America’s CHILDHOOD TRAUMA and ACES Impact
California’s Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris has declared Adverse Childhood Experiences a public health problem and public school crisis in her state.
KARA Videos on Child Abuse
These short videos capture the realities of child abuse.
Share them widely and more of us will know how to do more for kids in painful places.
ACEs
People That Know Child Abuse
We know that the punishment model does not facilitate healing or learning – It is responsible for most failed grade level reading, math and history scores. It is a primary reason for underperforming schools.
Policing Abused Children & How Not To
Teachers, social workers, law enforcement and foster/adoptive parents dealing with State Ward children are often the last chance that a child has to grow up to lead a normal life.
Short Powerful Videos on Child Abuse Issues (20-30 seconds)
These short videos capture the realities of child abuse.
Share them widely and more of us will know how to do more for kids in painful places.
ACEs
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…
Childhood Trauma – Making Children Crazy
This powerful ACEs Too High article contains tons of statistics and information related to the depth and scope of child abuse in America. What has struck me most is…
LGBTQ Adoption & Religion
For decades, Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church have led the charge disenfranchising Gay couples from adopting or fostering America’s most vulnerable children
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.
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.
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.
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…
Abused Children, COVID & Law enforcement
This article addresses the depth and scope of a problem that has been and still is growing at exponential rates, all over America.
The current approach to policing at risk youth is creating exactly what we want to stop. Even partial success in ending the current model will give results to save us from building more jails and prisons and the steady growth in crime and recidivism rates.
America leads the industrialized world in gun deaths, unsafe streets, prison populations, cost of crime and recidivism rates.
The choice we are facing is imminent. There is a tipping point that we cannot see, and it is too serious to ignore.
Signs That You Are a Mental Health Worker
Andy Steiner’s social workers as backbone of the mental health workforce Minnpost article belies a much deeper truth about the depth and scope of mental health in our communities at this time.
Generational child abuse has been growing exponentially for years creating millions of traumatized children treated with Prozac like drugs with minimal or no effective mental health therapies to heal their traumas.
In 2014, America put 20,000 one and two-year old’s on Prozac like drugs and big pharma paid billions of dollars for illegally selling those drugs to pediatricians for use on very young children.
Kids At Risk Action August Update
It’s been a busy summer for Kids At Risk Action. A Good morning shout-out and Thank You to KARA’S 30 new volunteers plus 2 new university engagements (thank you Sarah and Alyssa).
We are working with over 40 student interns (Melbourne Australia welcome Trevor, Anh Pham & all), MN, and 180 degrees – Canada welcome Vivian) and KARA’s new full-time administrator (welcome Darcy).
Most college students are engaged in the research and…
Facebook Replacing Mandated Reporters for Child Abuse?
40-day old Aiden Braden’s mother Kristina reported Aiden’s death on Facebook 38 days after social workers had responded to a child abuse hotline in Tollhouse California. Only after Aiden died did the County workers visit the home and remove Aiden’s twin brother.
Kristina Braden had already lost custody of her 3 oldest children because of her drug addiction and a long history of child neglect.
Blaming social workers for not physically intervening when they were in lockdown solves nothing.
Policing Abused Children & Why It Can’t Be Done
Teachers, social workers, law enforcement and foster/adoptive parents dealing with State Ward children are often the last chance that a child has to grow up to lead a normal life.
Posts & Video From ACEs Connection (+trauma informed resources for Covid19)
California’s Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris has declared Adverse Childhood Experiences a public health problem and public school crisis in her state.
Posts & Video From ACEs Connection (+trauma informed resources for Covid19 quarantine)
Violence Against Children & Covid19 – (it’s own pandemic) part II
Shelter In Place locks abused children in toxic homes
With no escape to the safety of a classroom
Domestic violence is rising and law enforcement & social workers
are having a hard time keeping up.
CLICK HERE FOR RESOURCES & STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE DURING COVID19
Trauma-Informed Resources during COVID Quarantine (thank you ACES Connection)
Tips for parents on social distancing, staycation planning for parents and families for safety and happy connections during the hard times of extended periods of living in close quarters.
Domestic Violence to a Five Year Old (living in a house of terror)
Watching mom beaten or raped is terror. Homeless mothers and children are many times more likely to be assaulted and molested.
Children of addicted and alcoholic moms and dads are beaten and raped more often too.
Trauma is *torture. Watching mom being raped is torture.
Join KARA Tuesday (January 21, 6pm) Think Again & Brooklyn Park Human Rights Forum
Join KARA at Tuesday’s Think Again & Brooklyn Park Human Rights Forum (January 21, 6pm)
Group Home’s (the nightmare of mental health services for abused children)
It really is front page news that children at this institution were allowed to bang their heads against walls until they had concussions, facial injuries and head trauma. These young troubled children had sex on the facility grounds, forced sex and …
KARA’s Plea For Change (a call to action – with videos)
Significant institutional change happens when those of us that know the critical issues and have seen better answers start to talk about those problems and solutions loudly and often.
By speaking out, more of our friends and neighbors will know that the punishment model is worsening the public health problem of generational child abuse/trauma is causing all our public institutions.
By speaking out, more people will come to understand that the ACEs model is critical for better results in schools, public health, public safety and happier, more livable communities.
As more of us speak out and advocate for these kids (37% of American children are reported to Child Protection by their 18th birthday) our friends and neighbors will understand the ground truth about why these children don’t do well in school and have so much trouble leading productive lives and spend so much time in the courts and jails.
It Didn’t Start In a Vacuum (crime – impact & statistics)
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;
INVISIBLE CHILDREN Book II – America’s Public Health Crisis (why we should care)
We are all in this together.
Pliny the Elder stated 2000 years ago, “what we do to our children they will do to society”.
Let’s do better.
The Heart of the Matter Chapter One
What You Don’t See;
If it’s not seen, it’s not spoken of.
If it’s not spoken of it’s not an issue.
If it’s not an issue there’s not a problem.
If it’s not a problem it needs no solution.
Generational child abuse is a problem festering in America for decades. It is having a profound impact on taxes, public schools, public health and public safety.
KARA’s Top Stories The Week of 5.17.19
AZ: Child-welfare cases are private. Does that protect the kids, or the state officials? (Commentary)
Arizona Republic – May 03, 2019
When news broke that a Maricopa woman had been accused of starving, pepper-spraying, and otherwise abusing seven adopted children, questions immediately turned to what the Department of Child Safety knew and when the agency knew it.
Almost 80 & Still Terrorized by Childhood Trauma
A sobering story of her life-mate Tom at 78 years old still living with the pain of trauma and abuse inflicted upon him as a child and how the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) based programs are working to heal today’s suffering children.
Response to Our Friend Hector
I believe that the challenge addressed in this document has to do with ACES and other escalating problems in our society. Please let me know your thoughts.
Hector,
Sadly, the combination of American “bootstrap” culture, harsh individual freedom driven capitalism and defining success as “more money/winning at any cost” are denigrating social sciences/human services and anything else that gets in the way (including “science”).
Our institutions are paying a terrible price demonstrated by the cost of and underperformance in quality of life indices across the board (public health, public education, public safety).
This nation no longer leads the world in the things that make for a safe and livable society. We lead in teen STDs & pregnancies, prison populations, recidivism & incarcerated juveniles, poverty and in most financially rewarding areas of endeavor.
Add to that, the concurrent explosion of trauma related mental health problems (ACES) facing institutions service providers; educators, social and health workers, law enforcement, court and detention personnel are finding their level of training severely inadequate, jobs much more stressful and dangerous with a lack of success across most institutional venues.
The level of violence in hospitals, care & detention centers, foster homes and schools is high and growing and our reliance on Prozac like drugs in managing these problems bodes ill for any long term solutions (without treatment these problems grow exponentially)
Generational child abuse and trauma is the most misunderstood and powerful social disease present in this nation today and there are few signs of its abatement.
TC NonViolent Event – Invisible Children September 25th
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
Child Burns, Torture and Trauma for June 2018
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 …
Flag as irrelevant
Speaker’s Bio
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.
Child Welfare by State (statistics & news April 2018 (9) child death
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 (8) 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 (7) child sex abuse
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 International April 2018 (6) violence against children
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)
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 Welfare by State (statistics & news April 2018 (2)
American states are struggling to find answers for ending adverse childhood experiences 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 Abuse & Well Being State by State March 2018 (VI)
CA: Social Workers Concerned With Increase in Babies Exposed to Meth
Santa Barbara Independent – March 15, 2018
An increasing number of infants exposed to methamphetamine have raised concern among Santa Barbara social workers. In the last three months, about 30 babies were in need of a court-appointed special advocate, better known as a CASA. Most had been exposed to meth.
https://www.independent.com/news/2018/mar/15/social-workers-concerned-increase-babies-exposed-m/
CA: County official seeks to expand support for foster youth
Child Abuse &Trauma – Oprah & Sixty Minutes
Share this with your friends and networks – it will make a big difference in the lives of children and the people that live with, work with and love abused children
Oprah calls Trauma Informed Care “game changing,” addresses long …
www.acesconnection.com/…/oprah-calls-trauma-informed-care-game-changing-prom…
2 days ago – Oprah calls Trauma Informed Care “game changing,” addresses long-term effects of trauma on 60 Minutes this Sunday, March 11 … Take a look at the interview Oprah did on CBS This Morning (the link is below) but be prepared – as people dedicated to ACEs awareness and trauma informed care, it will …
Sad Stories Feb 2018 Part IV (child abuse & trauma articles and statistics)
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 All Adults Are The Protectors of All Children
Sad Stories Feb 2018 Part II (child abuse articles & statistics)
American states are struggling to find answers for ending adverse childhood experiences 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
ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN
Sad Stories Feb 2018 Part I (child abuse – child death stories & statistics)
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
ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN
Sad Stories December 2017 Part III (child abuse stories & articles from your state)
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
ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN
December 2017 Sad Stories Part I (child abuse stories & articles from your state)
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
ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN
November Sad Stories Part II (1000 stories)
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
ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN
Sad Stories October 2017 Part II
American states are struggling to find answers for saving at risk children and 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
ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN
October Sad Stories 2017 Part I
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
Critical Perspectives On Child Abuse (updated regularly – send KARA your insights)
Adverse Childhood Experiences ACES NEWS Top notch reporting on research and news about abuse politics, programs and stories locally, nationally and internationally. Current and focused trauma informed news.
Richard Ross has devoted ten years of his life to documenting America’s hidden gulag of 71,000 teenagers in lockdown and solitary confinement. His photographs are eloquent and deeply upsetting.
ACE Study Preview – The most compelling video about child abuse ever. The medical communities elegant effort to reduce 30 years of research into 3 minutes. Powerful.
All Adults Are The Protectors of All Children
FOSTER SHOCK This Frontline quality video documentary uncovers unspeakable failures in Florida’s Privatized Group Homes. THE PASSWORD IS ” foster ” or download the video
Does Your State Have Safe Passage For Children (is there a voice for the safety and well being in your state for at risk children?)
Do Your State Ward Children Have a Voice In the System That Rules Their Lives? (National CASA Here)