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Bedford’s Hickey ‘has huge capacity to care for kids’

Centerville native helps abused, neglected children

Beth Hickey, executive director of Your Safe Haven, holds a photo of Abdul Shaheed, one of the many youth she has worked with. Shaheed was murdered in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s. Mirror photo by Shen Wu Tan

BEDFORD — A black-framed picture of a troubled youth after he won a weightlifting competition sits close to Beth Hickey’s office desk at Your Safe Haven, the first comprehensive crime victim center in Bedford County.

The photo is of Abdul Shaheed, one of the many abused and neglected youth who Hickey has worked with during her nearly 35 years in social work. Shaheed was murdered in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s.

Hickey said she kept the photo of him after Shaheed commented on how he had no one to give the picture to after his victory.

She replied that he did have someone to give the photo to: her.

Hickey has worked with children and families in various capacities whether they were abused, neglected or delinquent since 1984. She took on the post as the executive director of Your Safe Haven in June 2017.

“Kids are my passion,” Hickey said, as she shared a memory of standing outside a guidance office at her college and looking through plastic “cubbies” of major options tacked on a wall.

“I picked up the one for social work. And I read the description, and I said, ‘That’s exactly what I want to do,'” she recalled.

Hickey attributes her interest in social work to the death of her father, who committed suicide early in her childhood. The Centerville native said while she had support to cope with his death, it still had a large impact on her, leading her to wonder about those who didn’t have support.

“It was a struggle. I was an angry, angry teenager,” Hickey said. “I had adults that stepped in and went the extra mile to help. Some kids don’t have that.

“And if we let those kids continue on with whatever issues are going on, they become adults that continue on. And we go into the jail and you trace it back, and as a child, there was something traumatic that happened — be it physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, a death, a separation, something,” she added.

Sharon McNamara, outreach education specialist at Your Safe Haven, has worked with Hickey for the last three or four years and attributes her career switch to social work to Hickey.

“The subject matter we deal with is very serious,” McNamara said. “And Beth brings a personality that kind of lightens the day at times. Sometimes you need that type of release. Her dedication to what she does is incredible. She is such an advocate for the kids.”

“Bedford County is lucky to have her,” McNamara added. “She’s personable. She has the ability to see the humor in life. She is someone who is the epitome of a social worker in that she wants to help.”

Mona Johnson, another person who worked with Hickey years ago in Harrisburg, also commented on Hickey’s genuine concern for people and her willingness to “bend over backward to help.”

“She has a huge capacity to care for kids,” Johnson said. “She didn’t just see them as numbers and shuffling kids through a juvenile system. She really cared about the kids she came in contact with.”

Hickey graduated in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Frostburg State University after spending two years studying social work earlier at a community college in Miami, Fla.

Before Your Safe Haven, Hickey worked as an investigator for Blair County Children, Youth & Families, who she joked “begged” her to join its staff.

In addition to a couple of places in Pennsylvania, she also worked with abused children and adjudicated juvenile delinquents in Florida and Georgia.

Hickey said when she retires, she hopes to be remembered for doing everything she could to help and to take care of those she calls “her kids.”

“When we provide services to victims — be it through children and youth, a delinquency program, the court with Your Safe Haven — every action has an impact,” Hickey said. “And I think if you respond with a positive action, that’s going to have a positive impact as well.”

“We might not see the impact of our helping and our intervention immediately,” she added. “We don’t know what our impact will be, but we have to try.”

Mirror Staff Writer Shen Wu Tan is at 946-7457.

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