Organization is seeking sponsors, funding for program to help child-care workers help kids

How you can help To contribute to the Nueces County Community Partners Board cookbook, donate an Easter basket or participate in the adopt-a-caseworker program, call 878-7552, 939-8647, 949-9818, (361) 384-2619 or (361) 319-6101.

AS a caseworker for Child Protective Services, Clara Trainer often dug into her own pockets to buy diapers, formula, clothing or shoes for abused and neglected children.
   Eleven years later, Trainer still helps children in crisis. Trainer, now a supervisor with the agency's Intensive Family Preservation Unit, is one of 12 members of a local group that plays Bunco together and several times a year donates items to children whose families have come under CPS scrutiny.
   Trainer's Bunco group isn't assigned to any particular caseworker. But the Nueces County Community Partners Board has linked churches, schools and businesses with 38 Child Protective Services caseworkers as part of its Adopt-A-Child Abuse Caseworker program.
   The nonprofit organization, whose mission is to form a partnership between Child Protective Services and the community, is seeking 46 more sponsors for its remaining caseworkers.
   "These caseworkers often see horrible things," said Kim Taylor of the Nueces County Community Partners Board. "They may come across a child who has no bed and sleeps on the floor. They can then come to their sponsor and see if they can find someone with a bed to donate."
   In addition to the Adopt-A-Child Abuse Caseworker program, the board also sponsors the Rainbow Room, a resource center at CPS offices that is stocked with emergency supplies, such as baby formula, infant care products and clothing, for children being removed from their homes and placed in foster care.
   The Adopt-A-Child Abuse Caseworker program helps supply what the Rainbow Room cannot, Trainer said.
   "We go into homes that may be filthy, where there are no cleaning supplies in the home, much less a washer and dryer," Trainer said. "In a lot of cases, these families have had their utilities cut off or are on the verge of having them cut off.
   "A few years ago we had one case where the children were going unsupervised to a nearby church and asking the nuns for food. And recently we found some children who weren't going to school because they don't have clothes, are embarrassed of what they do have and don't want to be made fun of. It's not that they don't have Tommy Hilfiger clothing. It's that what they have is very worn, soiled and tattered.
   "It's sad, but the parents may be in a hard situation too. They may be unemployed, disabled or in other circumstances where they are unable to bring money into the home. And then there are those cases where the parents may have the means but they choose to spend their money on drugs or alcohol. Whatever the case, children shouldn't be punished for their parents' wrongdoing."
   To help fund its CPS projects, the Nueces County Community Partners Board is publishing a cookbook filled with recipes contributed by local celebrities to go on sale in July. Restaurant owners, chefs, media personalities, pediatricians, car dealership owners, "anyone whose name would be recognized in the area," Taylor said, can submit a recipe. Deadline is April 15.
   The board is also sponsoring an Easter basket drive. Their goal this year is 750.