This is a snapshot of changes being made to the safety net for child protection, public health and education. Please take a few minutes and show your support for those programs and policies you know to be of value to the weakest and most vulnerable among us.
Kids at Risk Action, the hosts discuss the critical issue of funding cuts to Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) in Minnesota, which are essential in providing support for abused and neglected children. CACs offer services like forensic interviews, victim advocacy, and medical exams, but with the loss of 80% of their federal funding, these centers could be forced to close, leaving thousands of children without protection.
Funding cuts to programs for education, healthcare, poverty, hunger, disabilities, insurance, civil rights, nutrition, homelessness, discrimination, early childhood programs, child labor, and child abuse are all disappearing.
Kids at Risk Action, Alan and Lauren address the critical issue of the lack of transparency within child welfare systems and its devastating impact on vulnerable children. Despite efforts to raise awareness, many cases of child maltreatment, near-fatalities, and deaths remain hidden from public view due to the absence of standardized reporting and privacy laws that can shield institutions from scrutiny.
Jessie Van Berkel wrote a very strong piece about the CASA Guardian ad Litem program in the Star Tribune recently. She brought attention to how a few bad decisions from new management can almost end a community volunteer institution at a time when it is most needed.
If you ran an institution that found it hard to keep up with the demands being met in it you would most likely have only one or two choices to meet those demands. Find ways to do the work by simply making people do more with less, or, find more people to provide the service you have been mandated to provide.
Imagine you ran an office full of Guardians ad Litem with different talents and these people worked hard to fix the problems of people with a wide range of complex problems.
It would be useful to allow your talented worker bees to select those cases that fit their requests and talents
Because KARA calls on CASAs around the country, we have discovered Child Protection Policies that work along with things that don’t work and some practices that are harmful.
Kids at Risk Action, Michael and John examine the staggering costs and human impact of child protective services (CPS) and the interconnected child welfare and juvenile justice systems. They highlight troubling statistics, such as the high number of children reported to CPS each year, the underreporting of abuse, and the alarming link between CPS involvement and later incarceration.
On Tuesday, 4.22.25 National CASA/GAL received notice that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has terminated (CASA National) federal grant awards – among 360 notices of termination the DOJ issued this week. All 12 million dollars.
In this fast moving effort to “cut waste” and “save money”
Kids at Risk Action, the hosts address the growing mental health crisis in child welfare, particularly in emergency rooms and foster care systems. They reveal alarming statistics, such as the significant rise in ER visits for children’s mental health crises and the systemic failures that leave many without proper care.
There is no shortage of well-meaning volunteers and workers dedicated to improving the lives of the children they are serving as teachers, Guardians ad Litem, social & healthcare workers, law enforcement and adoptive/foster parents.
APRIL IS NATIONAL CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH-Register for Child Advocacy Events on April 1 and 7 with Safe Passage for Children Day at the Capitol here.
APRIL IS NATIONAL CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH-Register for Child Advocacy Events on April 1 and 7 with Safe Passage for Children Day at the Capitol here.
The Star Tribune’s investigative report titled “IN HARM’S WAY” provides a rare glimpse into the world of Child Protective Services. This report illuminates the disheartening fact that children often do not have a right to safety.
systemic issues within Child Protective Services (CPS) that have led to the tragic deaths of children, even after CPS involvement
Portia died shortly after being brought into the operating room. Leroy called me early in the morning and told me that the surgery had been delayed too long. There was no way the doctors could save her at that point.
Emma and Daniel highlight the systemic issues of foster care in America, focusing on how foster youth struggle due to funding misallocation and harmful policies
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.
Yanelin Montalvo-Valdez (yesterday Star Tribune) personifies the pain and punishment heaped upon the 50 innocent children I advocated for as a CASA Guardian ad Litem volunteer
…the economic impact of untreated child abuse. The mental health issues and behavior problems of high ACEs children drive much of the violence, desperation, and dysfunction afflicting so many American citizens
Commentary: Why We Need Volunteers to Work on Behalf of Our Most Vulnerable Children – Minnesota Women’s Press Commentary: Why We Need Volunteers to Work on Behalf of Our Most Vulnerable Children by Laurel Ferris in Commentary, Family/Home, Healing, Re-Imagining Public Safety FacebookEmailLinkedInTwitterShare This article ran a year ago during management’s effort to eliminate the CASA volunteer Guardian ad…
free and discounted resources for foster and adopted children and families
how 13 Minnesota Child Advocacy Centers (CAC’s) are losing 80% of their Federal funding. If this happens they will likely disappear or become a shell of what they were in a very short time.
CAC’s keep safe and provide services to children and families who have reported abuse and provide services to help them live through and recover from child abuse, domestic violence, and the traumas that come from it.
Fear and Firing of Mandated Reporters (KARA podcast)…professionals being punished, losing their jobs, and facing lawsuits for fulfilling their duties
Much of this article is taken from Marie Cohen’s remarkable research at the American Enterprise Institute. For those of you concerned with Child Protective Services in your community, Marie’s article is detailed and powerful. It could change your State Representative’s mind about transparency in CPS (Child Protective Services) where you live (share this state rep…
Fixing CPS with greater transparency in Child Protective Services. This conversation is about the many things impacting the safety and wellbeing of abused and neglected children. The lack of transparency being discussed in West Virginia CPS applies to every state: A Meaningful Conversation (35 Minute Podcast). Discussed in this podcast: Kinship care partners, mentors, volunteers,…
a unique perspective of what happened to Minnesota’s CASA Guardian ad Litem program over the last 4 years.
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.
Abused and neglected children don’t have a voice in the politics and policies that rule their lives. They are at the mercy of our politicians and institutions that serve them.
COVIDs Impact on CPS, CASA volunteers, & Guardian ad Litem Staff
For success happen for children requires people able to work within a rigid system but willing to test the boundaries of what your office can achieve for the children in this highly regulated and bureaucratic system.
Any conversation about Child Protective Services needs to include a deep dive into racial disparities, religious and parental rights, and common misconceptions about CPS and child abuse.
The public knows almost nothing about the depth and scope of child abuse in their community
CPS reality check in the current political battle for community CASA guardian ad Litems in MN. To put it bluntly, what’s good for the administrators often may be bad for the children.
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.
Minnesota’s new Supreme Court Council on Child Protection and Abuse Prevention
What parents should do after a child’s suicide attempt? Answering caregivers’ frequently …
Child Abuse Data and Better Decision Making
KARA’s
Google Ad Grants
fully funded Initiative for
CASA’s & Service Providers
To At-Risk Children
Human Services – Beyond Crisis: core social service issues making even a safe life impossible for more and more people
It is important to note that the U.S. is the only nation in the world to not have ratified the United Nation’s RIGHTS OF THE CHILD TREATY of the 1980s.
American Fosters are struggling. These reports from around the nation indicate a great need for more help for at risk families and safe homes for children unlucky enough to be born into toxic homes.
To be fair, what does an overwhelmed institution do when caseloads double and budgets are cut in half? Rural counties will always be underfunded, understaffed and unable to provide the level of service larger urban areas can with their larger budgets giving them more options.
From Ann Ahlstrom (bold emphasis from KARA)
August 19, 2024
Greetings Minnesota Volunteer Guardians ad Litem:
Let’s imagine a government that controls (1) automobile safety standards, (2) the state inspection for compliance with automobile safety standards (3) the automobile repair industry, all within the same department, and all done in official secrecy so as to protect the privacy of would-be drivers.
And let’s also suppose that the people who drive automobiles are, 98% of them, poor and very young people, who have no effective political voice.
This fall and winter, KARA is inviting universities, community centers, and businesses to engage our INVISIBLE CHILDREN COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS.
FOSTER CARE REALITIES
Children are fostered only if they have been removed from homes where egregious harm has happened to them and a judge thinks their lives are in imminent danger.
Fear and Firing of Mandated Reporters of Child Abuse – A lawsuit and threatened firing of a 40-year veteran nurse and mandated reporter in California is ruining my week. This will bring fear to nurses and other mandated reporters of child abuse everywhere.
Child Protection/CPS: If Lawmakers Only Knew (why they don’t – & why they should) Not many lawmakers come to the job understanding child abuse and what happens to children in CPS (Child Protective Services). Few legislators have experienced childhood trauma or the institution (CPS) that protects children from growing up in homes of life-threatening harm.