Children don’t have a voice in the homes they live in, the media, or in the courts. Speak for an abused child in court and give that child a chance to be heard as a CASA guardian ad litem volunteer. Come learn about what it takes and how it works to stand up for a frightened abused child in the court system.
I visited Indiana a few years ago after the governor redirected funding from parents adopting special needs children after the adoptions had been completed (AFTER). Then governor mitch daniels directed those dollars to people most successful in dismantling services to abandoned children.
The complaint (new lawsuit) alleges that Indiana removes children from their homes to be placed into foster care at a “staggering rate — more than double the national rate” and then fails to keep them safe while in DCS custody “often placing them in inappropriate, unstable or overly restrictive placements; fails to provide necessary support services and medical and mental health care; and fails to provide meaningful case management.”
The National Poison Data System, researchers found more than 1.6 million cases of 10- to 24-year-olds attempting to kill themselves by poisoning from 2000 to 2018. More than 70% of the suicide attempts by poisoning were in young women.
U.S. youth emergency psychiatric hospitalizations and suicide attempts are escalating at alarming rates.
Among children between the ages of 5 and 17, annual emergency department encounters for suicidal ideations and attempts have more than doubled from 2008 (0.66%) to 2015 (1.82%)7. That equates to an increase of 35,266 encounters for SI or SA during the period of 2008-11 to 80,590 encounters from 2012-2015.
It turns out that investing in children and young families provides the highest return on investment a government can make.
It’s apparent how terrible many government investments are and it’s easy to see how providing skills and basic needs for children and you families are superior investments to giving the homeless bus tickets to other states so they would be a burden elsewhere.
current news about at risk children bringing transparency and attention to our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
KARA needs children’s issue videos for our traveling INVISIBLE CHILDREN Campus Program
Do you know someone with a compelling video story about child abuse, foster care, child protection or other at risk children’s issues?
Forward this to them and help Kids At Risk Action as we build awareness and support for the people, policies and programs that improve the lives of abused and neglected children.
Contact info@invisiblechildren.org with video project in the subject line
Annual teacher turnover is highest in Arizona (24%) and New Mexico (23%) Minnesota is 14th highest in teacher turnover.
After my workshop in New York at the United Nations Annual Youth Assembly, a line of ex social workers formed to tell me their stories of why they quit. Annual social worker turnover has been 20 to 40% for many years with individual agency rates as high as 65%.
Police officer turnover rates fall in the middle of teacher/social turnover rates (about 14%) but their suicide, divorce & substance abuse rates are significantly higher.
This is a great organization – they give FREE bikes to kids. They need volunteers this Saturday for the MN Ironman Bike ride.
Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) – 2155 — Special guest Mike Tikkanen — Friday, 06/07/2019
Direct URL:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/naasca/2019/06/08/stop-child-abuse-now-scan–2155
Tonight’s special guest is Mike Tikkanen from Hopkins, Minnesota, a returning NAASCA family member, founder and President of KARA (Kids at Risk Action), a non-profit action tank supporting people, policies, and programs that improve the lives of at-risk
Often, we look to the government to provide support in order to protect our children; however, the following news stories point to a disturbing trend of a lack of state action in preventing or even intervening in child welfare violations. In order to hold our governments accountable and to ensure the well-being of children, we…
This reporting over the last 45 days is a fraction of
the child self-harm & suicide in our communities today
AZ: Child-welfare cases are private. Does that protect the kids, or the state officials? (Commentary)
Arizona Republic – May 03, 2019
When news broke that a Maricopa woman had been accused of starving, pepper-spraying, and otherwise abusing seven adopted children, questions immediately turned to what the Department of Child Safety knew and when the agency knew it.
Please take a moment and connect to your legislator through this Safe Passage Link and let your legislator know you want children to have access to quality early learning. It only takes a few minutes and gets the message to your representative.
This program reduces child abuse and builds healthy children and communities (and we all want that).
Almost half of Canada’s youth correctional services is made up of Indigenous youth, but they represent less than 10% of the general population. Self-harming behaviors and suicide rates among Indigenous youth are 11 times the national average and are the highest in the world.
Today’s edition presented multiple articles (linked below) on at risk children and mental health.
It has taken some years to get here but it is apparent to this volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem that my state is waking up to the public health crisis of child protection and children’s mental health.
County Sees Drop in Child Protection Caseloads (by almost half) is the best news I’ve seen about child abuse since the Governor’s Task Force on Child Protection was formed in 2014.
Investing in social workers (adding 262 workers) and transforming the system means…
Being involved in child protection, you see people torture their children and it is traumatizing.
It’s gets worse if you witness the impact trauma and terror have on a child in your caseload and you watch school and peer failure and how a child’s life is destined to play out.
Unhealthy children become unhealthy adults.
ADVOCACY FOR CHILDREN DAY IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PARENTS, TEACHERS, EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS, AND OTHERS FROM ACROSS THE STATE TO STAND UP AND RAISE THEIR VOICE FOR CHILDREN.
May had her first child while living as a state ward in a group home when she was 16 and her second child when she was 18 before aging out of foster care.
Her mother was 17 when May was born.
Her grandmother was even younger when May’s mother was born. How old will her daughter be when she has her first baby?
Abused children suffer traumas that last forever and leave a child feeling devoid of love with an emotional void that cannot be filled by social workers, teachers or kind foster parents.
All girls want love in their life. A baby is love. The difference between that poor child and a preteen mom with no parenting skills, a drug problem and a violent boyfriend is about 8 years.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 8:30am – 4:30pm
Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, 2300 S 15th Ave, Minneapolis
Pay what you can.
STAR-Lite is a single-day, evidence-based training integrating neuropsychology, trauma healing and resilience, restorative justice, nonviolent conflict transformation, and …
The Red Lake massacre 13 years ago happened when 16 year old Jeff Weise was ignored and unable to find help after repeatedly talking about homicide and suicide and even posting these thoughts on social media. Within a year after the tragedy, a 3.5 million dollar mental health center was opened on the reservation.
A few years later, I interviewed a police chief from a town of 10,000 people. He spoke of the inability of his officers to provide anywhere near appropriate services or the level of service necessary for health and safety of children and young families in his community.
6.4 million American youth are diagnosed with ADHD. This article from ACEs Too High by Rebecca Ruiz makes clear the overdiagnosis of ADHD and underreporting of childhood trauma. This goes a long way in explaining the overdosing of youth in foster care with psychotropic medications and giant fines paid by big pharma for illegally selling these drugs to pediatricians for use on very young children.
Child abuse and child protection stories, statistics and policies in MN for January/February 2019
Reporting on child abuse and child protection stories, statistics and policies in MN for January/February 2019
Last year, 33 states held children and juveniles with mental illness in detention centers without any charges.
In 2001, nearly 2/3 of California local law enforcement departments did not have written guidelines governing the care of children whose sole caretaker had been arrested (Marilyn Moses, article in Police Chief, Sept 2005
Jerry Lee Curry is going to prison after proving that he could torture children in a wealthy progressive city right for ten years right under our noses.
A combination of about 100 police calls and child abuse reports were made to his home where his 3 young girls were beaten, raped, impregnated and tortured (not far from where I live).
America is the only nation on earth that is not a party to the international rights of the child treaty of 1989.
Children have no voice in the media, courts, homes and they can’t vote for legislation to keep them safe from harm.
Child rights in America today are the rights of women in 1917 (a personal possession – a slave or pet).
Only a fraction of parental violence and abuse against children is ever reported, a tiny percentage of that number is ever prosecuted and parents can legally withhold life saving medical care from their children in 27 states with some states putting only token resources into child protective systems leaving children trapped in a lifetime of violence, trauma and abuse.
Most child abuse cases in state courts meet the World Health Organization’s definition of torture “Extended exposure to violence and deprivation”.
We all look to the government to provide support in order to protect our children.
Eshanee’s reporting points to a disturbing trend of state inaction in preventing or even intervening in child welfare violations.
To hold our governments accountable and to ensure the well-being of children, more of us need to
contact our local politicians and policy makers and make our concerns known.
Children have no voice in politics, law or the media.
We must be relentless to effect change.
Be the Squeaky Wheel for Children
You can help vulnerable Minnesota children today by clicking and sending a message of support to your elected Representative and Senator regarding the following child welfare legislation.
Please help. It only takes a few minutes to make a big difference!
This is unlike any other volunteer experience. The impact you can have on a child’s life is tremendous. Currently, there are hundreds of children in Hennepin County alone, waiting for a GAL, their spokesperson, their advocate.
Thank you for your interest in — and for considering advocating for — the abused and neglected children in our community! We look forward to seeing you and please feel free to invite others!
Keeping children with their families through early intervention (a very big deal).
These bills at the State Legislature can help make that happen – Tune into this Safe Passage for Children webinar here for the update on the session and the intervention & support services being proposed to make it happen.
Only the worst child abuse is reported
Most child child trauma and torture is not discovered
Find your state & resources here;
Most child suicide is underreported & obfuscated
self-harming behaviors remain almost unknown except to those involved. Resources & your state here;
Most child suicide is under reported & obfuscated
Find your state, reporting & resources here…
KARA’s reporting is only a sampling of what should be reported
Most child suicide is under reported & obfuscated. Your state, resources & statistics here…
Most child suicide is underreported & obfuscated
self-harming behaviors remain almost unknown except to those involved… find your state here;
KARA (Kids At Risk Action) tracks news about at risk children – Find your state here…
KARA’s reporting is only a sampling of what should be reported
the great majority of child sex trafficking, trauma & abuse is never known.
37% of children overall and 57% of Black children are reported
TAt a Governor’s Task Force Oversight Meeting (on Child Protection in MN in 2014) the head of Hennepin County Commissioners Jan Callison showed genuine anger and concern when she found out* that Social workers weren’t available on weekends or evenings for abused and neglected children and that she directed the department to “fix it”.
Minnesota is averaging one child abuse murder a month* these past 18 months (thank you Safe Passage for MN Children).
Outside of short media pieces about a caregiver killing the baby, there is no record or institutional score card …
While the rest of the industrialized world is busy using public policy to make quality education, health & child care affordable for all, America has doubled down on commercializing prisons, group homes & schools and making health care a
This KARA post from 2005 suggests a significant improvement in graduation rates in Minneapolis schools. No Child Left Behind really did leave behind a great many children.
From our 2005 piece;
Roosevelt High school graduated 28% of its students last year—Minneapolis and other big city schools averaged graduation rates between 50% and 60% nationwide. 25% of graduating U.S. high school seniors are functionally illiterate.
Teachers and school administrators are accused of bad stewardship. That is like blaming the police for who sits in the back seat of a squad car. It’s not their fault.We are all in this together, or as Pliny the elder said 2500 years ago, “what we do to our children, they will do to our society”
What’s it like to be a first grade teacher frightened by an out of control little boy who kicks, punches or stabs classmates with pencils? Is the principal trauma informed? Are their teams of trauma informed teachers or sufficient mental health resources that can lessen the chances of expelling a seven or nine year old from the school?
KARA gathers news about abused abused children in America and around the world to provide a snapshot of Child Protection and how states and nations value their children.
Kids At Risk Action needs an aspiring writer/research to help gather and report on these stories.
If you are an aspiring writer/researcher with an urge to speak for your communities abused and neglected children,
Contact mike@invisiblechildren.org with REPORTING in the subject line.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
Minnesota’s abused and neglected children need our voices. Share this with your networks;
Recently some legislators and child protection agencies began theorizing that an underlying cause of caseload increases is screening families into the system not because of maltreatment, but as a way to get them scarce social services.
Statistically, this seems unlikely.
According to the Department of Human Services, last year counties screened in 45% of 84,000 maltreatment reports. Since the screen-in rate for states nationally is 60%, this suggests that nearly 12,000 Minnesota children are still being inappropriately denied child protection help.
A sobering story of her life-mate Tom at 78 years old still living with the pain of trauma and abuse inflicted upon him as a child and how the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) based programs are working to heal today’s suffering children.
I believe that the challenge addressed in this document has to do with ACES and other escalating problems in our society. Please let me know your thoughts.
Hector,
Sadly, the combination of American “bootstrap” culture, harsh individual freedom driven capitalism and defining success as “more money/winning at any cost” are denigrating social sciences/human services and anything else that gets in the way (including “science”).
Our institutions are paying a terrible price demonstrated by the cost of and underperformance in quality of life indices across the board (public health, public education, public safety).
This nation no longer leads the world in the things that make for a safe and livable society. We lead in teen STDs & pregnancies, prison populations, recidivism & incarcerated juveniles, poverty and in most financially rewarding areas of endeavor.
Add to that, the concurrent explosion of trauma related mental health problems (ACES) facing institutions service providers; educators, social and health workers, law enforcement, court and detention personnel are finding their level of training severely inadequate, jobs much more stressful and dangerous with a lack of success across most institutional venues.
The level of violence in hospitals, care & detention centers, foster homes and schools is high and growing and our reliance on Prozac like drugs in managing these problems bodes ill for any long term solutions (without treatment these problems grow exponentially)
Generational child abuse and trauma is the most misunderstood and powerful social disease present in this nation today and there are few signs of its abatement.
KARA (Kids At Risk Action) tracks current news about at risk children bringing transparency and attention to our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
Human trafficking is rapidly growing crime across Tennessee
In Tennessee alone, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 110 cases were reported in 2017. Those are the ones we know about.
Man accused of trafficking teens for sex in North Texas arrested by feds
A Texas man known as “Iceberg” was arrested for allegedly engaging in child sex trafficking, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in …
Ex-senator may get life in prison for child sex trafficking
ABC News
A former Republican state senator in Oklahoma was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison Monday on a child sex trafficking charge. U.S. District …
Former Oklahoma senator convicted of child sex trafficking sentenced to 15 years in prison – kfor.com
Former Oklahoma senator sentenced to prison for child sex trafficking – NewsOK.com
It is good to know that someone is advocating for raped and trafficked children.
If not for the research, reporting and press about priests molesting children, there would not be much attention or understanding of the trauma suffered by sexually abused children or their numbers.
It’s not clear how many children have been abused by priests in the U.S. these past 20 years, but a reasonable guess might be 50,000 to 100,000.
Using the higher total of 100,000 children abused over 20 years by priests means that about 5000 children a year have been molested annually.
Statistically, this number is a tiny fraction of the sexual violence & trafficking done to American children in their own homes by family members and caregivers each year.
Between 63,000 & 400,000 of the 7.4 million children reported abused in America each year have suffered sexual violence. Of the 50 children I helped remove from toxic homes as a volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem, about half of them had suffered sexual violence. One as young as two, several that were four and the rest under ten when their abuse started.
The U.S. rates badly among industrialized nations in how we treat and value children. America is the only nation in the world to not sign the International Rights of the Child Treaty.
Today’s post by Safe Passage for Children of MN shows how badly our state compares to the rest of the nation in protecting at risk children.
“What we do to our children they will do to society”.
This statement is as true today as it was 2000 years ago when Pliny the Elder made it.
All Adults Are the Protector of All Children
The miserable politics of rape at the highest level in our government are playing out today. Once more, sexual violence is in the spotlight as America’s second recent Supreme Court nominee (Kavanaugh) is being questioned about horrid behaviors of a sexual nature.
This topic has few friends. It remains under the surface until someone makes a painful accusation and the community accepts or rejects the accuser.
Our attention lately has been on the tens of million and hundreds of million dollar verdicts awarded to victims of church sanctioned child abuse (3 billion to date).