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.
While the article from the Child Welfare Monitor by Judith Schagrin
refers to Child Protection conditions in Maryland,
it is clear the crisis exists in every state.
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 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…
The American Medical community has joined forces to declare a national emergency in children’s mental health, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today’s declaration is an urgent call to policymakers at all levels of government — we must treat this mental health crisis like the emergency it is,” said AAP President Lee Savio Beers, MD, …
How did you come to terms with your identity?
Being queer and the sexuality part wasn’t as hard for me. I always knew I liked women. The journey was then finding out who else I liked and what I didn’t like. I feel like when you first join the community, you’re not always presented with how many identities there are. I feel like a lot of people tend to come in uneducated, and I think that’s definitively how I came in. I come from a very homophobic town, so we didn’t have that many people that were out. I didn’t know much. I started identifying as queer because I’m still not sure. My gender identity took a lot longer…
This is a book about childhood trauma, its impact on children and the impact traumatized youth are having on our communities and society. It is a guide to seeing and dealing with the most critical issues and causes of abuse, and solutions.
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.
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.
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…
For every six-year old foster child’s successful suicide (Kendrea Johnson), there are hundreds of attempts and many hundreds of self-harming incidents in hospitals and Child Protective Services (CPS) – many if not most of these incidents are never reported.
For every child killed while in child protection (recent Safe Passage investigative study of child maltreatment deaths) there are hundreds of children starved, beaten, raped and otherwise abused that are never known outside the home
Their Stories (children in need of protection)
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
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.
Minnesota’s Child Protective Services (CPS) received 85,000 child abuse calls in 2019 (about 1/3 of the calls were investigated).
Report documents system failures in cases of Minnesota Children Killed due to Maltreatment short (KSTP video)
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.
LA & New Jersey ending prison and jails for juveniles and Colorado’s super successful juvenile restorative justice
At Rutherford County’s Hobgood elementary school,
An 8 year old, two 9 year old’s and an 11 year old walk into a principal’s office…
And are arrested and handcuffed (“out of habit” said officer Jeff Carroll).
https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/OTg4ODM
“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.
Out of the blue murderous psychosis in normal people is rare.
It’s not likely that this boy led a normal life prior to this violence.
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.
As former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz so aptly stated, “the difference between that poor child and a felon is about eight years”
Vote for mental health services and child friendly programs for at risk children and call your state legislators and tell them to do the same.
Once these very troubled children become old enough to impact their surroundings they do so in a most troubling manner. That’s why our jails are full and our schools are troubled.
From the study; “In other words, by one mechanism or another, more than 200,000 individuals under the age of 18 are prosecuted in criminal court each year. There are three trends in the data worth noting…
Where does your state rank in protecting children & what can you do to make improvements. These statistics tell the stories of our best and worst states around the nation
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.
If you knew that the vast majority of youth in Juvenile Justice came through Child Protective Services, would you;
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)
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.
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).
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 Helps KARA Build our Financial Literacy Program!
KARA Current Initiatives
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
(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.
Child Protection or Child Endangerment? This article from Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota mirrors my experience as a CASA volunteer guardian ad litem. They are investigating 80 child murders by caregivers in MN since 2015.
More than 285,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine -America has had 57 times as many school shootings as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom all combined.
Discover KARA’s FREE Financial Literacy Program Here
Kids At Risk Action gathers stories and statistics
about child abuse and child welfare
State By State + International)
national emergency of child and adolescent mental health crisis triggered by isolation, uncertainty and grief during COVID.
At Rutherford County’s Hobgood elementary school,
An 8 year old, two 9 year old’s and an 11 year old walk into a principal’s office…
And are arrested and handcuffed (“out of habit” said officer Jeff Carroll).