politics. "Their participation in this state program has become
a platform for [them] nationally," he said.
In 1984 the
federal Department of Health and Human Services gave Illinois
$50,000 to inform child-welfare officials in other states about the
One Church–One Child program. This grant, paired with the
subsequent award of $100,000 from the Ford Foundation, helped the
Illinois staff launch a dissemination program that has spread the
One Church–One Child approach to 26 states and the District
of Columbia. Representatives of these spinoffs met in Orlando in
1989 for the third annual One Church–One Child national
conference.
Gordon
Johnson will send his training staff only to those states in which
his cabinet-level counterpart makes a firm commitment to the
program. With this commitment tendered, he dispatches Janis Forte
and Gary Morgan for a three-day session designed to train state
adoption staff. The carefully honed training packages include
detailed information: diagrams for seating in assembly halls along
with instructions to staff about the logistics of
meetings—what kinds of equipment are needed, even down to the
number of rolls of tape to have on hand. The sessions usually
conclude with a press conference introducing the new program.
The results
have varied. In some states, the ministers have not been able to
establish the kind of rapport the Illinois ministers have attained
with agency personnel. In others, the effort has flagged for lack
of guidance from the state agencies, although Forte and Morgan have
been generous in telephone "hand-holding."
THE
PROGRAM IS FIRMLY INSTITUTIONALIZED
Meanwhile,
back in Illinois, One Church–One Child is facing some
changes. The board may have to forge new relationships with a
different group of officials in the DCFS. Governor Thompson, who
championed the alliance between the state and black churches, has
decided not to run for reelection, and his successor will have a
different cabinet and, possibly, different priorities.
Yet, whatever
the composition of state government, Gordon Johnson can foresee no
real threat to the survival of the program. First of all, he noted,
One Church–One Child is a corporate entity, not an agency of
state government. Furthermore, he said, it has tremendous momentum
as well as friends in the state legislature and the private sector,
and it has a track record that should insulate it from political
fluctuations.
Against these
external changes, some internal changes are afoot, which may
somewhat alter the priorities of One Church–One Child. As Dr.
Hall's term as president of the board came to an end he called on
the older generation on the board to relinquish leadership to
younger clergy.
Among those
who have recently joined the board is Father John