KARA appreciates reader insights and we reprint the best ones. Here today from A.R mcFarland and my response (below)
Your anguish at the pain and suffering of children is laudable and this site great. And these hearings only show the safety net is torn and clearly failing children, isn’t time to broach the subject of parenting while asserting the “rights of the Child?”
A.R.,
Thank you for the kind words and very good question – it gets to the heart of what KARA is.
KARA is the voice of abused and neglected children removed from their homes* & this editor tries hard to tell their stories and report on the people, policies and programs that impact their lives.
Time and resources in a small nonprofit require outside volunteer effort to accomplish this goal with any regularity or depth. Thank you Century College for continuing to include Kids At Risk Action in your volunteer program.
To your point A.R., I will work at putting more attention to the subject of parenting. We know that parenting skills don’t come from the stork & our community needs to better appreciate the value of healthy children.
Unfortunately, our communities are more willing to put resources and attention to dealing with unhealthy children than building healthy children.
Kids At Risk Action is very grateful to and supportive of organizations that concentrate on improving the lives of at risk children through better parenting, more attention to improving the lives of young families and helping (like Prevent Child Abuse MN) adoptive and foster parents.
The sadness and pain children and families experience due to generational child abuse can’t end until the voices of abused and neglected children are heard by a larger public and their message to legislators is loud enough to force them to listen and do the right thing through better policies and programs.
That being said, if you or any other concerned KARA reader will volunteer to fund or commit to the work of researching and reporting on parenting for KARA, the answer is yes.
We want to do more.
*90% of the 6 million children reported to child protection each year in America are screened out. 10% make it into child protection services.
This 10% represents horrific over the top cases of child abuse that must be seen and understood by the rest of us before meaningful change can impact the institutions ruling the lives of at risk children.
