Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Helping Homeless Kids In Minnesota

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - MN Specific

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.

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October Is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Domestic Violence

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 …

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Foster Care Day Rates vs Dog Care Day Rates (it just doesn’t seem right)

Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action

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?

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It Can’t Happen Here (Sally’s Story)

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Their stories

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.

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Close-up of a bruised eye with fingers touching the face.

The School Safety Net

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Day Care and Education

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.

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For Profit Youth Prisons & False Imprisonment

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Juvenile + Criminal Justice

Youth are two to three time more likely to confess to crimes they did not commit than adults.

Police interrogations using fabricated statements are most likely why. Kids are more intimidated by law enforcement than adults and they break down faster.

There’s just no upside in sending youth to jail. Incarcerating them for crimes they did not commit is a sign of a dysfunctional system. A system that creates what it was designed to stop.

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We Are A Nation of Child Abusers

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

Nicholas Christof’s article in the NYTimes today points a finger at “pro-family” people “preserving” child poverty in America.

Lest you believe this a stretch, America stands out as the country with the highest child poverty rate and one of the lowest levels of social expenditure.  This has been true for many years.

This means food insecurity for five year olds, and the statistical probability that homeless ten year olds are three times more likely to be sexually abused than other children.

There is a heartlessness behind the politics of separating immigrant babies from their mother (over 5000) and not returning those children to their birth parents (over 1000 still are separated today).

We the people now have public policies that have led to the sad reality that;

37% of children are reported to child protection agencies in this nation by their 18th birthday.
almost one third of American children will have a criminal record by their 23rd birthay
80% of youth aging out of foster care lead dysfunctional lives

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Child Abuse & Soul Murder (chapter 2)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths

I’ve come to know 50 beautiful babies and children that have had their souls murdered.

All fifty of my caseload children lived with chronic and serious beatings, rape, starvation and neglect repeatedly over a period of years.

They all died a tragic death of self.

Some watched their mothers being beaten or raped repeatedly, others were beaten, neglected or raped repeatedly.  Some of them were regular drug users by 8 or 9 years old.

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