CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Officials with the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia want to keep re-uniting families in West Virginia that have previously been affected by substance abuse.
On Tuesday, judges and officials spoke before lawmakers and asked for funding for the Family Treatment Court, which gives parents a chance to get back to their children after abuse or neglect cases took place.
The program currently has 13 courts that serve 19 counties in West Virginia. Last year, there was some uncertainty whether the program would be funded for 2026 until $1,162,038 was awarded by the federal Public Defender Services’ Impacting Child Abuse and Neglect (iCan) grant program.
Officials are looking for $1.4 million from lawmakers to continue operations and add at least two more courts, with one potentially coming to the eastern panhandle.
“This is a program that allows the court to essentially be a problem-solver,” said Chief Justice Haley Bunn. “We all know the issues of child abuse and neglect and families being torn apart by substance abuse. This program really works. The data shows it.”
Bunn and others gave legislators a presentation on the House floor Tuesday, but for the most part, they let the FTC success stories do the convincing.
Micayla Evans graduated from FTC in Nicholas County in 2022. She says the FTC helped change her life and it needs to be funded.
“As somebody in addiction, you struggle with going back to those places. Those were the bad people when we were at our lowest. But when you build something like this and you put the right thing in it, that’s a safe space for us to come back to and that’s what helps heal your communities and that’s what helps heal us,” Evans said.
Evans said she started using at eight years old and was a full-blown addict by middle school. Thanks to the FTC, she is now sober and has been reunited with her seven-year-old daughter.
She says she couldn’t have gotten on the straight and narrow path without the judges and FTC workers.
“They taught me not just how to navigate being a parent, but they taught me how to navigate being an adult,” Evans said. “They helped me figure out what I wanted for myself and what I wanted to teach my daughter. The main point behind me wanting to teach her anything is that she can overcome whatever happens, and it’s because of programs like this that we have the ability to do that.”
Evans is now very active in her community and serves as a peer recovery coach for Camden Family Health. She says every time she has a community event to work; she lets her daughter tag along.
“I take her along with me because statistics show that without programs like this and without certain interventions, it’s very easy for her life to end up the same way,” she said.
Jessica Stowers graduated from the pilot group in Boone County under former U.S. Attorney Will Thompson. She was an addict for 20 years and has three children: one in their 20’s and two teenagers.
Stowers’ breaking point was when her mother called CPS because of how bad the addiction was affecting the children. She says when she got to FTC, the coordinator told her exactly what she needed to hear.
“She told me it’s time to pull your big girl panties up and go to work. And that’s what I did with her help,” Stowers said. “I had never had someone dismiss all the shame and the guilt and look at me and say, ‘Look, we know you messed up. We’re here to help you.”
“There was a whole treatment team of people that just wanted to love on me and I didn’t even know how to accept that,” she continued.
Stowers has been sober for six years and now works on a treatment team for the Public Defender’s Office. She also sits on the treatment team for the Boone County FTC.
FTC graduate Phillip Leone also spoke in the House chamber. He says anyone struggling can get help.
“Just know that it’s never too late and anybody can do it,” he said.