National CASA Federal Funding Terminated – Share this with your lawmakers
National CASA Federal Funding Terminated
Share these MN Child Friendly Bills With Your State Rep
MN State Legislative session runs through May 19, 2025.
Be a voice for an at-risk child that has no voice and share these Child friendly bills with your state representative. Email them the bill link and a note about why this is important to you. Find your State Rep HERE
The Beatings Will Continue
Yanelin Montalvo-Valdez (yesterday Star Tribune) personifies the pain and punishment heaped upon the 50 innocent children I advocated for as a CASA Guardian ad Litem volunteer
(CASA Guardian ad Litem) Be a Voice For Abused Children Where You Live
Spotify Episode # 30 Click Here For the Audio: What it’s like Being a CASA Child Advocate Summary: This is a short description of one Community CASA Guardian ad Litem’s experience being a child advocate in the Child Protection System.
2025 – A Happier New Year For At Risk Children
2025 – A Happier New Year For At Risk Children
Suicide, Child Abuse and Christmas
Many foster youth and abused and neglected children in toxic homes suffer especially during the holidays. There is no joy in being removed from your birth home or to continue living in a birth home with broken parents and the behaviors that come with abusive caregivers.
About 25% of the children and young adults in California foster care have attempted suicide. 41% of LGBTQ kids seriously thought of killing themselves last year.
Thank You & Happy Holidays
Dear Reader, As the year comes to a close, we want to thank you for following our Saturday INVISIBLE CHILDREN updates. Your readership is helping KARA spread awareness of child abuse and trauma, and the work that needs to be done to save and heal at-risk children. KARA relies on the generosity of our…
Budget Surplus Fund For Children (how to make a Christmas Miracle)
Peter Hutchinson’s recent Star Tribune article points to how the current MN budget surplus could fully fund programs that would make children healthier, better educated and (ALL OF US) safer.
Why Children Need Mandated Reporters
http://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…
Realities of Mandated Reporting (why child abuse reporting is sporadic)
Mandated Reporters genuinely fear for their safety and reputation and regularly fail to report (or, “see”) horrific child abuse to avoid potential damage to themselves.
COVIDs Impact on CPS, CASA volunteers, & Guardian ad Litem Staff
COVIDs Impact on CPS, CASA volunteers, & Guardian ad Litem Staff
One Question KARA Survey
What topic needs more attention on KARA’s website?
Email you answer to info@invisiblechildren.org with SURVEY in the subject line.
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
Child Welfare News Fall 2024 (compiled articles)
KARA compiles child abuse and neglect stories and data about
abused and neglected children
America’s Children In 100 Charts (draft preface)
America’s Children In 100 Charts
Child abuse is invisible. It is a core problem in every American community impacting all of us, our institutions, and every aspect of our quality of life every day.
Don Samuels’ Story (from KARA 2014 archives)
As part of KARA’s TPT documentary project I interviewed Minneapolis City Councilman / Mayoral candidate Don Samuels recently. He described his experiences as a volunteer CASA guardian ad-Litem, North Side resident, and city councilman that were relevant to child well-being and child protection.
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.
Thank You Highland Banks
For over twenty years
Highland Banks and their employees
have supported KARA
and other child advocate organizations in Minnesota.
Fetal Alcohol Births (and a very big policy change)
Minnesota has ended criminalizing fetal alcohol birth mothers with the hopes of better results by recommending treatment instead of mandatory programs and prosecution for failure.
Non-Transparency In Child Protective Services (find your state here)
Read more below to follow the conversation
about the absence of transparency in
Child Protective Services
Parsing the Data (how child abuse impacts your community)
How Child Abuse Impacts Your Community
How Child Abuse Impacts Your Community
Without help, most badly traumatized/abused children become troubled youth leading lifetimes as dysfunctional adults.
Child Suicide – Quick Facts
Repeated childhood trauma does cruel things to children. Things that never go away. Those things (behaviors/thoughts/self-harm/suicide) can be managed with help. Without help, depression, pain and sadness often become overwhelming.
Minnesota Child Protection News May 2024
Minnesota Child Protection News May 2024 Share these articles with media contacts,
lawmakers and other changemakers. Change won’t come without you.
U.S. Child Welfare Articles May 8 & 9 2024 – (From the Children’s Bureau)
Sign up HERE for KARA’S free Friday updates Support KARA Programs Here KARA Maintains this site with the hope that this information will compel you to share it with media contacts, lawmakers and other changemakers. change won’t come without you. KIDS AT RISK NONPROFIT EIN: 510570258 INVISIBLECHILDREN – KARA (KIDS AT RISK ACTION Who represents me in…
New Child Fatalities Database (thank you Safe Passage for Children of MN)
New Child Fatalities Database (thank you Safe Passage for Children of MN)
MN Child Abuse Reporting April 1 – May 9 2024
MN Child Abuse Reporting April 1 – May 9 2024 | INVISIBLE CHILDREN
The Best Interest of Children
We all care about the best interests of children. “We all know that – despite what everyone wants – right now, there are too many children
suffering from abuse and neglect.
CASA of Rock County’s Break The Cycle Luncheon
CASA of Rock County’s Break The Cycle Luncheon
DATA WORTH HAVING (for making informed decisions)
Is Child Protection Services (CPS) creating what it was designed to stop? KARA reports on the issues of invisible children This article submitted by Former CASA Guardian Ad Litem Mike Tikkanen Signup For KARA’s FREE Friday Morning Updates All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children INVISIBLECHILDREN – KARA (KIDS AT RISK ACTION This…
Keep Minnesota children safe in Child Protection
Today’s Safe Passage for Children of MN’s action request to keep children safe in Child Protection: A small effort with big dividends. Share this with your State Representative (find them here). On Monday, a group of us gathered at the Capitol to meet with key legislators about Minnesota’s child protection system. We shared the stories…
KARA – CASA Ad Grant Initiative ($120,000 annually)
Google Fully Funded Initiative For
CASA’s & Service Providers
New Linked In Group For Volunteer CASAs & All Guardian ad Litem (interactive)
KARA’s New Linked In Group Guardian ad Litems Exchanging Learning & Ideas is gathering and sharing information from the 950 CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates) in the U.S. and similar child advocacy models around the world. Please share this with your child advocacy friends wherever they may be: Search for: Guardian ad Litems sharing conditions,…
America’s Crazy World of Child Protection (find your state here)
America’s Crazy World of Child Protection (find your state here)
Were Governor Walz State Board Members Misled About Volunteers (and what it could mean)?
There is a political battle being waged over the elimination of qualified community volunteers in Child Protective Services. There are too many pieces of this puzzle to include in this article, but one piece must be addressed to determine if wrongdoing has happened in the drive to eliminate the Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers. KARA has sent two requests to Governor Walz Guardian ad Litem State Board members over the past few months requesting a conversation about their role in making this critical decision.
Thank You & Happy Holidays
Dear Reader, This year, KARA provided over $10,000 in Financial Literacy enrichment grants to program participants, executed three college and community center INVISIBLE CHILDREN CAMPUS CONVERSATIONS, 23 business and community presentations, and almost finished KARA’s new book AMERICA’S CHILDREN IN 100 CHARTS in 2024. As the year comes to a close, we want to…
CASA MN Newsletter (Guardian ad Litem News & Updates)
CASA MN Newsletter (Guardian ad Litem News & Updates)
Have Governor Walz State Board members been mislead?
Dear Reader,Allowing the State board to eliminate 10,000 future volunteers (over the next 40 years) at a time when we are reporting on children murdered by their parents may be an unfixable mistake costing even more children their lives.
Rebuttals to the State MAD report from several top child advocates here;
MN Children, Institutional Regression and Brain Surgery
When we say it’s not brain surgery it’s because a task is easy – it doesn’t demand much training or experience. There are times the phrase is meaningful and times it is painfully inappropriate. This article in the Star Tribune explains that corrections officers, human services technicians and staff in state veterans homes will not…
Rich Gehrman Rebuttal of MAD Volunteer Guardian ad Litem Report
The analysis by MAD is not, in my view, sufficiently compelling in some important respects to support the board in managing this risk. While I understand from a previous board meeting I attended as well as a legislative hearing on the topic that the board has been guided in this deliberation by staff, this decision is yours alone, and you alone will be accountable for what happens in the future as a result.
Save MN CASA Community Volunteers With Your Public Comment Today! (takes just a minute)
We are fighting to keep the community volunteer CASA
Guardian ad Litems in the Child Protection System.
We need your written public comments here.
Children & Gun Violence (as American as Apple Pie)
2020, he child and teen gun death rate in the U.S. was more than 3 times higher than that in Turkey, the country with the next highest rate; 11 times higher than in Israel; 19 times higher than in Switzerland and 85 times higher than in the United Kingdom
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…
Minnesota Children Killed By Caregivers While Known to CPS (& how to stop it)
There is a real lack of data and transparency in CPS which makes it hard to know outcomes short of child death.
72% of of the 88 child maltreatment deaths studied (complete study below) were known to CPS. We do know that there were many reports of life changing violence, neglect and abuse but few follow ups.
Why Things Get Worse
During the lockdown, abused children were literally trapped at home with their abusers. This multiplied the stress on Child Protection Services as an institution and on the social workers doing their best in an impossible situation.
73% Increase in Suicide Attempts by Suicide 10-12 Year-Olds
COVID’s impact on children’s mental health will be felt for a very long time. Especially vulnerable are children suffering from extended exposure to violence and deprivation that lived in toxic homes without access to help during the pandemic lockdowns – Read the MedPage article here…
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.
Tracking Success (and Failure) in Child Protective Services
Minnesota’s Child Protective Services (CPS) received 85,000 child abuse calls in 2019 (about 1/3 of the calls were investigated).
Minnesota children killed due to maltreatment (NEWS RELEASE)
Report documents system failures in cases of Minnesota Children Killed due to Maltreatment short (KSTP video)
Metrics of Minnesota’s Child Protection (what does your state measure?)
Recent Star Tribune articles about juvenile justice and explosive growth of crime in our community miss the heart of the matter. We keep putting fires out that could have been prevented. The car jackings, transit crimes and other juvenile violence making life miserable for so many of us didn’t begin when these children became juveniles. It started with traumas suffered in the home mostly caused by parents that suffered the same violence and abuse as children.