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.
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
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…
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.
The Covid-19 pandemic is keeping children locked in toxic homes in Minnesota -Too many fostered youth are aging out of care – We need more forever families for our fostered youth today.
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!
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
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…
Recent KARE11 reporting brings full circle the events, sadness as MN Supreme Court ruling
allows Child Protective Services to be held responsible for Eric Dean’s death.
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.
These articles about child abuse and child protection
have been gathered in Minnesota over the last 60 days
Safe Passage for Children has followed up on the task force convened after the colossal failure of child protective services responsible for the death of Eric Dean and found that some of it’s recommendations were being ignored. This is a powerful piece
Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota has delivered hard news on what appear to be terrible practices guiding child protection in our community.
over time, institutions cling to self-destructive habits and fight tooth and nail to keep them. Child protective services is not different
“Through his work with Safe Passage, Richard has brought transparency and accountability to the Minnesota child welfare system,”
This three-part mental health program is app based and self-learning (a form of artificial intelligence, it knows the user) and includes unlimited coaching…
Kids At Risk Action writes and reports on child abuse issues
These are just a sampling of the articles appearing in local media in our state the last few months
Kids At Risk Action writes and reports on child abuse issues
providing a passionate voice for Minnesota’s at risk children
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
For many years Rich Gehrman and Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota have organized and delivered support for Minnesota’s abused and neglected children. All Minnesotan’s should be aware of this organization’s efforts to improve services, transparency & policy for the states at risk children.
Below are their most recent blog posts. Join them.
Today’s Safe Passage short post about the impact of poverty and racism on children hits the nail on the head. Decades and generations of children living without enough to eat, access to health and mental health care and all the stress that accompanies people in fear of homelessness and hunger.
Does you community accept young children being expelled from daycare and elementary school? The violence and trauma visited upon us at this time is a direct result of how America treats its children. Life would be way better for all of us if we cared more for other people’s children.
KARA gathers news about Minnesota’s abused children to provide a snapshot of
Child Protection and how our state
values its children.
Only a fraction of serious child abuse makes the news.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
MN reported 28 child deaths from caregivers known to child protective services in 2016 (p64).
17 children were killed by abuse in the past 18 months.
Less than half the deaths of at risk children suffer are reported as such.
Thank you Star Tribune and Brandon Stahl for your in depth reporting on the awful state of child protection in Pope County MN.
Today, Safe Passage for Minnesota children is reporting that Pope County will face no legal penalty for its role in the slow tortured death of 4 year old Eric Dean. Safe Passage states that “if this case doesn’t rise to the level of malfeasance, no case ever will.”
This year Minnesota children were safer and received more services due in large part to the loyal donors and passionate volunteers of Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota.
Safer Children
13,600 more children annually are getting help from county child protection agencies due to changes our passionate volunteers helped make in state law.
More Resources
Counties and the state increased their budgets for child protection and foster care by over $200 million since 2015. In addition, counties added nearly 500 caseworkers – a 60% increase.
As of early 2016, Minnesota had 7,200 children on its waiting list for child care assistance.
There are 1.3 million children In Minnesota & 404,000 of them live below 200% of poverty
KARA gathers news about Minnesota’s at risk children
to provide a snapshot of
how our state
values its children.
Only a fraction of serious child abuse makes the news.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
Follow;
Safe Passage For Children MN (Join their legislative volunteer efforts and make child friendly legislation a reality)
CASAMN (become a guardian ad Litem and speak for abused children)
The Protect Our Children Act of 2008 was intended to curb photos and videos of child sexual assaults posted on the internet. The number of reported images increased from 100,000 in 2008 to 45 million last year.
This reporting over the last 45 days is a fraction of
Recent Minnesota child abuse / child protection issues
Please take a moment and connect to your legislator through this Safe Passage Link and let your legislator know you want children to have access to quality early learning. It only takes a few minutes and gets the message to your representative.
This program reduces child abuse and builds healthy children and communities (and we all want that).
Today’s edition presented multiple articles (linked below) on at risk children and mental health.
It has taken some years to get here but it is apparent to this volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem that my state is waking up to the public health crisis of child protection and children’s mental health.
County Sees Drop in Child Protection Caseloads (by almost half) is the best news I’ve seen about child abuse since the Governor’s Task Force on Child Protection was formed in 2014.
Investing in social workers (adding 262 workers) and transforming the system means…
The Red Lake massacre 13 years ago happened when 16 year old Jeff Weise was ignored and unable to find help after repeatedly talking about homicide and suicide and even posting these thoughts on social media. Within a year after the tragedy, a 3.5 million dollar mental health center was opened on the reservation.
A few years later, I interviewed a police chief from a town of 10,000 people. He spoke of the inability of his officers to provide anywhere near appropriate services or the level of service necessary for health and safety of children and young families in his community.
Child abuse and child protection stories, statistics and policies in MN for January/February 2019
Reporting on child abuse and child protection stories, statistics and policies in MN for January/February 2019
You can help vulnerable Minnesota children today by clicking and sending a message of support to your elected Representative and Senator regarding the following child welfare legislation.
Please help. It only takes a few minutes to make a big difference!
Keeping children with their families through early intervention (a very big deal).
These bills at the State Legislature can help make that happen – Tune into this Safe Passage for Children webinar here for the update on the session and the intervention & support services being proposed to make it happen.
Minnesota is averaging one child abuse murder a month* these past 18 months (thank you Safe Passage for MN Children).
Outside of short media pieces about a caregiver killing the baby, there is no record or institutional score card …
Minnesota’s abused and neglected children need our voices. Share this with your networks;
Recently some legislators and child protection agencies began theorizing that an underlying cause of caseload increases is screening families into the system not because of maltreatment, but as a way to get them scarce social services.
Statistically, this seems unlikely.
According to the Department of Human Services, last year counties screened in 45% of 84,000 maltreatment reports. Since the screen-in rate for states nationally is 60%, this suggests that nearly 12,000 Minnesota children are still being inappropriately denied child protection help.
This important survey of Minnesota’s candidates for Governor shed’s light on what’s in store for children after the election.
Notice that only one of these candidates did not respond to the Safe Passage Survey. This same candidate (and Governor) years ago told KARA board member David Strand and State Legislator Andy Dawkins that “Children that are the victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem of the State of Minnesota”.
Read the Governor Candidates Responses Here
Share this widely to insure children get a voice in the next election.
Decades of policy makers not understanding or ignoring mental health issues and failing to see the explosive growth of veterans returning with life destroying PTSD, the huge increase of children in child protection resulting from less help for young families suffering from generational child abuse & trauma is coming down hard on schools, law enforcement and health providers. All our institutions and communities are paying the price.
Sue Abderholden (Sunday Star Tribune) is far too kind to legislators and administrators who make the policies impacting young families and other people needing help in our communities.
Lawmakers saving small dollars by not supporting basic services (crisis nurseries, daycare or mental health services) are costing taxpayers decades of state ward status, crime and preteen pregnancies for people that could have been helped, could have become self-sufficient tax paying community members.
Bravo Safe Passage for your out front efforts to finding out what Minnesota’s Governor candidates know about children’s issues and thank you for getting this information to help voters make better choices. SAFE PASSAGE SURVEY RESPONSES.
If you live with, work with or know at risk children, you know how your community values children. Not much. Since 2004, America had remained 3rd from the bottom on spending for children among the developed nations.
Not long ago, America ranked at the top of quality of life indices and our children had good schools, healthcare and a good chance of becoming productive citizens leading happy lives. American children don’t get healthcare, quality daycare or education and critical prenatal care is very rare.
America’s at risk youth become dysfunctional juveniles, felons and preteen moms living in poverty, jail and prison on their way to becoming the long term problem their parents were to the community.
If you live in Arizona, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, or New Mexico (states treating children the worst) you have known for many years how badly your state treats children and why your schools don’t work, public health and public safety are endangered and communities of poverty outnumber communities of hope and happiness. Share this with your friends and networks (especially your friends in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas & New Mexico)
These articles, stories & statistics reflect current news about abused and neglected through the first half of May 2018. They represent only those stories terrible enough to be reported by the media. All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
Today’s article at Safe Passages for children makes a very serious point.
I advocated for a boy (call him Andy) over many years who was suicidal on multiple occasions. He spoke about his own violence against cops. The hatred Andy had towards police as figures of authority are common to abused children. Andy was suicidal and could have caused his own death by his actions.
When I met Andy, he was 7 years old, covered in bruises, had been left alone in the home tied to a bed for days at a time (from 4 to 7 years of age) without food or water. He was on multiple psychotropic medications for his profound mental health issues.
Several children in my CASA guardian ad Litem caseload had multiple run ins with police -some very serious. It is dangerous to the officer and the child when there is no coordination between Child Protection & Law Enforcement. All Adults are the Protectors of All Children
This short powerful article from Safe Passage for Children of MN identifies the how and why two girls could be beaten with bats, starved, raped and chained over 12-15 years in the same house and over 50 police calls to the home never resulted in an investigation. The neighbors knew, the police knew, the county knew – but nothing was done.
It’s how Eric Dean the 4 year old was tortured to death while 14 reports of abuse by mandated reporters were ignored. The single visit to the home by child protection workers did not interview the child. If they had, they would have seen the bite marks on his face and head, broken arm and other scars.
We need state wide guidelines to maltreatment reports, statewide coordination of child protection activities and standards for child protection with a focus on keeping children safe.
Safe Passage for Children of MN helps at risk kids get a voice at the State House. A phone call – an hour of your time at the Capital could make a huge difference this year.to make children safe. A very small investment of your time could change laws and do wonders for abused & neglected children.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
This morning’s ebrief from Safe Passage for Children of MN is spot on. Their legislative efforts to stop the practice of advance notice of child protection visits to perpetrators is crucial in ending child abuse. Putting perpetrators in the room with a child during the interview is traumatizing for the child and has a profound impact on what the child will say. Giving perpetrators prior notice of investigations allows them time to threaten and cohearse a child. As a long time CASA guardian ad Litem, this is all too familiar.
Most children are not aware of how wrong their abuse is – what happens at home is by definition normal. My youngest sexual abuse case was 2 years old.
Last week the U of M’s Center for the Advanced Study of Child Welfare presented a proposal for a Child Welfare Training Academy to the Legislative Child Protection Task Force.
Minnesota children deserve a safe childhood that requires social workers have manageable caseloads and sufficient resources. All Adults Are The Protectors of All Children
From Safe Passage For Children of MInnesota