Yay you Jess! Glad the support helps.

Is there some reason you don't want to get social services involved? Previous icky experience? Concern it might actually escalate the situation? Local politics?

I know from my years in pastoral work that getting social services into the picture can go any of lots of directions, so I kind of hate to suggest it unless there are no other viable options...or unless the law mandates it. One of the NICE things about being an anonymous forum participant is that I'm freed from my status as a mandated reporter *WHEW*. I could tell a number of stories where that mandate hung over my head like the Sword of Damocles :-(.

However, I also have a few really good stories to tell about my county's agencies. Like I said, it's always a very mixed bag. So if you have knowledge about your local situation that makes you ultra hesitant to move in that direction, I can sure empathize.

How about the types of helping places I mentioned in my other post? In addition to Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services, the United Methodist churches have good social services structures in place in many locations. These three denominations all have very strong helping/social justice mandates in their teachings, where the "evangelism" pressure should be far lower than in some other groups/denominations. (If that's a concern for you.)