COVID & Child Abuse in Minnesota
The Covid-19 pandemic is keeping children locked in toxic homes in Minnesota -Too many fostered youth are aging out of care – We need more forever families for our fostered youth today.
COVID-19 Impact on Child Welfare in Colorado
Calls to Colorado’s child abuse hotline fell during coronavirus, but harm to kids likely didn’t – COVID-19 is Stressing Colorado’s Child Welfare System -A growing number of Colorado children have lost a caregiver due to COVID
April is Financial Literacy Month (Fostered/Adopted Youth Invited)
Financial Literacy and Grant Program: The KARA financial literacy program is a place to learn, discuss and ask questions, find meaningful guidance and help teenagers and young adults start their financial journey off on the right path. Join our monthly peer group discussions about personal financial issues and real-world financial tools, seed funding, and problem-solving for each participant.
Child Abuse and Child Protection Stories & Statistics Arizona & Arkansas
Child Abuse and Child Protection Stories & Statistics Arizona & Arkansas
Politics & Children – A Zero Sum Game
A recent MN Governor ended subsidized daycare in the state – the waiting list went from 34 families to 7000.
At the time, two percent of MN children were enrolled in high quality early childhood education programs- the national average was 25% and MN had the lowest rate among the 38 states that offer the programs.
Cutting the pie smaller for children is destructive, leads to failing students and schools, troubled communities, and the highest crime rates in the industrialized world.
COVID IMPACT ON AT RISK YOUTH
Introduction This report was submitted by Business Analytics Student Michelle Kocins at Cambrian College Support KARA efforts reporting on child abuse & trauma during COVID here. To download this study as a pdf, click here. Analysis of Child Abuse in the U.S and Emerging Trends due to COVID-19 Michelle Kocins KARA at Invisible Children Business…
Virtual Child Advocacy Week in MN (Making a difference quickly & effectively)
Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota wants you to join them in making laws that keep at risk youth safe. Their approach is a quick call to your State Legislator. Helpers from Safe Passage make this easy for those who have not done it before. I really does make a difference. Click Here to learn how to help!
Carjacking Explained
Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans and other major U.S. cities experienced over 600% more carjackings in the last two years.
These are the reported cases. Many car jackings were violent – most of them committed by juveniles.
Free College Tuition For Fostered – Adopted Children
Minnesota’s Free Foster Care College (starting fall of 2022).
Here are recent positive developments in support of free & low cost college for foster and adopted youth;
Nineteen states have at least one Statewide student aid Promise Program
Federal programs for foster/adopted youth in all states
Child Care – Brutal Truths & Best Practices
CHILD CARE COSTS MORE THAN COLLEGE TUITION IN 34 STATES
Free Financial Literacy Program for MN’s Fostered & Adopted Youth
Too Many Youth aging out of foster care don’t have the skills to make it in our community. 80% of them go onto lead dysfunctional lives.
To fix this, KARA is launching a FINANCIAL LITERACY PEER GROUP program that will give at risk youth the tools, training, and opportunities they need to succeed.
CHILD WELLBEING NEWS FEB 11-18 2022
(State By State + International) KARA’s Free Friday Morning Real Story E Updates KARA SOCIAL MEDIA KARA Signature Video (4 minute) Child Welfare In the News is a collection of child abuse/wellbeing news by the CHILD WELFARE INFORMATION GATEWAY. KARA has compiled these stories for the week of Feb 11-18 2022.
Child Protection or Child Endangerment?
Child Protection or Child Endangerment? This article from Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota mirrors my experience as a CASA volunteer guardian ad litem. They are investigating 80 child murders by caregivers in MN since 2015.
Making Child Protection Work (it takes a village)
The CASA volunteer guardian ad litem program provides a voice for a frightened child in the child protection system. Children removed from their homes become Wards of the State. Through the eyes of a child being in child protection is like being a cog in the wheel of a big machine. Delivered from one provider to another, many foster children them have multiple foster homes because of unaddressed (under-addressed) mental health and behavior problems.
Discover The Guardian Ad-Litem Program For Abused & Neglected Children
Discovering the CASA volunteer guardian ad-Litem program can make your community a happier and safer place for abused and neglected children.
Valuing Children & Public Health (school shootings)
More than 285,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine -America has had 57 times as many school shootings as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom all combined.
Other People’s Children Are Not Society’s Problem – Senator Ron Johnson
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is not alone in publicly stating the expensive and mean spirited political platform
Other People’s Children Are Not Society’s Problem – Senator Ron Johnson
Child Sex Abuse and Trafficking Statistics and Stories
Black girls are 49% of trafficking victims even though they only make up for 19% of
Sex Trafficking & LGBTQ Children & Youth
LGBTQ+ youth and young adults are at high risk of being trapped into modern day slavery. Sex Traffickers target vulnerable youth who lack support, financial resources, or those who have experienced extreme abuse in the past.
Child Trafficking: Singular Story and Global Perspective
Human trafficking is the third most profitable criminal activity nationally and in the world. It is superseded only by the trafficking of weapons and drugs. Human trafficking generates $32 billion in the US alone annually and $150 billion globally. While sex trafficking is largely associated with girls and women, young boys are just as likely to be…
BY ANY MEASURE
COVID is punishing AT RISK CHILDREN at a rate and severity never seen before. How can we help them? Tracking and reporting issues of violence, trauma, neglect and abuse of children is not transparent or robust – it never has been. Few people are aware of the terrific impact trauma has on children and how…
MN Has 3rd Highest Sex Trafficking Cases in U.S.
January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month Odds are, you know somebody sex trafficking has impacted. Minnesota has the third highest number of human trafficking cases in the U.S. annually. The Twin Cities have the 13th highest rate of child prostitution. Common targets of sex traffickers are abused & homeless children and people with addiction, and mental…
Child Rights, Religion & the United Nations Rights of the Child Treaty
America is the only nation on earth that is not a party to the international rights of the child treaty of 1989.
Domestic Violence Around the World
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WINTER 2021 The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that we are seeing a horrifying global surge in domestic violence all over the world and is urging leaders to include protective measures in their pandemic plans. The depth and scope of violence against children was a terrible problem before the…
Grace’s Story (Thank you ChildrensRights.org)
Grace, a Black 15-year old who was sent to a juvenile detention center for failure to submit schoolwork.
In an email to Grace’s caseworker, her teacher stated that Grace was “not out of alignment with most of my other students.”
Tens of thousands of children have struggled to adjust to the online learning environment the coronavirus created. ProPublica cites 15,000 high schoolers in Los Angeles alone failing to log in or complete schoolwork. Yet, a judge presiding for Oakland County Family Court Division, ruled in May that not completing schoolwork violated Grace’s probation.
It’s impossible to determine the frequency of cases like Grace’s, but one thing is clear. Children’s health and safety must be prioritized. We will continue urging states to stop admissions and to release kids from juvenile facilities. No child should be in juvenile detention for missing homework.
Financial Literacy – The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Discover KARA’s FREE Financial Literacy Program Here
Free and Discounted Resources for Youth (+ Holiday Gifting)
Foster Child Sites That Give & Need Help
Children Living & Dying As Martyrs to a Parents Religion
Many American newborns remain untested and untreated for very treatable metabolic disorders, hearing, sight & blood lead level s. 48 States allow religious exemptions from vaccination.
Some states allow religion to keep children from TB testing in school. 43 states give some kind of criminal or civil immunity to parents injuring their children by withholding medical care on religious grounds.
Six states let parents keep teachers from teaching their children about disease in school.
Over the years KARA has reported on children dying because their parents withheld medical treatment because the church told them to do so.
Some religions allow child neglect and abuse & some states allow a religious defense against charges of murdering their child – and “some can’t be charged with murder at all” (Slate).
2 years ago, Kansas State Rep Gail Finney vowed to pass a bill that allowed caregivers to leave bruises and cause bleeding. Arkansas State Rep Charles Fuqua promoted the death penalty for rebellious children (based on religious grounds).
As a volunteer County guardian ad-Litem, it has been awful to observe sexually abused two and four year old children and children suffering from violent physical abuse and neglect live through that abuse & try to overcome the terror and traumas inflicted upon them to make for themselves a normal life. Not many do.
KARA believes the U.S. should ratify the International Rights of the Child Treaty (we are the only nation not to have done so).
There are many cults in America that need to be exposed for the terrible way they treat children. Here’s one reported on by the Daily Beast this morning (send KARA your examples & forward this to your state rep).
Here’s a breakdown from Children’s Healthcare that shows a breakdown of states and their religious exemptions.
I tried to kill myself in the third grade
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association have declared a national emergency in children’s mental health, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
IT’S NOT A CRIME TO ABUSE YOUR CHILD
Religious exemptions = It’s Not A Crime to Abuse Your Child + NY banned child marriage today (7.23.21) but you can still withhold life saving medical care for religious reasons….
Child Abuse Stories, Statistics & Politics In America Today
Kids At Risk Action gathers stories and statistics
about child abuse and child welfare
State By State + International)
Women’s Rights & Children’s Rights
100 years ago, women were property (legally) and a husband could do just about anything to his wife. Murder was still murder, but anything else was treated by law enforcement much like animal abuse was in the day (not a big deal for the courts to be concerned with).
20 years ago I became a volunteer *CASA guardian ad Litem (voice for the child) in County child protection and saw first hand what it’s like for an American citizen to have no voice in the home, no voice in the courts and no voice in the media.
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 and not to be enslaved).
Human Rights and the Psychotropic Medicating of Children
Human Rights and the Psychotropic Medicating of Children is common in foster care and juvenile justice in the U.S. Self-harm and suicidal ideation play a roll in the early death and physical harm these children suffer.
Foster Care, Adoption & the Catholic Church
Foster Care, Adoption & the Catholic Church; It is crushing to see the the Supreme Court and the Catholic Church fighting tooth and nail to forbid gay couples from adopting State Ward children.
Covid Related Youth Mental Health Crisis
national emergency of child and adolescent mental health crisis triggered by isolation, uncertainty and grief during COVID.
Why We Hate Lawsuits (Eric Dean’s grandmother sues county & social workers for his death)
Recent KARE11 reporting brings full circle the events, sadness as MN Supreme Court ruling
allows Child Protective Services to be held responsible for Eric Dean’s death.
Helping Homeless Kids In Minnesota
COVID has overwhelmed much of our safety net for youth and finding shelter space is harder now.
Do you know a homeless or at risk youth in Minneapolis, ST Paul or Anoka ?(share this on your social media)
Tell them about the YMCA’s Communities Host Program where they can find safe, friendly and free shelter for up to a year at a time.
HOW TO HELP OR GET HELP
• To sign up to be a host home or for more details about the program, call the YMCA at 612-208-7381.
• Homeless youth age 24 and under can receive services such as meals and housing referrals at the Link’s drop-in center at Grace Lutheran Church, 7800 West County Road 42 in Apple Valley from 2-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
National Adoption Month (statistics, books, videos & articles of, by & about foster and adoptive children)
National Adoption Month
One out of 25 U.S. families have an adopted child. Half of the 135,000 adoptions are from the foster care system. There are over 100,000 eligible children waiting to be adopted.
Parental Rights & Child Wellbeing
Is it Child Safety and Wellbeing or Parental Rights?
Have we lost sight of the purpose of Child Protective Services in our political wars to keep the rights of the person that can scream the loudest?
Medicating Foster Children – 1/2 of group home children use them
Does medicating Foster Children without therapy cause more problems than it solves?
Free and Discounted Resources for Foster Youth
Foster Child Sites That Give & Need Help
Child Protection Activists
Abolishing County Child Protection would eliminate the rights of children to the most basic human right of a safe home.
Eliminating CPS would spell doom for at risk children.
Arresting Sobbing Eight Year Old Children In Tennessee
At Rutherford County’s Hobgood elementary school,
An 8 year old, two 9 year old’s and an 11 year old walk into a principal’s office…
And are arrested and handcuffed (“out of habit” said officer Jeff Carroll).
October Is Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Watching your mother being beat up or raped is the same trauma as being beaten or raped to a five or nine year old. Untreated trauma lasts forever and it changes a person forever.
The United Nation’s-Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that being confined with abusive partners during the pandemic has led to a “horrifying global surge in domestic abuse”. This well organized domestic violence reporting and resource guide with hotlines and practical advice …
Minnesota Child Abuse + Child Protection (fall 2021)
These articles about child abuse and child protection
have been gathered in Minnesota over the last 60 days
Foster Care Day Rates vs Dog Care Day Rates (it just doesn’t seem right)
Doggy day care is at least as costly (on average $50/day) than child care (on average $45/day) should make us think a little harder about how we value children in America. Kinship care subsidies in some states are below $10/day.
What’s it like to be a grandparent caring for a very troubled teenage grandchild living on social security?
It Can’t Happen Here (Sally’s Story)
This had to have been one of the most detailed Childline referrals the county had ever seen, not to mention Sally had a wonderful, dedicated psychiatrist. As the time went by, the treatment team eagerly awaited the results of her abuse referral, as she had won over the hearts of all the hospital staff and we all wanted to see her safe and free from harm.
The referral came back as unfounded.
Due to her intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities, she was deemed in-credible.
The School Safety Net
COVID restrictions have locked many more students into toxic homes and made it much harder for teachers to have the relationships necessary to have meaningful conversations and provide help to end the abuse.For many children being able to attend school physically is their only reprieve from an abusive home life and only chance to confide in an adult that can provide a path to safety.
KARA Is Unable to Respond To Requests For Child Protection Issues
Friends of KARA,
PLEASE
Use the Kids At Risk Action
resource library
to find help for child protection and wellbeing issues.
58 Miles
What is central in this discussion is the gravitational pull that abandoned children feel to connect with family and the importance of kinship care in this in the equation for each child placement.