KARA Presentation Janesville CASA (heart of the matter)
Child Protection work is hard. Community CASA volunteers (Court Appointed Special Advocate) speak for abused and neglected children in County Child Protection.
Volunteer CASA Guardians ad Litem spend their days with abused and neglected children that have been raped, neglected, beaten, and tortured by other means.
Nontransparency in Child Protective Services (CPS) + Family Assessment vs. CPS investigation
Read more below to follow the conversation
about the absence of transparency in
Child Protective Services
How Child Abuse Impacts Your Community
How Child Abuse Impacts Your Community
Without help, most badly traumatized/abused children become troubled youth leading lifetimes as dysfunctional adults.
Repeated childhood trauma does cruel things to children. Things that never go away. Those things (behaviors/thoughts/self-harm/suicide) can be managed with help. Without help, depression, pain and sadness often become overwhelming.
Minnesota Child Protection News May 2024 Share these articles with media contacts,
lawmakers and other changemakers. Change won’t come without you.
KARA’s Google Ad Grant Initiative for CASA’s
The U.S. has 950 CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) organizations consisting of community volunteers trained as County Guardian ad Litems advocating for abused and neglected children in Court within Child Protection Services.
Sign up HERE for KARA’S free Friday updates Support KARA Programs Here KARA Maintains this site with the hope that this information will compel you to share it with media contacts, lawmakers and other changemakers. change won’t come without you. KIDS AT RISK NONPROFIT EIN: 510570258 INVISIBLECHILDREN – KARA (KIDS AT RISK ACTION Who represents me in…
New Child Fatalities Database (thank you Safe Passage for Children of MN)
WI Child Abuse Reporting April 1- May 9 2024
MN Child Abuse Reporting April 1 – May 9 2024 | INVISIBLE CHILDREN
This message from Safe Passage for Children of MN will make a difference in the lives of abused and neglected children. Please reach out to your State Rep Today (address finder in their email below).
We all care about the best interests of children. “We all know that – despite what everyone wants – right now, there are too many children
suffering from abuse and neglect.
CASA of Rock County’s Break The Cycle Luncheon
information from the CASAMN website about Guardian ad Litem volunteer opportunities, CASA CARES grants for Minnesota children, and updates on the program’s recent newsworthy events.
Below are KARA’s picks for the best blogs published recently by Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. KARA reports on the issues of invisible children These articles compiled by Former CASA Guardian Ad Litem Mike Tikkanen Signup For KARA’s FREE Friday Morning Updates All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children INVISIBLECHILDREN – KARA (KIDS AT RISK ACTION These articles and videos about child abuse,…
Mandated Reporters genuinely fear for their safety and reputation and regularly fail to report (or, “see”) horrific child abuse to avoid potential damage to themselves.
Is Child Protection Services (CPS) creating what it was designed to stop? KARA reports on the issues of invisible children This article submitted by Former CASA Guardian Ad Litem Mike Tikkanen Signup For KARA’s FREE Friday Morning Updates All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children INVISIBLECHILDREN – KARA (KIDS AT RISK ACTION This…
articles and videos about child abuse prevention and child protection
Today’s Safe Passage for Children of MN’s action request to keep children safe in Child Protection: A small effort with big dividends. Share this with your State Representative (find them here). On Monday, a group of us gathered at the Capitol to meet with key legislators about Minnesota’s child protection system. We shared the stories…
This is a synopsis of Education Week’s last 12 months of reporting on conditions in American schools today with attention to educating abused and neglected children. It’s a deep dive into what it means to be a teacher in America today.
Celebrating Minnesota’s CASA Guardian Ad Litem Progress
Google Fully Funded Initiative For
CASA’s & Service Providers
Mike Tikkanen (Executive Director) and Damon Kocina (Treasurer) smile for the camera as Kids At Risk Action receives the $38,884.00 grant from Edina Federated Women’s Club President Linda Larson on March 14th. We are so impressed with their club’s efforts and commitment to improving the community. For more information about this amazing group, please visit…
Currently, there is little information is available about an abused child’s safety when CPS makes the decision to investigate. “Family Assessment shouldn’t be the default. It should be the “alternative response” it was intended to be.
California’s Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris has declared Adverse Childhood Experiences a public health problem and public school crisis in her state.
These short videos capture the realities of child abuse.
Share them widely and more of us will know how to do more for kids in painful places.
ACEs
KARA’s New Linked In Group Guardian ad Litems Exchanging Learning & Ideas is gathering and sharing information from the 950 CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates) in the U.S. and similar child advocacy models around the world. Please share this with your child advocacy friends wherever they may be: Search for: Guardian ad Litems sharing conditions,…
Minnesota’s struggle to keep a strong CASA volunteer force advocating for abused and neglected children in the state has captured the interest of Naomi Schaefer Riley, author of NO WAY TREAT A CHILD and writer with City Journal (a national publication). Read her complete article here. Excerpt from Naomi’s article: “One major problem with child…
What should leadership look like in Child Protective Services? What should leadership look like in Child Protective Services? The CASA guardian ad Litem volunteer program motto is “For the Child”. The heart and soul of the CASA program is to give voice to the child in the institution of Child Protective Services (CPS). Being removed…
Professionalism In Child Protection “professionalize” the Guardian ad Litem role vs leveraging a both paid staff and trained volunteers
A COVID WAVE? (the double whammy of 2 years of ACEs on children and community)
America’s Crazy World of Child Protection (find your state here)
Lies We Tell Ourselves About Child Sex Abuse: the incidence of sexual abuse in child protection cases has been increasing over the years. The reported percentages for sexual abuse were 17.9% in 2014, 20.9% in 2015, 23.7% in 2016, 24.9% in 2017, and 26.4% in 2018
Finally removed from the home forever, but not healed. The invisible scars we carry remain.
Life with our painful childhood memories, triggered behaviors and habits in this world is terribly difficult to manage.
Healing from a broken past is difficult.
No more punishment please.
Mike Tikkanen’s Public Comments on the Guardian ad Litem Cost Effectiveness Analysis
for the Minnesota Guardian ad Litem Board Dated September 15, 2023
This report (the actual final report is posted below)
Kudos to Wisconsin for having the courage to track and post reports of child death and life threatening harm done to their youngest citizens.
This Wisconsin State Website provides a real time snapshot of life threatening incidents and child death in Wisconsin.
2023 Investigative Report on MN Children Killed
by Caregivers While in Child Protective Services
After years of turmoil caused by GAL management’s efforts to end the Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer program, Minnesota’s former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has been appointed to the GAL board.
Chief Justice Blatz attended the recent GAL board meeting where the vote was being taken to end the CASA program. She made observations and asked questions that prompted enough board member no votes to stop the elimination process.
What’s it like to be a CASA guardian ad Litem (child protection worker) unable to find safe housing and mental health services for the 14-year-old struggling foster boy in your caseload? This child’s self-harming and violent behaviors could change if there was help to manage behaviors triggered by childhood traumas. These children can go on…
Intake notes from County CPS
These are a tiny sample of County intake notes
social workers and guardians ad Litem are assigned each week;
Over 25 years ago the rest of the world (194 nations) decided that children have basic human rights and begin signing the International Rights of the Child Treaty. Under this document, children are to have the rights to education, safety and well being including not to be made soldiers, not to be enslaved).
America is the only nation that has not signed that agreement, largely because we still demand that southern states continue to militarize youth as young as eleven, through military schools.
Thank you, Former MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz, for your comments and questions at this board meeting. Your words enlightened board members of the need for an open and objective investigation into the CASA volunteer program in the effort to provide safety and stability to Minnesota’s abused and neglected children.
If I had committed the crimes parents perpetrated upon their own children in my CASA guardian ad Litem cases, I would be writing this from jail.
Understanding why children die violent death a the hands of their parents while in Child Protective Services (CPS) can save them (share this): Lawmakers address issues that people demand action on. Actions that will get them re-elected. This is all about invisible children (kids at risk that don’t have a voice at the State House).…
There is a political battle being waged over the elimination of qualified community volunteers in Child Protective Services. There are too many pieces of this puzzle to include in this article, but one piece must be addressed to determine if wrongdoing has happened in the drive to eliminate the Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers. KARA has sent two requests to Governor Walz Guardian ad Litem State Board members over the past few months requesting a conversation about their role in making this critical decision.
Repeated childhood trauma does cruel things to children. Things that never go away. Those things (behaviors/thoughts/self-harm/suicide) can be managed with help. Without help, depression, pain and sadness often become overwhelming.
KARA follows investigative reporting on child death and near death by caregivers while the children are known to CPS (Child Protective Services). Please send us links to the reports in your state and we will make them available to a larger audience.Parental Drug Use Killing Children in Pennsylvania at High Rates (investigative report)
These highlights on Family Assessment and Child Death from recent Star Tribune Child Abuse reporting (1, 2, 3) are the tip of the iceberg. Read to the end to get KARA’s historical perspective of how Child Protective Services (CPS) has evolved over the years and its current iteration.