Speak For An Abused Child in Court (short video) WE NEED YOU!

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection

Volunteer: Be the voice for a child that doesn’t have one! (Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area OPPORTUNITIES)

One hundred and seventy five Hennepin County children are without a guardian ad litem today – WE NEED VOLUNTEERS.

Do you know any? Send this to a friend and share it with your social media.

With the response to recent reporting of child abuse and child death in MN, a corresponding increase of child abuse cases are entering the system & means that volunteers are badly needed.

Recent Stories, Statistics & Articles About Adoption & Foster Care

Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action

After a 9 day trial, foster mom Melissa Sondrol was convicted of of assaulting her infant state ward child, breaking multiple bones and withholding medical information from providers. The court was not allowed to hear her prior histories of abuse. This infant has suffered for years in MN and will live a life very different from other children due to the traumas visited upon him as a foster child – and the things that happened to him prior to entering child protection.

Stories about the shortage of foster care providers, lack of training and resources and transparency within the system are not uncommon – remember, we only read about the very worst cases – the sadness in foster care goes much deeper.

It Didn’t Start In a Vacuum (crime – impact & statistics)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Juvenile + Criminal Justice

DJ Tice Star Tribune article recently made crime very real by describing his wife’s rape, his own assault and home burglary along with the awful Barry Latzer assumption that 80% of Americans could become victims of a violent crime in their lifetime.

No obfuscation here.

Crime hurts when it happens to you or someone you love.

What best should be done about crime and punishment is our national conundrum.

Damn the data, “hanging’s too good for em’ and “lock em up” our national chant for fifty years bringing us such data as;

Hard to Watch; Immigration & Children as Political Footballs

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

Dropping napalm on children and families in Vietnam (PBS video) was an unforgivable evil. Thousands of small children died by napalm.

Burned alive is the most painful death anyone can suffer. Survivors live with scars and trauma that never end.

Today, my government takes helpless babies & children from parents and places them in the custody of money driven defense contractors who warehouse them in cages at vacant shopping centers by the thousands.

The American Psychological Association condemns this act as needlessly cruel threatening “the mental and physical health of both the children and their caregivers”.

*Torturing immigrant children for political reasons is a vile act and it needs to be called out. *The World Health Organization defines torture as “extended exposure to violence and deprivation”.

International Child Well-Being (stories, statistics and videos)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - International

We all look to the government to provide support in order to protect our children.

Eshanee’s reporting points to a disturbing trend of state inaction in preventing or even intervening in child welfare violations.

To hold our governments accountable and to ensure the well-being of children, more of us need to

contact our local politicians and policy makers and make our concerns known.

Children have no voice in politics, law or the media.

We must be relentless to effect change.

Be the Squeaky Wheel for Children

Give A Child A Voice (save the date)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, KARA News and Events

This is unlike any other volunteer experience. The impact you can have on a child’s life is tremendous. Currently, there are hundreds of children in Hennepin County alone, waiting for a GAL, their spokesperson, their advocate.

Thank you for your interest in — and for considering advocating for — the abused and neglected children in our community! We look forward to seeing you and please feel free to invite others!

Teachers Are People Too

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Day Care and Education

This KARA post from 2005 suggests a significant improvement in graduation rates in Minneapolis schools. No Child Left Behind really did leave behind a great many children.

From our 2005 piece;

Roosevelt High school graduated 28% of its students last year—Minneapolis and other big city schools averaged graduation rates between 50% and 60% nationwide. 25% of graduating U.S. high school seniors are functionally illiterate.

Teachers and school administrators are accused of bad stewardship. That is like blaming the police for who sits in the back seat of a squad car. It’s not their fault.We are all in this together, or as Pliny the elder said 2500 years ago, “what we do to our children, they will do to our society”

California Child Protection Updates thru May 2017

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

KARA gathers news about abused abused children in America and around the world to provide a snapshot of Child Protection and how states and nations value their children.

Kids At Risk Action needs an aspiring writer/research to help gather and report on these stories.

If you are an aspiring writer/researcher with an urge to speak for your communities abused and neglected children,

Contact mike@invisiblechildren.org with REPORTING in the subject line.

All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children

Valuing Other People’s Children

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths

The U.S. rates badly among industrialized nations in how we treat and value children. America is the only nation in the world to not sign the International Rights of the Child Treaty.
Today’s post by Safe Passage for Children of MN shows how badly our state compares to the rest of the nation in protecting at risk children.
“What we do to our children they will do to society”.
This statement is as true today as it was 2000 years ago when Pliny the Elder made it.
All Adults Are the Protector of All Children

Judge Kavanaugh, The Catholic Church, Statistics & Child Sex Abuse

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths

The miserable politics of rape at the highest level in our government are playing out today. Once more, sexual violence is in the spotlight as America’s second recent Supreme Court nominee (Kavanaugh) is being questioned about horrid behaviors of a sexual nature.

This topic has few friends. It remains under the surface until someone makes a painful accusation and the community accepts or rejects the accuser.

Our attention lately has been on the tens of million and hundreds of million dollar verdicts awarded to victims of church sanctioned child abuse (3 billion to date).

Only Evil Governments Torture Other People’s (Immigrant) Children

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

Losing 1475 migrant children as a political statement was an awful example of what America is becoming know for internationally.

Letting Migrant Kids Rot in shabby poorly run centers for months or years stinks of racism & an administration without a conscious.

Boarder agents threatening children with adoption and Drugging them just adds a vile and criminal element to the equation. If these children die will there be consequences?

TC NonViolent Event – Invisible Children September 25th

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, KARA News and Events

September 25th 4 to 5pm – Chapel

Dayton Av Presbyterian Church

217 Mackubin Street Saint Paul, MN 55102

How childhood trauma evolves into chronic illness, dangerous lifestyle & early death and shadows children into adulthood impacting schools, public safety, public health and quality of life in the community.

What we need to know & need to do to interrupt abuse, heal children and fix our community

How Church & State Bigotry Hurts Abused Children

Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action

Not just anyone can manage adoption or fostering of children that have been tortured by their caregivers*.

Years of child protection work have proven to me that gay couples are not only wonderful parent choices for abandoned children, but that they may be the very best choice.

As outcasts themselves, the GLBT community knows what frightened and alone means to a child and can relate to fear and anxiety of being different in a harsh environment.

Abused children carry their traumas with them and have mental health issues and behaviors that are often uncontrollable, violent and dangerous to themselves and others.

It takes special people to raise traumatized children.

So when the Church or the State refuse gay couples the right to adopt it eliminates an already inadequate pool of foster/adoption families and leaves abandoned children even more alone and frightened at a time they most need a loving home and family. This is a special kind of cruelty and deserves to be outed. Share this widely.

Child Burns, Torture and Trauma for June 2018

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths

Community summit to address childhood trauma
WCTV
(WCTV) — According to Child Protective Services nearly 700,000 children were victims of abuse or neglect in 2016. Experts say those traumatic experiences can leave a lasting impact. The Tallahassee community is now looking to help raise awareness about childhood trauma. It’s one of the many child …
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Stemming the tide of childhood trauma
Anchorage Daily News
As one of the doctors who led the first adverse childhood experiences study says, “What is predictable is preventable.” We can prevent children from experiencing ACEs and we can support the children and adults who have experienced them so that their trauma does not have to lead to negative …
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Speaker’s Bio

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, KARA News and Events

Long time CASA volunteer guardian ad Litem, Fonder of Kids at Risk Action (KARA)Founding board member of CASA MN & Friends of Children (now CASA Cares), author (1000 articles Star Tribune & the book INVISIBLE CHILDREN, national speaker (including United Nations & Women Prison Warden’s conference), CASA volunteer Hennepin County guardian ad-Litem, founding board member of CASAMN, CASA CARES), and Kids At Risk Action.

Mike advocates for abused and neglected children making the rest of us see the profound impact the crisis of childhood trauma is having on our schools, public health, public safety and neighborhoods.

Poor public perception & misguided policies, lack of institutional transparency, awareness and accountability are compounding serious failures in our child protection systems that directly impact each and every one of us in many ways.

By generating conversation around the issue and exposing facts that have for too long been left unspoken, Tikkanen brings attention to ACES, (adverse childhood experiences) and solutions that reverse trends of generational child abuse to make our communities safer and happier places.

Domestic & International Violence Against Children (May 2018) 3

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Domestic Violence

Gov’t, UNICEF, partners launch action plan vs violence against children
ABS-CBN News
The Philippine Plan of Action to End Violence Against Children (PPAEVAC) is a set of strategies and recommendations resulting from the National Baseline Study on Violence against Children in 2016. It is a product of consultations between the government, UNICEF and its partners, and details the roles …

Child Burns, Sex Abuse & Beatings May 2018 (find your state here) 1

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

Accused child killers plead not guilty in Seneca County Court
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
The mother and stepfather of a 3-year-old taken off of life support last week after being beaten until he was brain dead pleaded not guilty to murder …
Seneca Falls couple plead not guilty to beating 3-year-old boy to death – 13WHAM-TV
Couple accused of killing toddler pleads not guilty – Spectrum News

Child Welfare by State (statistics & news April 2018 (8) neglect

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

Today, many state ward children are the 4th and 5th generation of abused children raising their own families without parenting skills and with serious drug, alcohol and mental health issues

37% of children overall and 57% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)

12 million children a year are reported to child protection services each year and in many states, 1/3 of foster children are required to take psychotropic medicines

Child Welfare International April 2018 (6) violence against children

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - International

Today, many state ward children are the 4th and 5th generation of abused children raising their own families without parenting skills and with serious drug, alcohol and mental health issues

37% of children overall and 57% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)

12 million children a year are reported to child protection services each year and in many states, 1/3 of foster children are required to take psychotropic medicines

Stealing Candy From Minnesota Babies (thank you Safe Passage for Children of MN)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - MN Specific

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)

Child Welfare by State (statistics & news April 2018 (5 – foster child)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

American states are struggling to find answers for ending adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and saving at risk children by reversing the explosive growth of child abuse and neglect. Today, many state ward children are the 4th and 5th generation of abused children raising their own families without parenting skills and with serious drug, alcohol and mental health issues

37% of children overall and 57% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)

12 million children a year are reported to child protection services each year and in many states, 1/3 of foster children are required to take psychotropic medicines

Child Welfare by State (statistics & news April 2018 (4)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

KARA’s reporting is only sampling of what should be reported – the great majority of child trauma & abuse is never known.

American states are struggling to find answers for ending adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and saving at risk children by reversing the explosive growth of child abuse and neglect. Today, many state ward children are the 4th and 5th generation of abused children raising their own families without parenting skills and with serious drug, alcohol and mental health issues

37% of children overall and 57% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)

12 million children a year are reported to child protection services each year and in many states, 1/3 of foster children are required to take psychotropic medicines

Child Friendly / Less Friendly Candidates For Governor (thank you Safe Passage For Children MN)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Religion, Politics + the Law

Safe Passage deserves big kudos for this survey of declared candidates for MN Governor. Until recently, not many legislators understood the depth and scope of the problems facing at risk children in our state (or any state).

It is only by asking lawmakers to express their knowledge and views about child abuse and child protection that we can vote in people that understand the traumas these kids suffer from, heal them and l interrupt the epidemic of trauma and abuse in our community that is wrecking our schools, public health and safety.

Read candidate responses here and share this link with your friends and contacts.

Thank you Safe Passage For Children MN

Child Well Being State by State March 2018 (X)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

HI: Girl who was severely beaten after state returned her to mom gets $450K payout (Includes video)
Hawaii News Now – March 02, 2018
Twelve years ago, Shari Rodrigues suffered permanent brain and internal injuries after she was beaten by her biological mother’s boyfriend. The state initially took the girl, who was 2 at the time, away from her mother. The girl was then returned.
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/37636849/girl-who-was-severely-beaten-after-state-returned-her-to-mom-gets-450k-payout

Child Abuse, Death & Trauma March 2019 (IX)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths

Tuesday morning baby death is Milwaukee’s 13th of the year
WISN Milwaukee
Tuesday morning’s death of a five-month-old girl is the 13th baby death so far this year, a medical examiner’s office spokesperson said. Emergency crews called to a residence near North 45th Street and West Glendale Avenue around 3:45 a.m. confirmed the death, which was later said to have been …
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Child Abuse & Trauma State by State (March 2018) VIII

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

AL: & AZ: Lawsuit was catalyst for cutting caseloads in Alabama (Commentary)
Arizona Daily Star – March 08, 2018
Across the state, average caseloads were 65. Within six months, James was the only one of five people hired with him who hadn’t quit. But Alabama’s child welfare system was on the cusp of wholesale reform that took place county by county after a sweeping 1988 lawsuit filed by advocates on behalf of a foster child known as R.C.
http://tucson.com/news/lawsuit-was-catalyst-for-cutting-caseloads-in-alabama/article_c3a733aa-224b-11e8-b859-477daa1e1099.html

What’s a Well Trained Social Worker Worth?

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection

It hurts me to know that I live in a state that pays the least of almost all states in training social workers and continues to underfund the federally mandated guardian ad litem program so severely that over six hundred children do not have a Court Appointed Special Advocate even today. A Court Appointed GAL is the only voice abused children have in court once they have been removed from their homes.

The list of underfunded programs for the most vulnerable citizens in our community is long and been growing (we have the money*).

Without the Star Tribune’s continued reporting on child abuse issues, trauma and abuse would still be non-issues as they were when 3-year-old Dennis Jergens was tortured to death in White Bear Lake in the 1960’s. His mother Lois Jergens went on to adopt four other children by moving out of the state.