a good friend has had her children placed in temporary care and they are just givving her the runaround. now they are going to give the dad custody

It would help to know why child protective services intervened and removed the children from your friend's care. One would assume it was for a fairly serious reason. Once you know why the children were removed, help your friend try to resolve whatever personal issues she may have, to help her get the children back. At the same time, she is well advised to consider hiring a family lawyer to help her with the case in an attempt to fight to ry to get the children back with her. Good luck!