All Kentucky kids deserve to be in safe, loving, and stable homes. Last year, the House Working Group on Adoptions began formally meeting with the goal of bringing innovative reforms to the adoption process in Kentucky. However, the Working Group moved well beyond the scope of adoptions and took a comprehensive look at the whole continuum of care within the child welfare system. With the bipartisan leadership of Representatives David Meade and Joni Jenkins, the [...]

Every year, the first Sunday after Labor Day, the United States recognizes and celebrates Grandparents.   Grandparents are important members of our families as they are the keepers of our family history, provide insight and advice on life’s milestones, and help keep family connected. In Kentucky, there are tens of thousands of grandparents who have also stepped up to raise their grandchildren.    There are several reasons for grandparents to raise their grandchildren, including parental death, parental substance abuse, military [...]

Every kid needs a family and a safe place to call home. On January 27, 2017, the Sixth Circuit Court ruled that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (Cabinet) must provide foster care maintenance payments to “approved” relatives caring for children placed by the Cabinet, affirming that core belief in the importance of family. When kids can’t live safely with their parents, the next best alternative is to live with a family member. Placement [...]

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and Kentucky Youth Advocates is a proud partner of the Face It® Movement to End Child Abuse. The Face It Movement was conceived and created in 2012 as a response to the public outcry against the increasing number of child abuse deaths in the Commonwealth, and it officially launched in April 2013 as an initiative led by Kosair Charities®. Face It directly addresses the unacceptable incidences of child abuse [...]

In Kentucky, there are nearly 1,800 children with a goal of adoption as part of the plans created for them by adults making very tough decisions. Being without a family should not be part of any child’s plan. It is, however, the unfortunate reality for many children in the Commonwealth and across the United States. As we start off the month of November, a month where many make plans for family gatherings to celebrate Thanksgiving, [...]

Children should never be just numbers in a report. Especially when those numbers are about kids who have died or suffered serious injury as a result of abuse or neglect. Every child deserves to be safe from harm, yet the sad reality is that many kids are not. Last week the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) released their annual report on child fatalities and near fatalities due to abuse and neglect. The report looks at several [...]

In September, the nation celebrates grandparents. Grandparents can play several roles in a child’s life, including role model, friend, and caregiver. They do extraordinary things like providing child care as respite for parents and making children feel special in order to support their families. And many grandparents across Kentucky and the nation are doing something grand everyday by stepping up to help raise their grandchildren when the child’s parents are unable. In Kentucky, an estimated [...]