https://invisiblechildren.org www.invisiblechildren.org It’s a big day for Kids At Risk Action after 17 years the website is now easier to navigate and able to display thousands of children’s issue articles and comments, the INVISIBLECHILDREN book and our videos at faster speeds on your phone, tablet or desktop. See an article that touches you or fits…
Thank you all for helping KARA advocate for an end to our public health epidemic child abuse and child trauma. With your help, we are raising awareness for at risk children’s issues and poised and ready to create lasting change.
Like you, I am an advocate. As a founding member of Kids At Risk Action, I have not stopped using my voice for change. And now you can join me in raising your voice by continuing to receive and share our weekly updates, buying KARA’s INVISIBLE CHILDREN book or making a contribution to show your support.
Please consider making a tribute contribution to show your support of those who stand up to say Yes to improving the lives of abused and neglected children.
Best wishes,
Mike Tikkanen
From today’s Brandon Stahl article,
“Janine Moore, the area director of the county’s children and family services department, said earlier this month that child protection has a backlog of nearly 300 unreviewed reports, up from 111 in February. Moore said staff examine all cases to determine which ones need immediate response.
Earlier this year, Moore told the committee there were 15 children on a shelter waiting list, meaning they needed to be taken into protective custody but child protection workers had nowhere to put them. At one point, the committee learned, there were 30 such cases, with a wait of up to two weeks before a safe home opened up for a child.
“Quite frankly,” Moore told the committee, “we’ve been struggling with this for over a year now.”
Hennepin County CASA guardian ad litem Calvin McIntyre says that in this overwhelmed child protection system (highest caseload in more than six years), “I’ve had kids get worse”.
“About two dozen children in the past year who had nowhere else to go were admitted to the pediatric ward of Hennepin County Medical Center, said the ward’s director, Dr. Frances Prekker. Some, said Prekker, had to be confined to the ward because they might run away. Some of the children stayed in the ward for a month, Prekker said.”“It’s quite stressful [for the children]. The hospital is a really boring place to live,” Prekker said. “They feel quite isolated.”
“Brooklyn Park Police Chief Craig Enevoldsen said his officers have brought young children they suspected were abused to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale.”
These sad truths would be a little more understandable if this community hadn’t allocated a billion dollars for a stadium, a billion + dollars for transportation & almost a billion dollars to rebuild a bridge that fell in the river because we were too cheap to make the 5 million dollars in repairs repeatedly requested by County and Federal engineers.
The unintended consequences of saving the 5 million dollars in bridge maintenance were 14 deaths, 144 seriously injured people, and pain and disruption for thousands of metro residents
Without community support, children don’t learn to cope and often fail in school and public life (state wards forever).
The unintended consequences of saving the effort and money it will take to build a more effective child protection system include failing schools, high teacher turnover, dangerous city streets and filled prisons along with a growing public concern that our institutions are creating exactly what they were designed to stop.
Don’t miss our once a year fundraiser and funfest and learn more (CLICK HERE for tickets) CASAMN & the guardian ad litem program that supports children in child protection and provides grants to foster children for items they often do without.
We need your help! Your sponsorship of this event will be essential to the fundraiser’s success and will enable CASA Minnesota to continue providing volunteer Guardian Ad Litem’s to abused and neglected children involved in Juvenile Court proceedings in our communities & to help fund CASA Cares for kids! We would be most grateful for your sponsorship at any level (including live and silent auction items). Join us for a celebration and a great cause.
CASA volunteers – also known as Guardians ad Litem in the State of Minnesota—are everyday citizens whom judges appoint to advocate for the safety and well-being of children who are in the court system as a result of abuse and/or neglect. They stand up for these children and change their lives.
CASA Cares is a grant program, formerly known as Friends of Children that benefits children in foster care by providing bikes, helmets, camps, school supplies, and other items that allow them to enjoy a positive childhood experience and further help them to overcome adversity by seeing that we as a community can help meet their needs!
CASA Minnesota is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that supports Minnesota CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) programs and the volunteers who have helped more than two million children find safe, permanent homes. Your contributions are tax-deductible! Share this with your friends and networks (All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children)
Thank You Steve Betchwars for your seventh fun and most terrific year supporting the needs of foster children with your Birdies, Bogies & Bratwurst event.
Everyone had fun, almost everyone won something and everyone did just fine on the course (far as I could tell).
Savory food, great weather and wonderful people (see you again next year).
Dan Stewart has done tons of volunteer work for KARA and today he is asking for our help to grow his nonprofit educational cause, GoCorps.org
If this project appeals to you, contact Dan & get more info,
Dan Stewart
612-501-0997
www.danstewartmedia.com
Now is the time to participate! Next week, April 11-15, is the Week of the Young Child. The goal of this week is to educate legislators about the importance of high quality early learning programs in their communities, and to encourage them to properly fund early learning initiatives.
But we need your help to get this important message across! Below are ideas, projects, meetings and resources. Your participation will make a difference in the lives of children across Minnesota.
1) Set up a meeting with your legislator(s). Whether you are a child care provider, parent, or early childhood advocate, your perspective and story are important, and legislators want to hear from you. Set up a meeting with your legislator any time during the week of April 11-15 to share your experience.
Here’sa form to help set up the meeting
There are some tips about how to prepare for the meetinghere.
If you want to encourage support for a specific bill,here’s a resource for proposed legislation related to early care and education.
2) Advocate for early learning by mail. Complete a simple activity on your own or with staff or children. Send it in to your legislators to remind them to let our children shine. You can find the materials for the activity here. To find your legislator’s mailing address at the Capitol, go to this website and enter your address.
THE IMPACT OF DOMESTIC ABUSE ON CHILDREN
Tuesday, February 16
6 p.m. Light Supper and Social 6:30 P.M. Program
Cafeteria, Hennepin Technical College, 9000 Brooklyn Blvd, Brooklyn Park, Map
RSVP on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1kWpPiG or to CarolWoehrer@usfamily.net
Join Mike’s presentation and lively group discussion on the state of child protection and child abuse in our community.
1167 Summit AV St Paul MN
10am Sunday January 10th
KARA’s Facebook Page (share with your friends)
Mike,
Your anguish at the pain and suffering of children is laudable and this site great. And these hearings only show the safety net is torn and clearly failing children, isn’t time to broach the subject of parenting while asserting the “rights of the Child?”
A.R.,
Thank you for the kind words and very good question – it gets to the heart of what KARA is.
KARA is the voice of abused and neglected children removed from their homes* & this editor tries hard to tell their stories and report on the people, policies and programs that impact their lives.
Time and resources in a small nonprofit require outside volunteer effort to accomplish this goal with any regularity or depth. Thank you Century College for continuing to include Kids At Risk Action in your volunteer program.
To your point A.R., I will work at putting more attention to the subject of parenting. We know that parenting skills don’t come from the stork & our community needs to better appreciate the value of healthy children.
Unfortunately, our communities are more willing to put resources and attention to dealing with unhealthy children than building healthy children.
we are very grateful to and supportive of organizations that concentrate on improving the lives of at risk children through better parenting, more attention to improving the lives of young families and helping adoptive and foster parents.
The sadness and pain children and families experience due to generational child abuse can’t end until the voice of abused and neglected children is heard by a larger public and our message to legislators loud enough to force them to listen and do the right thing through better policies and programs.
It hurt me to hear it suggested that Brandon Stahl’s reporting on Child Protection in Minnesota is somehow a cause of the troubles within the system today. It is precisely the lack of reporting, accountability, and access to information that has grown our child protection failures to where they are.
The thing missing from last night’s Child Protection Oversight Committee meeting was the voice of someone that experienced child protective services (to put a human face on the conversation) and a fearless front line worker or CASA guardian ad-Litem to describe the depth and scope of the issues on the table.
People speaking in a roomful of professionals find it difficult to use the words or employ a passion that puts urgency and humanity into the facts that rule the fabric of our community and the lives of at risk children.
We also avoid topics that can’t be dealt with in our current institutional paradigm.
When Dee Wilson delivered the report on the Casey Foundation’s investigation of Child Protection to the County Commissioners he referenced the fact that St. Joe’s Home for Children was the primary resource for the most troubled children entering Child Protective Services.
The Foundation reported that the home was not able to deal with the level of trauma and behavioral problems it is forced to manage on a daily basis.
The truth underlying Dee’s statement needs to be recognized as the tip of the iceberg it is (we don’t).
The Foundation reported that the home was not able to deal with the level of trauma and behavioral problems it is forced to manage on a daily basis.
This is KARA’s next book about child abuse and child protection in America. It includes chapters written by professionals as well as children, birth, foster and adoptive parents and families. I need your stories to add to the growing body of evidence that change in child protection laws, politics and policies are overdue. For a…
Safe Passage Forum: Early Childhood Development & the Child Welfare System
Gather in Person 6pm; Via Phone/Webinar: 6:15pm
Program Beings 6:30pm
Webinar/Phone login Details Below.
Join Safe Passage for Children for a presentation and discussion on the relationships between early childhood development and child protection. Option to participate in person or via webinar.
Bob-e Simpson Epps, Master Trainer / Facilitator for Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and 2012 Bush Fellow will lead this forum designed for Volunteers of Safe Passage and friends.
Together we will explore the connections between child abuse / neglect and early childhood development; including the impact of trauma on brain development and what has been learned more broadly from ACES research.
Please invite friends and colleagues.
Login Details:
By Phone: +1 (571) 317-3112; Access Code: 298-987-637
By Video Webinar: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/298987637; For Audio: Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) – a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone: +1 (571) 317-3112, Access Code: 298-987-637
This week county social services directors and the Department of Human Services (DHS) presented a plan to legislators that would significantly weaken reforms approved by the Governor’s Child Protection Task Force. Items they recommended dropping include:http://safepassagemn.com/counties-propose-rolling-back-child-protection-reforms/
Thank you readers for bringing it to our attention – no more locked mobile screens.
Sharing KARA news/videos/articles with your social media and networks – the more people become aware of how serious a problem child abuse is in America & how broken our child protection systems are, the more pressure will be put on legislators to support the people, programs and policies that work.
KARA needs dollars, subscribers (members), volunteers & promotors to make this happen.
Become part of the KARA grassroots army – share our information widely to promote programs, policies & the people striving to improve the lives of abused and neglected children.
Help KARA advocate and give abused and neglected children a passionate & unapologetic voice in our community.
Thanks to all who have helped this year.
Donate Now
ttps://www.linkedin.com/company/kids-at-risk-action-k-a-r-a-childrens-rights-advocacy-network/
Add your insights and concerns to these important conversations and let’s raise awareness and concern for abused and neglected children
Sign up for KARA’s weekly Friday 9am Updates Here &
send this web article link to at least one network or person in your network now
with the note/heading;
to Help Us Build An Online Community That Learns & Speaks Out about Child Abuse & Child Protection;
KARA get to know us Fundraiser
Wednesday July 22nd 6-9 PM
Fringe Women’s Accessories Store
3906 W 50th street Edina (50th & France)
Wine & Cheese + Fun & Information about a great cause
Kids At Risk Action
Kids At Risk Action is looking for writers from other state’s to report on child protection/child abuse conditions around the country.
Report each week about how your state treats at risk youth and help KARA bring more attention to what needs to happen for children to be safe and happy where you live.
Contact me directly for more information, mike@invisiblechildren.org
KARA is unable to help our readers with personal counselling.
Regularly, we receive your mail and email requesting assistance in dealing with child protection, police and juvenile justice. We just do not have the resources to say yes.
Use KARA’s links link to start your search for help. The “resources’ heading provides contact information to identify people that can talk to you about your specific issues.
Thank you for understanding,
The KARA team
Help KARA find smart committed people that understand and want to improve the lives of at risk children.
KARA needs people with some combination of the following;
Experience with abused and neglected children and the institutions that work for them,
Grant writing, resources, and familiarity with fund raising for nonprofits,
Legal and CFO backgrounds in the nonprofit area,
A passion for protecting and improving the lives of at risk children
If you are looking to make a difference, send me a cover letter describing your background and level of interest.
Join me for the next Kids At Risk Action Roseville Rotary presentation at the Roseville Radisson Hotel and learn what you can do to make your community a safer place for children and a better place to live for everyone.
KARA needs to interview CPA firms that resonate with our mission and have nonprofit experience. Please share this with your professional accounting friends.
Contact me;
mike@invisiblechildren.org
Thirty posters and essays speaking out on child abuse (thank you Bill Murray and NAASCA for sending them)
Invisible Children readers know that psychotropic medications, especially “antipsychotics,” often are used to sedate and restrain problematic people, children especially—and not just any children, but foster children particularly, and most of all, foster children in so-called “group homes.”
Agreement is widespread that foster kids are over-medicated: too many, too young, too many drugs per child, on dosages that are too high and are maintained too long, often for years on end.
The PsychDrugs Action Campaign of the National Center for Youth Law invites you to help make positive changes now. Our contact information is at the bottom of this message.
Why Foster Children?
Foster children are a lucrative market for psychotropic drug sales. Unlike adults, they can’t say “no, I won’t take any more.” Their parents are in no position to object. Responsibility for prescribing is diffused confusingly among foster parents, caseworkers, child welfare supervisors, group home administrators, and prescribers. All are involved, but their roles in medication decisions are overlapping and ill-defined. It is easy for each to say, “it wasn’t my decision.”
One of the consequences is that in some states about half of children in group homes are medicated with psychotropic drugs. Many foster children are dozing through their childhoods and teenage years in a semi-sedated fog, a fog that is profitable for the drug industry and convenient for those administrators, staff, and foster parents who prefer to minimize demands on their time and attention.
The losers are the kids. A dozen years in a chemical straitjacket is no preparation for adult independence.
A car with three wheels is not 75% as good as one with four. There is a minimum set of features without which a car won’t move at all.
This principle applies to child welfare because elected officials have frequently given this program much less than managers request, and assumed they somehow will make things work. But if the system has, for example, adequate staffing but poor training, or lacks a quality assurance program, it is like a 3-wheeled car. It simply won’t run.
Minnesota has an historic opportunity to rebuild its child welfare program. To accomplish this the legislature must step up to approve the $50 million that the Governor has put in his budget, so state and county managers have the tools they need to do the job.
CASA Minnesota’s Brewing Hope event turned out to be a smash hit and a great time was held by all.
Thank you to everyone that came and shared in the fun and especially those of you Donated or went home with silent and live auction booty.
Have fun on the African vacation, at Stouts Island Lodge, and the University Club next year (and the many other great dining, service, and happy event items donated for the event).
Beer, Music, Fabulous Trips (Africa/DisneyWorld) Join CASA MN March 9th at Surly Brewing 530pm (our annual fundraiser)
February 26, 2015 in CASA, Events, Wonderful People by Mike Tikkanen
casa_v_redblue_R_alt_rgb_normalIt’s gonna be great. Join Mike and CASA MN at our fundraiser (silent and live auction) and learn about the good work volunteer guardian ad-Litems do.
Favor 1)
Join me at the CASA MN Brewing Hope Fundraiser Monday, 5:30 at Surly’s Brewing Co (Auction items include African Safari, Copper Mountain, Stouts Island Lodge, Disneyworld and more).
Favor 2)
Follow, Share, and Like KARA’s Facebook page (help us get the message out about ending child abuse in your community). Let your friends know now.
It’s gonna be great. Join CASA MN at our fundraiser (silent and live auction) and learn about the good work volunteer guardian ad-Litems do.
5:30 – 8:30 p.m. 520 Malcolm Avenue Southeast Minneapolis
Beer, hors d’ oeuvres, music, opportunities for fabulous trips (African photo safari or DisneyWorld, anyone?), and – best of all – a time to celebrate the good work of CASA Minnesota and its volunteers. Who could want more?
Seating limited – tickets on sale now!
1) Ernie Boswell, psychology, speaking on Vets Issues
2) Dick Kotasek, addiction counseling instructor, speaking on
how counseling the addicted has changed.
3) Eve Bergmann, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and addiction
counseling, speaking on her 30 years of practice.
4) Justin Martin, psychologist, speaking on GLBT Issues
5) Mike Tikkanen, Kids at Risk Action, speaking on rights and
awareness of abused and neglected children.
Join us at Pilgrim House Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1212 W Highway 96, Arden Hills MN 55112
Mike Tikkanen & Tiffini Flynn Forslund are board members at KARA, Kids At Risk Action working to bring attention and support for the people, policies, and programs that improve the lives of to at risk youth.
have been a volunteer county guardian ad-Litems since 1996. He is also a CASAMN board member & founder of KARA, Kids At Risk Action with a mission to speak for the rights and awareness of abused and neglected children. KARA’s current project is a television documentary/expose with TPT. By generating conversation and exposing facts that many are afraid or unable to speak about, Mike brings attention to the critical issues facing abused & neglected children. Mike and Tiffini identify the problems children, schools, and neighborhoods face daily because of poor public policy and the dysfunction created by lack of awareness within our community. The KARA website is https://invisiblechildren.org.
It’s gonna be great. Join CASA MN at our fundraiser (silent and live auction) and learn about the good work volunteer guardian ad-Litems do.
5:30 – 8:30 p.m. 520 Malcolm Avenue Southeast Minneapolis
Beer, hors d’ oeuvres, music, opportunities for fabulous trips (African photo safari or DisneyWorld, anyone?), and – best of all – a time to celebrate the good work of CASA Minnesota and its volunteers. Who could want more?
Seating limited – tickets on sale now!
Click HERE
$30 per person/ $50 per couple
Save the date friends and join the happy people, hors d’oervres, pop music by Postina, and Beer Tasting at Surly Brewing Company.
Live auction includes African Safari for two, weekend at Copper Mountain, Colorado, DisneyWorld vacation, antique jewelry, and much more.
It’s a great cause and will be great fun. Don’t miss it. Tickets Here; www.casamn.org
Friends of KARA, please help us by donating (any amount) and sharing this link to our official fundraising site for the TPT partnership to create a television expose telling the real-life stories that will bring to life the critical issues facing abused and neglected children and the people, policies, and programs impacting them.
Best of all, long time American news anchor and investigative journalist and winner of Emmy and Peabody awards Don Shelby is advising us on the project. The protection of all children, is to his mind, the responsibility of all adults
To complete this project & make a difference in the lives of abused and neglected children. We need your help.
KARA wants to gather information about how child protection systems are working in your state.
If you like researching and writing contact us for how you might participate; info@invisiblechildren.org
Friends of KARA, share this page with your friends and network and help Kids At Risk Action reach the following we need to make a difference in the lives of abused and neglected children.
http://www.acesconnection.com/topic/we-are-paying-for-this
Join the conversation at ACEs Connection above and add your voice
Friday was spent at the annual Children and Youth Issues Briefing conference in St Paul. I reconnected with board members from CASAMN, Greg Brolsma, Police Chief from Fairmont MN with great insights about how the issues of abuse and neglect impact the larger community, and Rich Gehrman from Safe Passage For Children MN.
My biggest take away from the many speakers today was this statement by Becky Roloff CEO of the YWCA in Minneapolis (paraphrased) because a child’s future ability to cope in school and in life is almost completely formed by five, I’ve changed my definition of a generation. It’s not 20 years, it’s five. Every five years, another generation of children able to cope or not cope in school, with peers, and in life enters our community.
Becky’s larger point being, either we throw ourselves into crisis nurseries, early childhood programs, and affordable quality daycare, or we will continue to create new generations of troubled five year olds headed for failure and lifetimes of special needs and dysfunctional lifestyles.
Emerging Policy Initiatives, Youth Perspectives, MN Children’s Cabinet, Governor’s address, and Legislative leaders delivered multiple perspectives about children’s issues. When the video of the event is posted I will put it up on KARA’s website.
2 other thoughts that will stick with me from this meeting are;
1) the short sighted and repeated reference to affordability with little reference to the extraordinary cost of not valuing children enough to insure basic health and skills,
&
2) Governor Dayton’s remarks about how infighting among service providers could damage his efforts to provide funding for badly needed programs (which certainly would not serve the children we were there to talk about).
The cost of children not able to achieve the coping skills needed to succeed in school, with peers, and in life, are exponentially higher than providing subsidized daycare, crisis nurseries, and early childhood programs.
Without help, the traumas of abuse and neglect last a lifetime and cost a fortune over that person’s lifetime. Art Rolnick’s work at the Federal Reserve proving a 17 dollar return on each dollar invested in early childhood programs for the average child pales in comparison to the dollar invested in the at risk child. A single child in my caseload cost the county (and County) in excess of two million dollars) that could have been a fraction of that cost if addressed adequately (and he is still a young man with a long, expensive, dysfunctional life in front of him).
At Risk Children Need A Voice & KARA Needs You To Help Us Speak!
Help us grow Kids At Risk Action to make it a strong force to change to child protection and help at risk children.
Join us at Facebook
Join us at Twitter
Join us right here (for weekly email updates – Friday’s at 9am)
Buy our book or request it from the library, or donate (any amount)
You can listen to Invisible Children audio book here (free)
, Tiffini Flynn Forslund and Mike Tikkanen from Kids At Risk Action will speak about education, child abuse, and child protection at Holy Nativity Church in New Hope from 9:30 to 10:20 this coming Sunday. Be there, it’s always engaging.
If you are or have been a CASA, and like research and writing, contact KARA and let’s talk. Mike@invisiblechildren.org
If you know someone that is or has been a CASA, please share this with them.
Abused and neglected children need our voices.
KARA is working with TPT TV to give them a loud and clear voice &
a path to a safer, better life.
Below are short clips from KARA’s documentary project
Watch & Help KARA make this happen.
These brief (2 minutes each) video interview excerpts tell powerful stories of child abuse and child protection in our community.
Share these links with your friends and networks & remember KARA presentations for your next community, religious or business event topic.
support CASA MN with a year end gift here;
“To give a child a volunteer advocate is to give them a voice. To give them a voice is to give them hope, and to give them hope is to give them the world.
I believe that with all my heart.”
Pamela Butler, Former Foster Child
At CASA Minnesota we believe that every child deserves a voice. CASA volunteers provide the voice for children who are experiencing times of great vulnerability due to abuse and neglect. Support from people like you means that we can assist in recruiting committed advocates to be that voice for children involved in juvenile court proceedings. Your tax-deductible investment in our nonprofit program allows us to provide resources to enhance recruitment, training, retention and support for more than 470 CASA Minnesota volunteers every year – caring, knowledgeable people who make sure the best interests of these children are served.
Thanks to support from our community, our volunteers are the dedicated champions that children need while facing the unknown. Consider Janell. She was just over four years old when she entered the court system. Sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend, parental rights were eventually terminated when reunification was not an option. Her volunteer advocate saw a solution. He was vocal in supporting adoption by her foster mother with whom Janell had developed a strong attachment. Now 11 years old, Janell plays acoustic guitar, writes songs, does yoga with her adoptive mom, plays basketball and soccer, and likes math and reading. She is able to see her siblings on a regular basis as well. Without a volunteer advocate taking part in this process, this may not have been a successful outcome for this child.
Our mission at CASA Minnesota is to assist in recruiting, training and supporting the important volunteers who advocate for abused and neglected children like Janell. Will you please consider a year-end gift to help us continue our important work? Your donation will make it possible for us to give a voice of hope to children and support for those who serve them. You can change the life of a child in need. You can give by going to https://givemn.org/organization/Casa-Minnesota .
I’ve taken from Brandon Stahl’s article on uninvestigated child sex abuse cases that someone has decided that children reported as sexually abused before 2013 will go uninvestigated and stay where they are (even if they are still being sexually abused) as the County doesn’t see it important to put resources to finding out if these children are still endangered.
In my caseload as a CASA volunteer guardian ad-Litem, I know children as young as two who were sexually abused – and the resulting traumas that followed them for life. They deserve to be rescued.
I find this cheap, short sighted policy making appalling and I know that it is much more costly to ignore them than to do the right thing.
Will someone besides Brandon Stahl please speak out for these kids?
What kind of a community writes off the worst kinds of child abuse for relatively modest financial reasons?
Any investigation into the financial aspects of these bad decisions will discover that we do not save money by allowing children to remain in horridly abusive homes.
These are the kids with severe behavioral problems and poor coping skills that fail in our schools, become preteen moms, adolescent felons, and make our communities unhealthy and unsafe.
What costs money are failing schools, unsafe streets, prisons and recidivism (70% nationally).
What a cold hard people we have become (and bad at math).