Saying Goodbye to the CASA Guardian ad Litem Volunteer Program

SAYING GOODBYE TO 1000’S OF VOLUNTEER CHILD ADVOCATES & Community Involvement & Trust In One More Community Institution. Since 1981, thousands of community volunteers have spent thousands of hours working to better the lives of Minnesota’s at-risk children.  End this program, they will disappear and no more will follow.

This will result in weakened community awareness, less community involvement and an incalculable loss of…

Details

Child Protection Stories Wanted

KARA is working to make lawmakers and policy makers see the value of community volunteer CASA guardian ad litems in Child Protective Services.

To do this, we are seeking stories from 18 & up folks that have come through child protection with the help of a volunteer CASA guardian ad litem.

You may remain anonymous.

Please contact me directly – [email protected] with STORY in the subject line.

Details

Children Are Dying On Your Watch (said the judge to CPS)

children are dying on your watch” and calling them “callous”, saying “they do more to protect their bureaucracy than the children in their care”.  Safe Passage for MN’s Children recent investigative reporting on Minnesota children murdered by their caregivers while in Child Protective Services might prompt a similar judicial response…

Details

Why CASA Guardian Ad Litems (in their words)

The following are recent survey responses by CASAs answering the question “What community CASA volunteers bring to abused children and the Child Protection System they serve. Several spelling and grammatical changes have been made for clarity. We advocate for these children without paycheck and without allegiance to anyone or anything other than the child. We…

Details

Hennepin County Child Well-being Advisory Committee Meeting Summary (with KARA notations)

The complete report can be read HERE. This post emphasises the GAL program’s effort to eliminate the CASA community volunteer Guardian ad Litems. The author made notes and corrected several minor spelling errors (notes are in parenthesis and in bold).

Hennepin County participants: Jodi Wentland; Dan Rogan; Lori Whittier; Evangeline Filosi; Patricia Zagaros; Sherry Smith; Lisa Bayley; Kwesi Booker; Michelle Lefebvre; Lori Munsterman; Fintan Moore; Lauren Kewley; Madeline Johnson; Shanese Reed; Rachelle Loewenson Stratton; Meredith Martinez: Lolita Ulloa 

Details

Child Murder by Caregiver While In CPS

The American Medical community has joined forces to declare a national emergency in children’s mental health, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today’s declaration is an urgent call to policymakers at all levels of government — we must treat this mental health crisis like the emergency it is,” said AAP President Lee Savio Beers, MD, …

Details

What Child Protection Means In Minnesota

From Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota today; This Peabody Award Winning video documents the critical issues that lead to the gruesome murder of 6 year old Eli Hart and dangers facing all of Minnesota’s abused and neglected children. 

Hundreds of children have died while known to Child Protective Services. Some have been tortured over time. Many more children have suffered years of  trauma as the institution standards and practices of CPS have deteriorated.

There are no metrics or reporting made available about children’s suffering at the hands of their caregivers or the self-harm or suicide attempts of traumatized kids in the system.

Details

Minnesota Children Killed By Caregivers While Known to CPS (& how to stop it)

 There is a real lack of data and transparency in CPS which makes it hard to know outcomes short of child death.
72% of of the 88 child maltreatment deaths studied (complete study below) were known to CPS. We do know that there were many reports of life changing violence, neglect and abuse but few follow ups. 

Details