Tip of Children’s Mental Health Iceberg
For emergency room doctors, they are a sad and familiar sight: Children returning again and again in the grip of mental health crises
All About ACEs (adverse childhood experience) Trauma, Testing, & Resilience
All About ACEs (adverse childhood experience) Trauma, Testing, & Resilience
Why Children Need Mandated Reporters
https://invisiblechildren.org/2013/07/04/mandated-reporting-or-basic-responsibility-its-absence-is-killing-wisconsin-pennsylvania-children/ Facebook Replacing Mandated Reporters for Child Abuse? Don’t Blame The Mandated Reporter (why child abuse reporting is sporadic) Fear and Firing of Mandated Reporters of Child Abuse Being A Mandated Reporter (and what it means) Reporting Maltreatment Of Children; How Minnesota Does It (State Statute – 626.556) Tolerating Child Death in Minnesota (thank you…
International Rights of the Child Treaty (& why jails are full)
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.
KARA – CASA Google Ad Grant Initiative ($120,000 annually)
KARA’s
Google Ad Grants
fully funded Initiative for
CASA’s & Service Providers
To At-Risk Children
International Rights of the Child VS. Child Rights In America
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.
What Teachers Are Facing Today and Tomorrow
Teachers feel undervalued and overwhelmed.
Turnover his high and a number of states are using
unqualified people to fill positions.
What To Do For At Risk Children (a list of important things)
What To Do For At Risk Children (a list of important things) From easy and quick to hard and long, a list (in progress – your suggestions welcome)
If you are concerned about at-risk children where you live, Check it Out!
United Nations Youth Conference (2007 – what’s changed?)
Kids At Risk Action presented a workshop at the fourth annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations in New York
Child Protection/CPS: If Lawmakers Only Knew
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.
Non Transparency in Child Protective Services (CPS)
Nontransparency in Child Protective Services (CPS) + Family Assessment vs. CPS investigation
KARA – CASA Ad Grant Initiative ($120,000 annually)
Google Fully Funded Initiative For
CASA’s & Service Providers
Professionalism In Child Protection
Professionalism In Child Protection “professionalize” the Guardian ad Litem role vs leveraging a both paid staff and trained volunteers
A COVID WAVE? (the double whammy of 2 years of ACEs on children and community)
A COVID WAVE? (the double whammy of 2 years of ACEs on children and community)
Mike Tikkanen’s Public Comments to the Guardian ad Litem Cost Effectiveness Analysis Report
Mike Tikkanen’s Public Comments on the Guardian ad Litem Cost Effectiveness Analysis
for the Minnesota Guardian ad Litem Board Dated September 15, 2023
This report (the actual final report is posted below)
International Rights of the Child Treaty (& why jails are full)
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.
A Courageous Vote! Thank You Minnesota Guardian ad Litem Board For Saving CASA Volunteer Program
Thank you, Former MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz, for your comments and questions at this board meeting. Your words enlightened board members of the need for an open and objective investigation into the CASA volunteer program in the effort to provide safety and stability to Minnesota’s abused and neglected children.
Highlights on Family Assessment and Child Death from Star Tribune Child Abuse Reporting Part I
These highlights on Family Assessment and Child Death from recent Star Tribune Child Abuse reporting (1, 2, 3) are the tip of the iceberg. Read to the end to get KARA’s historical perspective of how Child Protective Services (CPS) has evolved over the years and its current iteration.
CASA MN Newsletter (Guardian ad Litem News & Updates)
CASA MN Newsletter (Guardian ad Litem News & Updates)
CASA MN Rebuttal To MAD Guardian ad Litem Report
Chair Parkin and MN GAL Board members:
Considering all the challenges facing the Minnesota Guardian ad Litem program, it is devastating to our state’s most vulnerable children that so much effort has been misdirected here.
Child Abuse & Trauma Post COVID Statistics (guest post Lauren Begin Baypath U)
The COVID lockdown has kept at risk children in toxic homes for long periods without access to mandated reporters or the safety they provide. The traumas suffered and behavior issues that follow severe abuse need to be addressed for these young citizens to lead normal lives.
Inside the Henn Cty Guardian Ad Litem Office Today
The push to diminish/eliminate the CASA Volunteer workforce of Hennepin County’s Guardian ad Litem Program is impacting office morale for both paid and volunteer GALS. We’ve gone from about 250 volunteers to 32 remaining under new leadership in the last five years. CASA’s supporting program, CASAMN has over 200 volunteers waiting to be GALs –…
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…
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…
Child Protection – What it Means
Returning abused children into the care of criminally violent caregivers is a death sentence for many children. Speak for a child and share this information…
Metrics That Matter (and NOT reported)
Costs of not knowing the reality of child abuse, trauma and child protection in Minnesota are high Children are dying at the hands of caregivers while in Child Protective Services
Metrics That Matter (and those that don’t)
Metrics are the heart of the matter. Measuring the wrong things wastes money, makes failure likely and problems fester…
Tracking, recording and making available meaningful information shines a light on what’s working and failing – The opposite is continued darkness…
Saving the CASA Volunteer Community Guardian ad Litem Program
Thank you Rich Gehrman and Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota for supporting Minnesota’s 10,000 CASA (over 40 years) Community Guardian ad Litem volunteers!
Safeguarding Gun Rights & Abortion vs. Safeguarding Children
a cruel but accurate point. Our community has a passion for safeguarding adult rights of guns and abortion.
Safe Passage for Children investigation of child death in Minnesota
Math For Legislators (cost of youth crime) Part 1
Most lawmakers know what a big percentage of their budgets is going to social programs like child welfare and child protection.
Not as many understand how tax dollars they appropriate are working to solve the problems they are meant to solve.
Juveniles In Justice
LA & New Jersey ending prison and jails for juveniles and Colorado’s super successful juvenile restorative justice
Today’s Tip of The Tip of Children’s Mental Health Iceberg
“Mental Health Crisis + Emergency Rooms” is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a strong piece demonstrating the huge increase in chemical restraints and ER mental health visits by children, but it misses the heart of the story.
Child Protection, Crime & Preteen Moms
Star Tribune Nowhere To Go For Most Troubled Youth, crime, preteen moms and juvenile injustice
Child Protection Statistics and Carjackings
Child Protection Statistics and Carjackings;To solve carjackings and 83% and 90% recidivism rates, we need to track the successes and failures of children in State care if we are to improve their lives and strategies in place today.
Arming Teachers/Shooting Students (advocating for less violence and a more civil society)
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.
Kamari Gholston’s Death & Child Protection in MN
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…
BY ANY MEASURE
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…
Free and Discounted Resources for Youth (+ Holiday Gifting)
Foster Child Sites That Give & Need Help
Human Rights and the Psychotropic Medicating of Children
Human Rights and the Psychotropic Medicating of Children is common in foster care and juvenile justice in the U.S. Self-harm and suicidal ideation play a roll in the early death and physical harm these children suffer.
Free and Discounted Resources for Foster Youth
Foster Child Sites That Give & Need Help