Seven years ago, a piece of paper on a desk started Pamela Pine on a quest to understand and spread the word about child sexual abuse. In this column, Pine shares how she turned her concern into a vibrant, dynamic nonprofit organization—with an annual international awareness-raising foot race in Washington, DC, every April.
There's good news on the rates of rape and sexual assault in the U.S.—a big decline in the rates of these crimes since the 1970s. Still, parents and other adults who care about children have a responsibility to educate kids about the dangers—and many of us feel inadequate to the task. Tamekia Reece took a look at some of the more effective programs in use to raise awareness appropriately and in ways that kids can understand.
CFK Reports From: Ten Years of Leaving Foster Children Behind Event: Press Conference Organized By: Child Welfare League of America Where/When: Murrow Room, National Press Club; July 17, 2006
An outdated eligibility requirement for foster kids to receive federal assistance under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act is leaving out nearly 50,000 children per year, according to a report by the Child Welfare League of America.
When you learn that a teen is in foster care, what is your reaction? Empathy? Curiosity? Apprehension? News stories and popular media portrayals of young people involved with the child welfare system, paired with selective statistics about how this population is faring, can feed apprehension at the expense of a more positive view of the strength that can come from overcoming adversity. La Terra Cole, an intern with Connect For Kids, reflects on some recent "mainstream media" portrayals of foster care.
The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics released its latest annual report, America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-being 2006 on July 14th. The report is a compendium of statistics from 21 federal agencies with the latest available data on 26 key indicators related to children's economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education and on 9 background measures related to population and family characteristics. The 2006 Brief highlights selected information displayed in previous reports, reflects improvements to the summary list, and fills an important data gap in childrens mental health. View, download, and order a copy of the report from the Forum's website. The web site includes detailed data tables and figures (not in the Brief), previous reports and their related links, other Forum reports, and information about the overall structure of the Forum.
Chapin Hall Center for Children and The MacArthur Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood and Public Policy are co-sponsoring Adolescence and the Transition to Adulthood.
CFK Reports From: The Impact of Meth on Foster Care, Children, and Families Event: Panel Discussion Organized By: Generations United Where/When: June 8, 2006; Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC
The discussion at this congressional briefing on the impact of methamphetamine abuse on foster care, children, and families paid special attention to the role being played by grandparents who step forward to become legal guardians for children who are removed from their homes due to a parent's methamphetamine abuse.
The Foster Family-based Treatment Association (FFTA) celebrates 20 years of professional achievement at its annual conference, to be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
CFK Reports From: Child Welfare and Well-Being: Building a 21st-Century System for Kids Event: Panel discussion Organized By: The Urban Institute and Chapin Hall Center for Children Where/When: June 8, 2006; Urban Institute, Washington, DC
This event, the last in a series, was a useful discussion of one of the central tensions within the child welfare field: between the imperative to keep children physically safe from harm and the understanding that removing children from their parents, homes and neighborhoods damages them.
By many measures, girls are on a roll. In terms of academic achievement, college attendance and completion, and the opportunities that are open to them, girls are poised for success. But some experts see worrying signs that girls are also facing new pressures—and responding with violent behavior usually associated with boys. Andrea Grazzini Walstrom takes a look at the issue.
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