This Connect For Kids website has terrific coverage of children’s issues. Here are a few of their current stories;
http://www.connectforkids.org/newsletters/update
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/10/community_schools.html
“What we do to our children, they will do to our society” Pliny the Elder 2500 years ago.
DetailsCONCLUSIONS: The scope and diversity of child exposure to victimization is not well recognized. Clinicians and researchers need to inquire about a larger spectrum of victimization types to identify multiply victimized children and tailor prevention and interventions to the full range of threats that children face.
DetailsEvery state releases youth from foster care that are troubled and without the skills or resources to cope in the community. Few states think through the consequences of the importance of youth melding into the community to become healthy and productive citizens. Here’s one great example
DetailsThe years of hard research this organization has done to quantify the impact of abuse on children as they become adults is as incontrovertible as it is moving.
DetailsNCPCA sends its senior attorneys throughout the country and abroad to lecture and deliver presentations on all aspects of child abuse investigation and prosecution. The federal Children’s Justice Act supports multidisciplinary training on investigation and prosecution of child abuse. Contact APRI’s National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse for expert help in developing training programs or requesting a trainer.
DetailsThis study by Harvard identifies the depth of the educational crisis in Texas;
CONFRONTING THE GRADUATION RATE CRISIS IN TEXAS. Daniel Losen, Gary Orfield, and Robert Balfanz. Executive Summary. Misleading and inaccurate reporting of …www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/dropouts/texas_10-17-06.pdf –
DetailsThe Detroit agency, which provides shelter for homeless and at-risk teens, lost state funding last year, which amounted to 6 percent of its budget. As a result, the nonprofit group only accepts homeless women.
“It’s a terrible thing to have to say to someone … call us when you’re homeless,” Good said.
In Macomb County, the rate of low birth-weight babies worsened, to 8.3 percent, from 6.8 percent in 2000.
Texas governor Rick Perry refuses federal funding for education…“I have 100,000 kids in Houston who don’t read at grade level”
DetailsEvery state needs a Child Wellbeing Network, every person needs to understand that healthy children become healthy citizens & healthy citizens build healthy communities that are safe and pleasant to live in.
DetailsThis in depth report from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire makes it painfully clear that poverty and mental health issues are often at the heart of child abuse.
DetailsOne of my guardian ad-Litem youth walked home for many hours on a below zero Minnesota night without a coat because of the abuse he received at a juvenile detention center. He had had enough troubles for a lifetime before this happened.
DetailsAfter losing a $95,000 grant (about half its budget) Prevent Child Abuse Wyoming announced it will be shutting down.
DetailsBecome part of KARA’s email network by sending a request to join to; amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com
Details“The difference between that poor child and felon is about eight years”, & “90% of the youth in juvenile justice have passed through child protection systems” MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz
DetailsNational experts on juvenile crime urge states to invest in this type of counseling and rehabilitation, instead of confinement and punishment, as a way to stem adult crime and incarcerations. But for the last 20 years, most states have gone in the opposite direction, said Liz Ryan, director of the Campaign for Youth Justice.
Details75% of children/adolescents in chemical dependency hospitals are from single-parent families. (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA)
1 out of 5 children have a learning, emotional, or behavioral problem due to the family system changing. (National Center for Health Statistics)
More than one half of all youths incarcerated for criminal acts lived in one-parent families when they were children. (Children’s Defense Fund)
Nine million American children face risk factors that may hinder their ability to become healthy and productive adults. One in seven children deal with at least four of the risk factors, which include growing up in a single-parent household…The survey also indicated that children confronting several risk factors are more likely to experience problems with concentration, communication, and health. (1999 Kids Count Survey – Annie E. Casey Foundation)
“People need to realise it is the memory that is fearful and not the current reality.”
DetailsBut officials from the archdiocese said they feared the law might require them to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples. As a result, they said, the archdiocese would have to abandon its contracts with the city if the law passed.
DetailsAbandoning programs that work well will not save states money. This example of bad politics will lead to higher costs and mores suffering as Arkansas creates more people unable to cope, more crisis, and a larger future dysfunctional populace;
Arkansas 211 Shut Down
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Arkansas 211 telephone program that linked callers to social service programs throughout the state is being shut down due to lack of funding this week. The services offered by the program would steer callers to local organizations and services for every day needs in time of crisis including:
* Basic Human Needs Resource: food banks, clothing closets, shelters, rent assistance, utility assistance.
Absent coordinated positive (1*) public policy for the care of children, America is now at the confluence of misaligned and mistaken public policies that are overwhelming its schools, mental health services, child protection services, juvenile justice services, and criminal justice systems. Failing schools, unsafe communities, and absurdly high rates of incarceration are just the tip of the iceberg.
DetailsDo you know your state representative? If you don’t, find out today and call her/him with the important message that you know short term savings DO NOT APPLY to children.
DetailsThis years death toll of murdered, hanged, and otherwise suicidal very young children is a powerful indicator that we as a community are failing the weakest and most vulnerable among us.
DetailsIf their are attorneys reading this blog that are interested in pursuing these kinds of cases, please contact KARA with an email.
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