Adolescents who had more than one suicide attempt prior to their initial hospitalization were 102% more likely to be re-hospitalized within 5 years for a suicide attempt than adolescents who had no prior attempts2.
Not far from my home, six year old Kendrea Johnson suicided by hanging while in foster care. Gabriel Fernandez & Seven year old Gabriel Myer suicides drew national media attention about the same time.
My first visit to a four year old State Ward as a CASA volunteer guardian ad Litem was at the suicide ward of a local Hospital. That visit to a tiny little girl who failed to kill herself has caused me to rethink child protection.
Kendrea (6) and Gabriel (7) successfully hung themselves a few years ago. They came from different states but suffered the same afflictions. Kendrea lived not far from me.
As a CASA guardian ad Litem, the commonality of self hate by the children I worked with in child protection – being so different, so unlovable that even your mother abandoned you, is devastating.
Happy GrandParent’s Day (volunteering, kinship & raising a grandchild)
If you knew that the vast majority of youth in Juvenile Justice came through Child Protective Services, would you;
Recent Child Welfare Articles & Statistics Summer 2022
School is about to start for students across the state. For many of our Foster leaders, the classroom was a place of refuge, where, unlike their time in foster care, they had agency and connections. Over 80% of high school Fosters want to continue with post-secondary education, but that dream was financially out-of-reach for…
After the COVID19 lockdowns are lifted, and children and teachers return to the the classroom after months of fear and isolation, wouldn’t it be wonderful if students and teachers do not have to replace the daily fear of a virus with the daily fear of violence?
What can the community do to make that happen?
How many teachers have combat training or signed up to pack a weapon when they entered the profession? Turnover in education is already a huge problem. Packing a gun is what police and soldiers do. Shooting someone takes training – shooting the right person takes extensive training. For decades now, guns have been more often used for suicide than self-defense in America. This is true also for domestic violence.
Self-Destructive Habits & Institutions (Professionalism – Part 5)
Volunteers lack “professionalism” is a primary argument management is using to eliminate the community CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer guardian ad Litem program in Minnesota.
Arianna Hunziker 1.3 million dollar settlement. Blaming child protection workers solves nothing. It’s counter productive – people in these fields are asked to do more than they ever can do. It’s very hard work with too much sadness and failure.
MN Senior Judge Lyonel Norris has stated that, “…an all employee model can create an institutionalizing effect upon a child”. I would add “an even greater” institutionalizing effect upon a child”.
Eliminating the Volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) will hurt children, institutions, and our quality of life for years to come. Minnesota youth and young families are struggling. They need more, not less help.
READ TO THE END TO LEARN THE COSTS OF CRIME IN AMERICA TODAY
Are children property of their parents even if those parentsre violent, addicted, severely mentally ill or dangerously criminal?
Child Rights, Religion, Parents & Making America Work Again
There may be no single right answer
to the problems of Child Protection in Minnesota –
but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
Support – invite a KARA initiative to your campus or community! Financial Literacy For At Risk Youth 18 & Up – Invisible Children Campus Conversation –
Portages Skill Building
American schools are at a low point today. Teaching is harder than ever and performance is suffering across all ages. In Minneapolis today, 24% of Black 3rd graders are reading at grade level.
Star Tribune’s Investigative journalist Paul Walsh coverage of toddler Kamari Gholston’s death today shines a light on the importance of public understanding and support for Child Protective Services in our state.
Kamari’s death resembles Eric Dean’s case of 2014. Except Kamari…
Child Welfare Articles and Statistics For Week of 6.10.2022
The KARA article below from 2016 about the Mormon & Baptist Church hiding abuse provides insight into how hard it is to achieve transparency and accountability in children’s rights issues. This May 2022 NY Times article captures the fact that not much has changed.
This NY Times article about Baptist Sex-abuse survivors shines a light on the commonality of child sex abuse in America. For a very long time, Tennessee allowed ten year olds to wed (almost always to older men).
To date this study documents parents who got this virtual free pass despite refusing medical treatment for children injured in a car crash, enabling sexual abuse of an infant, and a criminal conviction for malicious punishment of a child…,
The KARA financial GRANT & literacy program is a place to learn, discuss and ask questions, skill building and meaningful guidance to help teenagers and young adults start their financial journey off on the right path.
Removing 100’s of Community Volunteers from Child Protection (why?) an accurate and troublesome picture of the conditions facing Minnesota’s at risk children today.
How we value children in MN. 2/3 of new moms take unpaid leave after childbirth. Minnesota is the 4th most expensive state for infant daycare ($16,087/yr). Nationally, single moms and the working poor are often paying over half their income for infant center care and married parents would pay over 100% of their household income for center based care (but they don’t because it just doesn’t work).
CHILD ABUSE & SELF-HARM – “Up to 79% of individuals who self injure report physical and/or sexual abuse during his or her childhood”
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
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
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.
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…
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!
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.
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 COSTS MORE THAN COLLEGE TUITION IN 34 STATES
(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? 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.
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.
Discovering the CASA volunteer guardian ad-Litem program can make your community a happier and safer place for abused and neglected children.
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.
Black girls are 49% of trafficking victims even though they only make up for 19% of
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.
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…
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…
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…
America is the only nation on earth that is not a party to the international rights of the child treaty of 1989.
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, 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.
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