Texas & Alaska Politics Trash Children Openly
Texas governor Rick Perry refuses federal funding for education…“I have 100,000 kids in Houston who don’t read at grade level”
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Child Well Being Network (a model)
Every 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.
DetailsFinancial and Family Stress Linked to Child Maltreatment in Rural Areas
This 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.
DetailsGrowing Up In America
One 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.
DetailsPrevent Child Abuse Wyoming to Close
After losing a $95,000 grant (about half its budget) Prevent Child Abuse Wyoming announced it will be shutting down.
DetailsJoin Our Network & Online Discussion
Become part of KARA’s email network by sending a request to join to; amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com
Details150,000 Children Tried As Adults Each Year
“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
DetailsNew York, Meet Missouri
National 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.
DetailsAmerica’s Families (From Grief Speaks)
75% 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)
Addressing PTSD In At Risk Children
“People need to realise it is the memory that is fearful and not the current reality.”
DetailsCut Off A Nose to Spite A Child’s Face
But 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.
DetailsAnother State Abandons Children & A Most Effective Program
Abandoning 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.
Unmaking At Risk Children
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.
DetailsWhat We Do To Our Children They Will Do To Our Society
Do 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.
DetailsRuben Rosario: Rising Toll of Child Abuse Deaths Reaquires Attention & Action
This 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.
DetailsA Sad Way of Righting Wrongs
If their are attorneys reading this blog that are interested in pursuing these kinds of cases, please contact KARA with an email.
DetailsAn Uplifting Day
there needs to be a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers type grassroots movement to turn around the cradle to prison pipeline that continues to fill our communities with troubled youth and the problems that stem from growing up without the basic building blocks of life.
DetailsAnother Concerned Grandmother
In my morning email was a sad plea for help from a grandmother with granddaughters taken from her home where they were in school and well cared for.
DetailsSummer Is No Vacation For Abused Kids
Thousands of names ahead of them on a list for subsidized day care that won’t provide help for years to come, means that any available family member, friend, or neighbor is considered a better option than leaving a three, five, or seven year old unattended (or is it?)
Leaving your child with that drunken or meth using uncle or aunt, the friend with the mental health issues, the dangerous or abusive teenager. Children need and deserve better choices.
DetailsSetting the Wrong Kind of Record
The best hope for these babies would have been a more responsive community with more compassion, more daycare, more crisis nurseries, and more child protection services.
DetailsHow You Frame the Issue
Few people argue openly with me when I frame the health care issue around not caring for babies and very young children (there is not a religion on the planet that allows it)
Most people can be brought to understand the cost to society of having children abandoned to gangs, drugs, and poverty.
DetailsMake No Small Plans for Minnesota Children
We can look for inspiration to successes around the country and the world. One model of success is the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York. The Minneapolis Foundation recently sponsored a visit here by Geoffrey Canada, the Zone’s leader. Their goal is to have all the children who grow up in the 100-block zone graduate from college. Harlem Children’s Zone offers a Baby College for new parents, universal education for 4-year-olds, good public schools, chemical dependency and health counseling, and housing stability programs. All children there are wrapped in a variety of support systems designed to help them and their families succeed.
DetailsAARP and CASA
MN day care
It is a bigger step to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is true.
Support at risk children! Become a CASA volunteer or start a KARA group in your community.
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Join the public debate for children (they have no senator, lobby, or voice)
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