Joining Together to Find Greater Strength

How an organizational merger led Joy Barrett to ‘think bigger’

BY LIISA RAJALA

HELPING NEW HAMPSHIRE’S KIDS realize their full potential has been the mission of Joy Barrett, CEO of the Granite State Children’s Alliance, since she made a conscious decision to switch careers in the early 2000s.

After roughly 15 years operating a computer software training business, Barrett had an eye-opening experience when she performed pro bono work, training adults served by nonprofit agencies providing workforce development skills.

“The adults I trained didn’t fully understand the opportunity (the computer software training) was going to give them in their life, for their potential to become more self sufficient. I remember at that very moment thinking I wanted to focus energy on prevention – I wanted to help kids be on the trajectory to reaching their full potential,” says Barrett.

Wanting to be more involved in helping others, Barrett moved into social services as the coordinator of the Economic Opportunity Center, a program of Southern New Hampshire Services, in 2004. And in 2007 she was named executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Nashua and Salem, where she remained for nearly eight years.

“It was incredibly satisfying. We had countless success stories of kids who were in challenging situations (but) because there was a caring adult in their life who believed in them, they succeeded,” says Barrett.

Big Brothers Big Sisters relies heavily on public support and donations. Over time, it became clear for Big Brothers Big Sisters services and programs to thrive, the four BBBS agencies needed to explore merging into a statewide organization.

“Even though we worked closely together as a BBBS Alliance, there was little consistency in our service delivery,” says Barrett. “We thought collectively we could serve more kids, particularly in the North Country, and invest more resources into recruitment and monitoring of matches to make sure kids were safe and benefitting from long and strong relationships.”

As expected, merging the BBBS agencies met some natural resistance.

“Rightfully so, people are very proud of their local organizations, and have such commitment to a certain region that sometimes it’s hard to let that go in order to take the next step,” says Barrett, who credits the merger into a statewide BBBS organization to the leadership in each of the four agencies and boards. ”The stars aligned,” a phrase Barrett often says. “It’s never just about a great idea, it also has to be the right time and with the right people involved,” she says. “It was important to bring us together so we would be a more resilient and stronger statewide organization, and in the end Big Brothers Big Sisters of NH is serving kids well; making communities stronger.”

With the elimination of her Nashua agency’s position, Barrett was encouraged to explore a leadership role at the Granite State Children’s Alliance (GSCA), a nonprofit organization representing the network of Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) in New Hampshire.

CACs serve as a child/family-friendly, victim-centered, neutral setting for joint investigations and forensic interviews of child victims of crimes involving sexual abuse and felony level physical abuse, and child witnesses to violence such as a homicide or a serious domestic assault. CACs in New Hampshire provide forensic interviews, family support and follow-up services to approximately 2,100 child victims and their families each year.

“I wanted to do something that would have a great impact on the wellness and resilience of children, and I found myself motivated by the transformation that was taking place in New Hampshire with child protection,” says Barrett, who has served as CEO since 2014. “It is a privilege to work on behalf of children and I am very proud that CACs remain dedicated to the tireless fight of assuring children and their families have a victim-centered CAC experience in a safe, responsive place to heal, survive and thrive.”

FILLING A SERVICES GAP

The Granite State Children’s Alliance operates four Child Advocacy Centers in NH while providing technical assistance and support to the other six CACs in the network.

When Barrett joined the organization, the CACs were limited in staff capacity and although CACs provided an essential service by conducting forensic interviews for child abuse investigations, many CACs were challenged to provide a higher level of post-interview case management.

“There are days that are very difficult for all our staff, especially now, but ... there’s a built-in resiliency and calling in wanting to be a part of this work.”

“We provided our forensic interview service but often then moved on to the next case,” says Barrett. “We started to look at child advocacy centers across the country – thinking about how we can move to a more expanded CAC model to better support children and their families.”

Since 2014, the CAC network has together made improvements and expanded services to provide the best supports for children and families. CACs have improved their coordination of referrals to ensure that children in these cases receive timely access to specialized medical attention and appropriate wrap-around services such as evidence-based mental health treatment.

In 2018, GSCA developed the first expanded service model in New Hampshire at the Greater Lakes CAC, where all healing services are available under one highly confidential roof.

“A child who visits the GLCAC for an interview will have a specialized medical evaluation and access to a mental health clinician for assessment and treatment,” says Barrett.

GLCAC also works with the local community mental health center and other clinicians to plan for the transition of children who need longer term mental/behavioral treatment for their trauma.

But service gaps outside of the organization were brought to light.

“With the high demand for service at the community mental health centers, it often creates waitlists for children,” says Barrett. “There simply is not enough professional capacity in the state for the demands for mental/ behavioral health support for children.”

Barrett and her colleagues remain committed to filling these gaps in services through its expanded service CAC model.

“As we realize the positive impacts of an expanded-service CAC, we are extremely motivated to replicate this model statewide,” Barrett says of the GLCAC model. “I believe if we increase investments at CACs for the mental/ behavioral health needs of child victims, there is an opportunity to mitigate the negative effects of their trauma and help children build resilience and assets for the future. I just keep my focus on strengthening our services with our team and partners so that we can help children heal, survive and thrive, while also embarking on prevention/intervention efforts to best protect children,” says Barrett.

NAVIGATING CHALLENGES TOGETHER

Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) respond to and address the needs of children and families who require services through referrals from local law enforcement, the Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and the Attorney General’s Office.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, they had to act quickly with their agency partners. The benefit of serving a small state is that professionals are familiar with working with each other and enjoy trusted professional relationships; helping to solve problems together.

“Very quickly, during this crisis, professionals from the Department of Health and Human Services, Division for Children Youth and Families (DCYF), CASA, Granite State Children’s Alliance, Waypoint, NH Children’s Trust, Department of Education, Office of the Child Advocate and others joined weekly calls where we would discuss some of the things we were seeing develop due to the pandemic and problem-solve to best protect children,” says Barrett.

With children at home due to stay-at-home orders, it quickly became evident that teachers/youth serving organizations were not able to have eyes on children. This created a drastic decrease in child abuse reports to DCYF, by more than 50%.

“That was alarming to all of us and to help GSCA moved into action and created some tips and resources for child-facing professionals to better assess the well-being of children during remote virtual learning,” says Barrett. On the Covid-19 tab of the KNOW & TELL website (knowandtell.org/covid-19/), adults can find helpful information about New Hampshire adults’ mandated reporting responsibilities – to KNOW the signs of abuse and neglect and how to TELL responsible authorities when a child needs help.”

Barrett also shared helpful resources to groups such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, as they moved their program to virtual matches for children and their mentors. “I wanted everyone to have these resources.” says Barrett.

Child Advocacy Centers have remained open through the pandemic as an essential service.

“We have the responsibility and duty to be available for children who need us.”

“There are days that are very difficult for all our staff, especially now,” says Barrett, “but if you asked anybody who works at a CAC, they feel working on behalf of children is a privilege, and they wouldn’t do anything else. There’s a built-in resiliency and calling in wanting to be a part of this work.”

Barrett’s license plate says, “think big.” She will tell you, “We need to think bigger! Kids are counting on all of us and if any state can do it, New Hampshire can.”