpatient psychiatric admissions.

Improving Child Death Reviews

In November, DCA Director Amanda Whittle, who also serves as the chair of the State Child Fatality Advisory Committee, began visiting with county coroners across the state, delivering re-enactment dolls and special child death review notebooks (provided by DSS) to help improve local child death reviews and data collection.

One of the recipients, Laurens County Deputy Coroner Patsy Canupp (pictured right with Director Whittle), said her county did not have a reenactment doll, and they are grateful for the resources.

KinGap Ceremonial Bill Signing

In November, Governor Henry McMaster signed S.380, the KinGAP bill, which allows SC DSS to create a Kinship Guardianship Program.

Kinship Guardianship is a judicially created relationship between a youth and a responsible adult that provides an exit to foster care as another permanency option when reunification with the youth’s parents or permanency through public adoption is not feasible.

Set to roll out in early 2024, the KinGAP program will mimic the state’s public adoption program and provide a permanent exit from foster care, while providing monthly financial supports to caregivers to help meet the needs of raising youth exiting foster care until adulthood.

Prior to the passing of this legislation, South Carolina was one of just 10 states that did not have a KinGAP program in place.

FCRD.SC.GOV

On December 1, the Foster Care Review Division’s new website launched, wrapping up a months-long project to bring all five DCA sites into the state’s new “Next Generation” platform, providing critical updates, a modern design, and continuity across the agency’s divisions.

NOTE: The address is now FCRD, not FCRB.

FCRD.SC.GOV also features:

• a calendar page for all FCRB meetings
• a list of vacancies by board
• easier access to forms and documents

We invite you to explore the site, and please make note of the new URL—and update your bookmark!

FCRD.SC.GOV

Volunteers ​needed!

Foster Care Staff Retreat

FCRD held its annual two-day staff retreat in December, focusing on the many professional accomplishments that were achieved as individuals and as a division, such as implementing and learning the new CAMS database system, transitioning from “Areas of Concern” to “Barriers of Permanency,” and now being fully staffed. Strategic planning for 2024 was also a focus of the retreat.

In November, the Division held in-person chair and vice chair training for all upcoming 2024 appointees. A virtual option will be held on January 5. 

Meet Alexiz T.

Photo credit: Mike Baker, 2023

Alexiz T. (born in 2009) loves to play video games, and his favorites are Fortnite and Madden. He loves going to school and his favorite subject is math. When he grows up he wants to be a famous soccer or basketball player. Alexiz has a huge fascination with exotic animals. He hopes to one day have a tiger.

For Alexiz, adoption means having a new family that takes care of him and treats him respectfully.

To inquire about adopting Alexiz, or any of the other Heart Gallery children, visit scheartgallery.sc.gov.

Welcome to our Newest Volunteer GALs

Wow! There were swearing-in ceremonies for 23 new and seasoned volunteers (reaffirming their oath). Congrats to all of you, and thank you! You are doing great work!

GAL Spotlights

The GAL Program thanks both volunteers and staff for all they do for the children of South Carolina!

Elizabeth Bryant and David McAlhaney attended the Berkeley County Residents Day at Cypress Gardens.

‘Tis the season for volunteering & celebrating

Thanks for our GAL recruiters who are out at community events across the state, sharing the good work of the GAL program, and increasing the ranks of our volunteers!

Lindsey Loparo attended the Lexington County Veterans Day Celebration.

GAL Pee Dee Regional Office held their holiday gathering,

complete with team building exercises and an optional ornament exchange.

GAL Sumter County Office sent in the photo from their holiday brunch including fun group activities and an important reminder about making time for self-care during the holidays!

New Year, New You.

Explore job opportunities now available with the DCA and see how they can help transform your life through truly meaningful work that transforms the lives of others.