A Lethal Absence of Hope
The inability to read almost ensures a child’s failure in school and in life. School failure, feelings of worthlessness, depression and self-hate lead to giving up and the terrible choices left to children that have no hope.
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.
ACE Study, Crime & Ramsey County (reprinted from 2006)
ACE research shows a strong historical pattern of criminality in families of child delinquents. Using Cohen’s estimates, we calculate the multi-generational “multiplier effect” to be between $3.4 and $11.5 million. In these families, criminality is likely to grow exponentially.
Self Destructive Habits & Institutions (CASA guardian ad litem program in MN Today)
over time, institutions cling to self-destructive habits and fight tooth and nail to keep them. Child protective services is not different
Pounding On At Risk Children
Growing up gay is a trauma to start with. Being anxious and feeling alone and different is at the heart of the abuse suffered by both. The traumas of growing up gay and growing up abused are similar.
Free Bikes For Kids Needs Help (to give away bikes)
KARA advocates for the people, policies and programs that improve the lives of abused and neglected children. KARA Signature Video (4 minute) For years FREE BIKES FOR KIDS MN has given away tons of bikes each summer. This year they have put out a call for volunteers to help them make it happen. CLICK here…
For Profit Youth Prisons & False Imprisonment
Youth are two to three time more likely to confess to crimes they did not commit than adults.
Police interrogations using fabricated statements are most likely why. Kids are more intimidated by law enforcement than adults and they break down faster.
There’s just no upside in sending youth to jail. Incarcerating them for crimes they did not commit is a sign of a dysfunctional system. A system that creates what it was designed to stop.
Trauma & Child Self-Harm
Today, the chronic high stress of the COVID lockdown is growing anxiety, depression and behavioral problems everywhere, but especially in the homes of at risk children.
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.
Congratulations Rich Gehrman and Safe Passage For Minnesota Children
“Through his work with Safe Passage, Richard has brought transparency and accountability to the Minnesota child welfare system,”
Child Abuse News & Statistics In Your State
CHILD ABUSE & CHILD PROTECTION IN YOUR STATE
Why Children Are Abused (chapter 3 overview)
WHY CHILDREN ARE ABUSED
Struggles for Foster Care Children in Education
America has long failed to understand and address the underlying issues that drive behaviors of traumatized children. Many end up suspended, expelled or in juvenile justice. Teen and preteen pregnancies are significantly more common among them than with their peers also.
Juvenile Injustice, Race & the Supreme Court
What the jury and others may not have known before the life sentence is that by the age of 14 Miller attempted suicide four times. The first time he tried to kill himself was at the age of six.
Due to experiencing abuse by his stepfather and his mother being a drug addict and alcoholic. The victim was actually his mother’s drug dealer at the time.
Children & Gun Violence (as American as Apple Pie)
n 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
Post COVID Juvenile Justice Trends (Casey Foundation Surveys)
his CASEY Foundation survey shows the population of Black youth in juvenile detention on Feb. 1, 2021, reached a COVID pandemic high, while that of white youth was the second lowest recorded in more than a year.
Aged Out Foster Youth Urged To Return (new federal benefits)
Youth who ‘aged out’ of foster care urged to return
New funding will provide $964 or more per month to eligible youth
Draft KARA Book Chapter 1
KARA’s team is collecting information from teachers, law enforcement, social workers, foster / adoptive parents, university students, adult survivors and traumatized youth to identify and address the causes of child abuse
Child Abuse & the COVID Lockdown
What’s it like for the social worker or guardian ad Litem knowing that the child they are talking to online is living in a toxic home of violence, child abuse and drugs?
It’s Inevitable (police shootings)
America’s militarized police force has become a front line mental health responder in communities suffering from the traumas of job loss, poverty, pandemic anxiety and sickness.
This is likely to result in more George Floyd type killings, more racial outrage and the violence that comes with it.
The Calculus of COVID, Domestic Violence and Child Abuse
What is the equation for a healthy human being or a healthy community? If there is an equation, the wrath of COVID is becoming a huge negative central to the calculation.
Best & Worst States For America’s Children
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
Child Protection/Unassigned CASA Guardian ad Litem Cases
Success Stories & Failure (unassigned child abuse cases)
We all like a happy ending. Especially when kids are involved.
A Marshall Plan For Traumatized Children Post COVID
Children living through the lockdown have more trauma and abuse. They will need help healing and to learn new skills to succeed in school & in the community – become a voice for children
Budget Surplus Fund For Children (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.
Leaving the Field (teachers disappearing)
Today’s Star Tribune article by Erin Golden should put the shivers into all of us for several reasons.
Collateral Damage – ACEs – Education – COVID
COVID collateral damage; Teachers Turning to Other Careers shines a light on the punishing effects of ACES on education in our state…
We Are A Nation of Child Abusers
Nicholas Christof’s article in the NYTimes today points a finger at “pro-family” people “preserving” child poverty in America.
Lest you believe this a stretch, America stands out as the country with the highest child poverty rate and one of the lowest levels of social expenditure. This has been true for many years.
This means food insecurity for five year olds, and the statistical probability that homeless ten year olds are three times more likely to be sexually abused than other children.
There is a heartlessness behind the politics of separating immigrant babies from their mother (over 5000) and not returning those children to their birth parents (over 1000 still are separated today).
We the people now have public policies that have led to the sad reality that;
37% of children are reported to child protection agencies in this nation by their 18th birthday.
almost one third of American children will have a criminal record by their 23rd birthay
80% of youth aging out of foster care lead dysfunctional lives
Child Abuse & Soul Murder (chapter 2)
I’ve come to know 50 beautiful babies and children that have had their souls murdered.
All fifty of my caseload children lived with chronic and serious beatings, rape, starvation and neglect repeatedly over a period of years.
They all died a tragic death of self.
Some watched their mothers being beaten or raped repeatedly, others were beaten, neglected or raped repeatedly. Some of them were regular drug users by 8 or 9 years old.
Pilgrims, Punishment and ACEs (why we have what we have)
America’s pilgrims brought with them a punishment model that remains the heart of our civic and group think today.
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.
Havoc In Texas & Florida Child Protection Services
Dallas News, on March third 2016, almost 6000 children needing immediate contact were not visited by CPS within the mandatory deadline for extreme cases
Youth Worker Podcasts (thank you YIPA)
These recent Passionate Youth Worker
podcasts give a great insight into
why youth workers do what they do.
Great stories and powerful thoughts;
2021 – A More Responsive New Year For At Risk Children
If there is a silver lining in this time of worldwide pain and anxiety, it will be a recognition that rebuilding families is necessary for a healthy community.
Amid the chaos of our pandemic, the trauma and misery of children locked in toxic homes is hard to see. The media, politics and confusion on a worldwide basis are focused on vaccines, reporting and management of this frightening virus.
Struggling families facing poverty, job loss, combative politics, distrust of institutions and the steady increase of COVIDs scary reality need help to survive.
Many moms and dads do not have coping skills for managing the pressure and fear of this moment. Stressed out families drink and drug more, experience more tension, conflict and domestic violence – inflicting severe collateral damage on their children.
If we can grasp the simple reality that “What we do to our children, they will do to our society” (Greek Philosopher Pliny 2000 years ago) America can rebuild communities and a nation that once led the world in quality of life.
Holiday Best Wishes To Everyone & the Best Foster Child Blogs
Be very careful what you believe to be true. There are many good people, the challenge is to find them.
Thank You & Happy Holidays
For the New Year, KARA is asking everyone to support the people, policies and programs that make life better for struggling families and children.
Call and write policy makers where you live and let them know about conditions for and needs of at risk children where you live.
Let’s all strive to make this a better, safer year for at risk children everywhere.
Stay on top of the issues by signing up and sharing KARA’s Free weekly email updates with people that can make a difference for the children that need it the most.
Christmas for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse (NAASCA radio talk show)
During the virus scare .. let’s each of us re-double our effort online and via the phone to inform
those around us of the devastating consequence of suffering childhood sexual abuse (CSA),
violent or physical abuse, emotional and mental trauma and neglect.
SPEAK FOR A CHILD (be a voice for a child)
Learn about the CASA guardian ad-Litem program and how your can make life better for abused and neglected children – Today, there are 500 abused and neglected children in Ramsey & Hennepin County child protective services without a guardian ad-Litem. Being a State Ward child is painful. Being a voice for that child is rewarding and makes a difference in the life of that child.
All Adults Are The Protectors of All Children; learn more here;
CASA MINNESOTA
CASA NATIONAL
A Free & Powerful Mental Health Resource For Minnesota Children
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…
Avoiding the Mental Health Conversation (nothing to be proud of)
This may be our community’s (nation’s) most serious health problem. Add the psychotropic medicating of abused children & I think it is.
COVID Burnout; Health Care, Teachers, Law enforcement, Social workers & what we could do
Our communities are only as safe and healthy as the institutions that create the environment we live in.
A brief search of front line workers in education, health care, law enforcement or social work shows a growing exodus by retirement, medical leave or just walking away as COVID is making the work they do an even more extreme sacrifice than it was pre pandemic.
For those of us that live with, know or love a person engaged in keeping our children educated or the rest of us safe and healthy,we know the stresses facing these people and the fear and danger of bringing a secondary trauma or risk of COVID home at the end of the shift.
Tasered and Tried as Adults – Police Training, Resources & Courts Meet America’s At Risk Children
Trauma doesn’t heal itself and America doesn’t provide much more than Prozac for tortured 12 year olds.
For an in depth and moving photo graphic look into incarcerated children in America’s Juveniles In Justice, check out Richard Ross
Good Bye David Strand – Founding KARA Board Member and Best Friend
KARA’s Founding Board member and best friend David Strand has passed away after a long illness.
He brought a wealth of experience, passion and commitment to the cause of America’s abused and neglected children.
David came to know a great deal about how children are treated in other advanced nations because he helped to craft public policies on children’s issues while living and working in Northern Europe.
COVID & Child Suicide November 2020
KARA (Kids At Risk Action) tracks current news about at risk children bringing transparency and attention to our youngest and most vulnerable citizens. The COVID pandemic has interrupted most major media reporting of child abuse issues.
KARA’s reporting is only sampling of what should be reported – the great majority of child trauma & abuse is never known. Major media and institutional reporting on children’s issues are much lower due to the COVID pandemic.
ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN
Follow KARA on Facebook
Lawsuits and the Death of Two Year Old Arianna Hunziker
Arianna was wrapped in sheets, left alone in a closed room and slowly starved to death. Foster parents Sherrie and Bryce Dirk will go to prison for murdering Arianna. This solves nothing.
There is something terribly disturbing about a State sanctioned foster family starving a 3 year old State Ward child to death that needs to see the light of day.
Arianna must not have had a County social worker (today’s Star Tribune article …
Schools Closed – What We Need to Know
Poor districts are suffering more domestic violence & substance abuse from from front line worker stress, poverty and job loss making online learning that much harder for children.
Many poor families are crowded into small spaces, lacking necessary internet access and hardware for adequate online learning.
This NY Times article barely acknowledges the social and economic costs of abused and neglected children locked into toxic homes during COVID. Abused children have no teacher or other mandated reporter to recognize and respond to their traumas. There is no comparison to having a trusted teacher to privately speak to in school and a video chat with the abuser in the room or nearby.
Goodbye Joe McCarthy – Founding KARA Board Member & Best Friend
Yesterday, KARA’s best friend and founding board member Joe McCarthy passed away after a long illness.
We will miss him terribly. Joe had a big heart and remarkable mind. He was sharp as a tack with an interest in everything and a stunning memory.
20+ years ago, Joe encouraged and then guided me through the writing of the INVISIBLE CHILDREN book and founding of our nonprofit Kids At Risk Action.
Our small board spent many hours sorting through issues and ideas for making life better for abused and neglected children. We worked together to create our first board meetings and involve more people in the endeavor we are so passionately engaged in today.
Winning the War Against At Risk Children (& saving our city)
and 63 recent car-jackings (over the last 39 days) many include vicious assaults & mostly committed by teens – kids as young as 12, puts the lie to that belief.
For decades, the vast majority of serious and violent crime has been committed by youth and young adults. In these 63 recent car-jackings, women are beaten, one man was shot dead and another dragged as he tried to stop them from stealing his car with his wife and child inside.
During this time of pandemic and civil unrest, it’s apparent that our city is much more dangerous than it was a year ago.
What is less apparent, are the key drivers that have needed our attention for a very long time that (if addressed) could dramatically reduce the anxiety, violence and unrest in our communities.
Before, when schools, health care and public safety seemed to work, we have had little concern with how or why things work and the luxury of not paying attention to the people, programs and policies involved.
Children, Politics & Voting On Tuesday
Americans have always talked big about supporting equality, keeping children safe, supporting schools & better conditions for young families.
Today, our pro-child, pro-family discourse has become so vicious that many Americans rationalize our government taking immigrant babies and children from their mothers and then losing them so that these mothers may never see their children again. Children have become political footballs in immigration, education, health care and law enforcement and this should disturb us.
A great deal of money and political will has gone into denigrating immigrants, public schools, teachers and the front-line workers trying to keep children healthy and safe.
Tuesday’s election is about this.
Which candidates support more access and more resources for education, health and mental health and an end to racial injustice?
“What we do to our children, they will do to society” (Greek philosopher Pliny the Elder 79 AD)
Please vote – the next generation needs you to speak for them.
Restorative Justice – Veterans & Children (saves money and lives)
Woo Hoo – MN passed a restorative justice act for veterans – diverting at-risk veterans toward probation and social service programs instead of jail time when they commit certain crimes.
Why wouldn’t we?
The World Health Organization defines torture as extended exposure to violence and deprivation. Living in a war zone, bombs going off nearby or a buddy shot dead in front of you changes the brain.
Most of us want soldiers that have experienced traumas in the service of this nation to be treated for their mental health issues and have a path to rebuild their lives as productive citizens.