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.
Juveniles In Justice
LA & New Jersey ending prison and jails for juveniles and Colorado’s super successful juvenile restorative justice
Year End Giving for KARA
https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/OTg4ODM
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.
Criminalizing Elementary School Children
When 14-year-old Ryan Turk cut ahead of the lunch line to grab a milk, he didn’t expect to get in trouble. He certainly didn’t plan to end up in handcuffs. But Turk, a black student at Graham Park Middle School, was arrested for disorderly conduct and petty larceny for procuring the 65-cent carton. The state of Virginia is actually prosecuting the case, which went to trial in November.
Changing the rules of the game requires federal, state, and local reforms. With little evidence that police in schools make students safer and plenty that they facilitate harm to students’ liberty and well-being, the Department of Justice should end the cops program’s SRO grants to districts. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for billions that promote unjust school conditions and put kids at greater risk of future involvement with the criminal justice system. And students should feel like they can talk to school officials when they have problems without forfeiting their constitutional rights and winding up in the back of police cars.
If You Knew (what would you do?)
If you knew that the vast majority of youth in Juvenile Justice came through Child Protective Services, would you;
MN Child Abuse News Week of 11.30.22
37% of children overall and 44% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)
Let’s Stop Counties Stealing Money From Foster Children
Repurposing Federal Foster Care dollars have become a “revenue stream” for counties because taking foster child money goes “unnoticed” (from the article). In a perfect world, a County person would raise hell about repurposing foster child dollars to adults (but they don’t because they could lose their job). There is little reporting of and no transparency in the Child Protection System.
Al McFarlane Conversation With Mike Tikkanen and Oliver Williams
The Conversation, with Al McFarlane, DR Oliver Williams and Mike Tikkanen exploring issues facing at risk youth in our community today (1 hour with video).
Childhood Trauma + Historical Trauma = Generational Trauma
Terrible trauma (like generations of slavery) and the behaviors and conflicts it creates need to be identified and discussed if they are to be fixed. Do we want higher graduation rates and lower crime and recidivism rates for our at risk youth and families?
Charlamagne Tha God has Launched a Mental Wealth Alliance Foundation to establish fundamental and far-reaching generational support for Black Mental Health.
Share this widely.
TRAUMA EMPOWERMENT (what I’ve learned)
Trauma empowerment comes from identifying and understanding what has happened. As a CASA guardian ad litem, I’ve come to know many abused children. I was the second person John ever told of the things that were done to him when he was a boy – he died last year at 80. John lived for 30…
Give To the Max Day for KARA
Give To The Max Day Helps KARA Build our Financial Literacy Program!
Tennessee’s Child Marriage Bill & Taliban Doctrine
Massachusetts has the lowest minimum marriage age with parental consent of 14 years old for boys and 12 years old for girls. Afghan parents sell their 7 year-old daughters into arranged marriages & the Taliban has for years practiced child sex abuse.
Tennessee may soon have child brides in common with the Taliban and Afghan parents.
Is This About Child Protection or Something Else?
It has been stated by program management that CASA volunteer time spent with abused and neglected children is of no value. Ask that question of any child removed from the only home they have ever known now passing through the cold scarey institution of judges, courts, foster and group homes where you don’t know anyone and new adult faces come and go after short periods.
Plenty of data Stories and literature provide proof
Self-Destructive Habits & Institutions (Professionalism – Part 5)
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.
Tasered and Tried as Adults
Expelled from elementary school, pregnant in junior high and facing a criminal justice system before they are able to drive a car.
The cost to society in taxes, public health, education and safety is astronomical and the people policing, teaching and caring for these children are stuck in centuries old punishment models that guarantee failure, perpetual pain and broken communities.
What 1.3 Million Dollars Could Provide At Risk Children (Arianna-Hunziker Settlement)
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.
Self-Destructive Habits & Institutions (Guardian ad litem program in MN Today – PART 4)
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”.
Support / Invite a KARA Initiative To Your Campus or Community
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
COVID & Child Abuse in Minnesota
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.
COVID-19 Impact on Child Welfare in Colorado
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
April is Financial Literacy Month (Fostered/Adopted Youth Invited)
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.
Virtual Child Advocacy Week in MN (Making a difference quickly & effectively)
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!
Free Financial Literacy Program for MN’s Fostered & Adopted Youth
Too Many Youth aging out of foster care don’t have the skills to make it in our community. 80% of them go onto lead dysfunctional lives.
To fix this, KARA is launching a FINANCIAL LITERACY PEER GROUP program that will give at risk youth the tools, training, and opportunities they need to succeed.
CHILD WELLBEING NEWS FEB 11-18 2022
(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.
Sex Trafficking & LGBTQ Children & Youth
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.
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…
Financial Literacy – The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Discover KARA’s FREE Financial Literacy Program Here
I tried to kill myself in the third grade
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association have declared a national emergency in children’s mental health, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Covid Related Youth Mental Health Crisis
national emergency of child and adolescent mental health crisis triggered by isolation, uncertainty and grief during COVID.
Minnesota Child Abuse + Child Protection (fall 2021)
These articles about child abuse and child protection
have been gathered in Minnesota over the last 60 days
The School Safety Net
COVID restrictions have locked many more students into toxic homes and made it much harder for teachers to have the relationships necessary to have meaningful conversations and provide help to end the abuse.For many children being able to attend school physically is their only reprieve from an abusive home life and only chance to confide in an adult that can provide a path to safety.
CDC Charts Mental Health & Child Suicide Pre COVID
COVID is Hammering Children’s Mental Health
These charts show steadily rising trends over the ten year period before COVID. The data pointing to youth planning suicide in the past year is very serious (2019).
Recent Child Self-Harm & Suicide (state reporting summer 2021)
Recent Child Self-Harm & Suicide (state reporting summer 2021)
Domestic Violence Report August 2021
For abused children, there have been no classrooms to escape to and many mandated reporters have been unable to visit children to hear their stories and see their bruises.
This must feel like a war to children living in toxic homes.
Domestic Violence Resource Guide (National & International – share this widely)
The United Nation’s-Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that being confined with abusive partners during the pandemic has led to a “horrifying global surge in domestic abuse”. This well organized domestic violence resource guide with hotlines and practical advice …
Supporting Parents of Disabled Children (guest post)
Disabled children are 3 to 10 times more likely to be abused than children without disabilities.
Child Welfare Information (find your state here)
These recent articles reflect the stories of America’s at risk children and youth.
If we don’t know the issues, there doesn’t seem to be a problem.
If we don’t see a problem there is no need for a solution.
Their stories are real.
Find their story in your state.
COVID Complicates the Mental Health of Traumatized Children
The severity of the mental health issues hammering traumatized children suffering from the abuse, neglect and traumas of an entire year of COVID lockdown without respite will become apparent to all of us soon.
Aging Out of Foster Care In the Time of COVID
COVID is coming down hard on foster children.
Pre-COVID, 80% of aged out foster children went on to lead dysfunctional lives.