MISSION STATEMENT:

The Mission of the Comal County Child Welfare Board is to support the victims of child abuse and neglect; ensure that the needs of Comal County children in foster care are met; and educate the local community regarding these issues.

GOALS:

Our overarching goal is to meet the needs of abused and neglected children in Comal County so they may heal from previous trauma, improve their self-confidence and self-image, achieve permanency, increase academic achievements, improve their ability to manage their behaviors, lower emotional distress, improve health, and improve the physical environment in which they live.

Our principal objectives are to provide for children’s unmet needs and focus our community’s attention on what is happening to children in Comal County. Each of our programs is designed to achieve these outcomes.

The What:

The Comal County Child Welfare Board makes every effort to provide financial assistance to children and their families who are working with Child Protective Services when no other funding is available. We partner with CPS caseworkers and community agencies to identify when a child needs our help.

What We Do

(and why what we do is so important)

The Why:

Children in foster care need safe, stable, and loving homes in which to heal and thrive while the courts give their parents the opportunity to improve their protective capacities. Most children also need new items to replace personal items that were left behind, and many need new every-day items that they never had before. Often children who are removed from their homes have little, if any time to pack personal belongings. Many removals are time-critical crisis situations, causing children to enter the Child Protective Services system with nothing more than the clothes they are wearing at that time.

When removed from their homes, some children are fortunate to have Kinship Caregivers (family members or family friends) who agree to provide them with a temporary safe and stable home. More often than not, these kinship caregivers struggle financially to meet the unexpected needs of the child they agree to care for.

In 2024, the Comal County Child Welfare Board spent over $56,000 helping Comal County children and their placements by purchasing items and services that they need to ensure a safe placement and quality of life.

A broad summary of some of these essentials follows:

  • Beds and bedding

  • Safety items for the home including fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, door alarms and cabinet safety devices

  • Infant and toddler care items such as car seats, diapers and hygiene supplies

  • Apartment rental assistance

  • Therapy not covered by Medicaid

  • Band and orchestra equipment

  • Sports and therapeutic camps

  • School supplies, backpacks and clothing

  • Items for parent/child visitation room

  • Birthday cards & gift cards

  • Funds to supplement Christmas Campaign donations

Child Welfare Board and United Way of Comal County:
Watch this video to learn more about our programs and how we partner with other organizations such as Carrying Hope and the New Braunfels Foster Closet.

Video Block
Double-click here to add a video by URL or embed code. Learn more

SUCCESS STORIES:

Thanks to the support of the CCCWB, three children were successfully placed in a safe and loving kinship home with their grandparents after receiving essential bedding.  This critical assistance allows the children to transition out of an emergency shelter and into a stable family environment, ensuring their comfort and well-being.  This support highlights the vital role that CCCWB plays in helping us keep children connected to family and out of institutional care.

The role of Department of Family & Protective Services (DFPS) Family Based Safety Services is to maintain children in their homes by strengthening the ability of the families to protect their children.  The goal is to keep children in their home vs removal and placement in foster, kinship, or institutional care, if possible. CCCWB has been able to assist in this effort in many instances by providing beds/bedding, home safety items, assistance with emergency housing, utility assistance and much more. 

Other successes in which the CCCWB played a role:

  • Medical equipment/services for children in care such as a watch for a youth that allows him to take responsibility for his insulin dosage, noise cancelling earphones for autistic children, and assistive devices for deaf kinship placement

  • Experiences that allow for some normalcy for children in care, such as summer camps, classes, and visits for siblings living in separate placements

  • Emergency housing to prevent children and families from becoming homeless or living in an unsafe environment

  • Efforts to make the home or placement safe and comfortable for the children and families through utility assistance, pest control, repair or replacement of a/c units, and home safety items

  • Assistance to youth aging out of the system with a laptop, driver’s education training, a bicycle for transportation to work, financial assistance for paramedic or other career training, and basic items for independent living

  • Support for kinship placements through day care assistance, transportation vouchers, home safety items and caregiver CPR and First Aid classes

Meet the Team

  • Matthew Eckman

    President

  • Laura Linhart-Kistner

    Vice President

  • Thomas Isaacs

    Treasurer

  • Laurel Jensen

    Secretary

  • Bethany Benson

  • Rose Latham

  • Laci Bird

  • Erin Valkner

  • Michelle Schmitz

  • Brandy Russell

  • Jennifer Martin

  • Craig Christopherson

  • Jennifer Janis

WHO WE ARE:

The Comal County Child Welfare Board is a non-profit 501(c)(3), all-volunteer board, appointed by the Comal County Commissioners Court. Our budget is funded solely from donations and grants. Our Board is governed by 7-15 Comal County residents who share a passion for protecting children from abuse and neglect and assisting the child victims to heal.