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CAS Directors Needed

July 1, 2011 permalink

Huron-Perth CAS, taken over by the ministry in October, is recruiting board members so that it can return to autonomous governance, and get out of reach of the ombudsman, in September.

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Huron-Perth CAS recruiting board members

Part of transition to becoming locally run once again

The Huron-Perth Children's Aid Society is recruiting board members as it continues a transition to being locally run once again this September.

"The agency is now moving forward and we're formed a committee of citizens from both counties who have agreed to take on the task of recruiting 14 potential board members," interim supervisor Larry Marshall said Thursday in an interview.

Former Huron-Perth CAS board chair Marie Parson is leading the advisory committee, whose mandate is recruit and recommend potential board members.

The committee will be recruiting this month and interviewing candidates in August to have the board in place for September.

The board's bylaw calls for 14 members. Marshall said there is not a set formula for representation from the two counties.

"We do try to get a good cross-section from both counties," he said.

Marshall said the Children and Youth Services Ministry's plan is to hand over responsibility for running the Huron-Perth CAS to the new board this fall. One of the board's first orders of business will be to hire a new executive director.

Marshall, who works for the Youth and Children's Services Ministry, took over in January as interim supervisor. He succeeded Vince Tedesco, who was appointed interim leader in October 2010 after Children and Youth Services Minister Laurel Broten fired Huron-Perth CAS executive director Tom Knight and dissolved the board of directors.

Broten stepped in after Knight and board chair Vince Judge held a news conference to announce the agency would lay off 125 staff and close its doors Dec. 15 due to a lack of funding. The agency had $870,000 in past debt and was expected to run a deficit of $1.3 million for 2009-10.

Before he was let go, Knight said the Huron-Perth CAS was one of the lowest-funded CAS agencies in the region. Its 2010-11 budget of $17 million was about half the size of some similar-sized CAS agencies.

Marshall's task was to lead a review of how the Huron-Perth CAS delivers its services and the transition to board governance.

Tedesco was in charge of a financial review of the organization.

The Huron-Perth CAS serves about 450 families a month and conducts more than 1,600 abuse investigations annually. There were 200 children in its care.

People interested in becoming a board member are asked to visit the Huron-Perth CAS website site at www.h-pcas.ca to see eligibility criteria and contact Angela Simpson at 519-271-5290, ext. 2398, or by email at angelasimpson@h-pcas.ca.

Source: Stratford Beacon Herald

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