Local center offers therapy home for children in state custody

By Caleb Whisenant

When he was 8 years old, James’ mother sent him to Charleston, S.C., on a Greyhound bus to meet the aunt she said he would live with for the summer. However, there was no aunt waiting.

He lived on the streets for two months before he was picked up by City of Charleston police officers when they discovered him sleeping in an abandoned building. A week later, he was sent back to Huntington and placed in state custody when his mother could not be located. The state admitted him at Cammack Children’s Center.

Hazel Jacob, coordinator of direct care services and recreation, has worked at the center for 24 years and said she remembers the day James was admitted.

That was more than 20 years ago. James, 36, is now a former army captain who resides in Beckley, W.Va., Jacob has kept in regular contact with James throughout the years. She said she thinks his success is proof that the center is a valuable resource for children. (His name is being withheld by the newspaper because of privacy concerns.)

“For almost 25 years I have seen this place turn around the lives of children,” Jacob said. “Granted, every child’s story doesn’t turn out as well as James’ story did, but it does happen, and it’s those times that make the job worth it. When he came here, James was broken, emotionally. It was a tough rebuilding process, and there were many struggles for him all along the way, even after he left Cammack. But, he did it, and now he’s going strong.”

Cammack is a nonprofit organization founded in 1914. Executive director Anthony Warnick said the center houses 32 emotionally disturbed and delinquent youth ages 12 to 18. The center is licensed by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ Office of Behavioral Health and Social Services and is an affiliate of the United Way of the River Cities.

The center operates as a level II therapeutic group home. Warnick said the center is for children who require intensive services over an extended period of time and who require these services to be provided within a centralized therapeutic setting for maximum benefit.

“Some of the children here are in and out of the program fairly quickly, be it because they have successfully completed it or have proven to be disturbed beyond the capacity of the center to offer effective therapy to them,” Warnick said. “But, the average is six months. Sometimes you get kids who are lifers of the system, and there’s not really much we’re able to do to help them. We can offer job skills training, something we hope will help them once they leave us, but there’s never a guarantee.”

Funding for the center comes from multiple sources. Of the organization’s $2.1 million budget for 2009, $35,000 was contributed by the United Way of the River Cities. The rest of the center’s funding came from the state and federal governments and private donors.

Warnick said privacy is one of the administration’s biggest concerns. He said every child in the center’s care is there because of sensitive personal issues and that confidentiality helps to ensure successful completion of the program.