Washington, D.C. – Rep. Heath Shuler helped secure a $300,000 grant to the Cherokee Court Team for Maltreated Infants and Toddlers to provide better legal and social services for children and families.
The Justice Department awarded the money to Zero to Three, which sets up multidisciplinary teams led by juvenile court judges and child-development specialists to help infants and toddlers escape abusive situations and find better homes. Judge Matthew Martin, associate judge of the Cherokee Court, presides over such a team that serves communities in the Qualla Boundary in both Swain and Jackson counties.
“We need to do everything we can to help neglected and mistreated children, especially very young ones,” said Rep. Shuler, D-Waynesville. “This mistreatment causes developmental delays, which are more likely to lead to higher rates of arrests, drug and alcohol abuse, and welfare dependence.”
The Zero to Three Program has been shown to reduce the number of times maltreated children are moved from one foster home to another while providing better health screenings and kinship placements. Rep. Shuler requested the funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the Department of Justice.
American Indians suffer a higher level of maltreated children than other groups in North Carolina. In Swain County, 55 percent of the substantiated cases of maltreated children were American Indians, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data.
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