17 years ago, Kids At Risk Action presented a workshop at the fourth annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations in New York. Participants spoke to the severe lack of transparency, understanding, and a need for better answers for children in abusive homes. An African women stated that there was no word for child abuse where she came from. Child rape was a fact of life in the words of attendees from several developing nations.
People came from all over the world to learn how to make a difference in the lives of at-risk children. The conference audience was diverse, representing many nations. Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan was one of many internationally known speakers at the conference.
California’s Surgeon General, Nadine Burke Harris has declared ACES a public health epidemic and public-school crisis. Today the medical communities understanding of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and the value of a trauma informed approach to helping at risk children is much more promising – but we have to make it happen.
The workshop discussion around “Why Some Children Don’t Learn” was an example of how little our participants understood about childhood trauma and the lifelong changes that keep children from developing the skills and behaviors needed for a healthy and fulfilling life and the lack of healing resources for children suffering from severe trauma.
We spent the 90-minute session helping attendees understand the mental health and behavior issues of abused and neglected children and what resources they need to gain the coping and learning skills necessary to function in our schools, homes, and communities.
A primary goal of mine was to show how Post Traumatic Stress is common among abused & traumatized children and make a solid case for why educators, social workers, foster and adoptive parents, need more and better resources if they are to make progress in helping children succeed with friends and family, at home and in school.
I also worked hard to explain how important it is to be advocates not only for the children, but for the people dealing with abused and neglected children.
Too many teachers are leaving their field or transferring out of inner-city schools to suburban or private schools. The danger and difficulty of working with violent and unstable children is real and growing. School performance in the U.S. today from the double whammy of COVID and increased trauma children suffered during the lockdown (and not attending class).
Our schools are showing the results with high rates of failure and dropouts. Our communities are showing the results of high crime rates and the world’s highest rates of incarceration. California’s Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris has proclaimed Adverse Childhood Experiences a Public Health Epidemic and Public Schools Crisis in her state. Every state has the problem – Not just California.
Without support at the community level for programs and policies that support America’s institutions, continued exodus from these most important fields and resulting failure of the children they serve must be expected.
One of the workshop attendees told me afterwards that she had recently quit working in her chose field of social services because of recurring failure, and the lack of resources and the negative recognition given to her and her coworkers.
Her comment (rephrased) was that she could make three times as much money being a nanny for one child in New York (and be appreciated for it- my insight) than she could caring for a huge caseload of really needy children without having the resources needed to make a difference in their lives, watching them fail, and at the same time, be blamed for their lack of progress (it truly was a depressing story).
Her heart was genuinely with the children in need, but without support the burnout in this field takes a toll.
If you ever have the chance to visit New York,
take the tour at the United Nations.
It made me see the shared issues we have
and the good people working
to improve the lives of children everywhere.
Our tour was led by a bright young man from Uruguay who was able to give us the sense of history and evolution of the UN. The aura of cooperation and striving for a better world drift from the walls. At the same time there are many sorrowful examples of tortured people, eleven-year-old boy soldiers, murdered and raped children, and nations committing horrific violence upon their own innocent populations and their neighbors.
The need for an organization committed to mediating disputes in this world is so necessary. The violence that is so historic and common among us is painful to see. We are stuck with the latter; we can only hope and work for the former.
Be involved
speak for a child:
Contact your State Representative by phone and email
keep these issues in front of them.
Who represents me in the legislature?|Contact state house members|Contact state senators|Contact your member of congress| U.S. (National)
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
INVISIBLECHILDREN – KARA (KIDS AT RISK ACTION
“What we do to our children, they will do to our society”
(Pliny the Elder, 2000 years ago)
KIDS AT RISK NONPROFIT EIN: 510570258
