|FOR SALE| Your Children -- Paterson: Contracting social servicesa risky bet, Huge U.S. firm taking over back-to-work programs for the disabled

Paterson: Contracting social services a risky bet
Huge U.S. firm taking over back-to-work programs for the disabled

Jody Paterson
Times Colonist

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimesc...1c8a60225e&p=1

Friday, September 21, 2007

For better or worse, the bulk of B.C.'s back-to-work programs for people
with disabilities are now under the control of a large, aggressive
American corporation.

The ink is barely dry on the Aug. 3 agreement that saw the sale of the
local company that has run the programs up until now -- WCG
International -- to Arizona's Providence Service Corp. So it's much too
soon to speculate whether clients will notice any difference, or to
assume that it's automatically a bad thing when one more big U.S.
company takes over yet another aspect of B.C.'s human services.

But man, I get cold shivers down my spine when I think about how easily
British Columbians are giving this stuff up, all of it without a whisper
of public debate. Providence in particular is a heavy-duty acquisitor of
government social-service contracts, and delighted to be gaining its
first foothold in Canada.

Providence bought WCG less than a month after the Victoria company had
secured the better part of $18 million in contracts with the Ministry of
Employment and Income Assistance. Of the eight contracts awarded in B.C.
for services to people with disabilities, WCG secured four of the most
lucrative ones -- Vancouver Island north and south, the Fraser Valley
and northern B.C.

WCG has run welfare-to-work and the Triumph disability program for
several years now, so no surprise it got the contracts. First hired by
the New Democrats in the mid-1990s to get people off welfare and back to
work, the company has continued to do very well under the Liberals.

It's difficult to gauge the success of the venture overall, given that
the only absolute measurement is whether fewer people are receiving
welfare. We don't know if their lives have been improved because of
that, or if they managed to maintain whatever job was found for them.
External factors -- a booming economy, for instance -- complicate things
even more.

So all that can be said with certainty about this past decade's efforts
is that 230,000 fewer British Columbians are on welfare now compared to
1995, and that companies like WCG have played a key role in that.

That our streets, hospitals and jails are now overflowing with people
who are no longer receiving welfare -- well, that's a subject for
another day. For now, let's stick to the sale of WCG, and what it means
to have a U.S. monolith now calling the shots in great swaths of the
province.

Providence founder Fletcher Jay McCusker was running for-profit reform
schools when he "saw an opportunity" in the mid-1990s to expand the
business.

Governments throughout the U.S. were losing interest in providing social
services, but in many cases were required by federal law to continue the
work. Meanwhile, social need was growing. For the private sector, those
factors pointed the way to a "recession resistant" industry, notes the
Providence Web site in its section for investors.

Providence now has a workforce of more than 7,000 operating a
soup-to-nuts list of social services in 37 states. The purchase of WCG
marks Providence's first foray into work programs for people with
disabilities, but its other offerings run the gamut: probation services;
domestic-abuse counselling; foster care; parole supervision; child and
youth behavioural programs. Florida's entire child-protection system is
now run by Providence, under a contract the company touts to potential
investors as "economically insulated."

In the topsy-turvy world of profiting from human misery, worsening
economic conditions are actually "market drivers" for companies like
Providence. There's a financial interest in maintaining poverty and
suffering.

With all the social problems the U.S. is experiencing, that means
there's nowhere to go but up. The emerging industry that Providence
defines has the potential to thrive in times of economic downturn.

And if two years in a row of "double-digit returns" aren't enough to
convince wary investors of that, Providence offers a grim array of
statistics to verify the growing dependency on its services. More than
40 million Americans now living in poverty. Almost five million adults
released every year on parole. Two million children needing protective
care. Half a million kids in foster care. High-school dropout rates at
33 per cent and rising.

The company adds that it is "further driving revenue growth by expanding
into select geographic markets, including Canada."

We're a prime market, as it turns out -- lots of "liberal benefits" for
job training and government interest in offloading the provision of
social services.

Do we want to go in this direction? Is there even time to ascertain that
before all is lost?

Providence is voraciously expanding its empire by buying up businesses
like WCG and signing management contracts with not-for-profits. In an
age when bigger is always assumed to be better, each acquisition
positions Providence to snap up even more government contracts.

"Most of our competitors are small, local, not-for-profit kind of United
Way agencies. This has historically been very parochial -- that is, they
are interested only in their community and providing services to their
community," McCusker said in a recent interview with the Wall Street
online magazine TWST.com.

"The more we do, the more credible we become with the state procurement
people."

He's right. And it really scares me.


© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007





CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...