admin, Author at Kentucky Youth Advocates

Twice as Many Kentucky Children Raised By Relatives and Family Friends

Twice as Many Kentucky Children Raised By Relatives and Family Friends

Jeffersontown, KY – When biological parents can no longer raise their children or when children’s safety or well-being is at risk, grandparents, other relatives, and close family friends have traditionally stepped up as caregivers in Kentucky. A new KIDS COUNT® report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families, shows Kentucky has the second highest rate in the nation of children living with [...]

By admin|2012-05-23T12:44:50-04:00May 23rd, 2012|News Room|

The Plight Facing Young Americans Requires a National Call for Action

By: Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus Rarely do the pages of Esquire magazine set off a conversation among child and senior advocates, but Stephen Marche’s article The War Against Youth has done exactly that. In Marche’s column, he highlights enormous challenges facing youth and young adults in this country and concludes by making a call to make youth a national priority. As he writes, “Youth should be the only issue of the 2012 election, [...]

By admin|2012-05-15T13:53:29-04:00May 15th, 2012|Blog, Economic Security, Education, Youth Justice|

New Data Show Youth Incarcerations for Misbehavior High In Kentucky, but Declining

New Data Show Youth Incarcerations for Misbehavior High In Kentucky, but Declining Community Alternatives Cheaper and Better for Public Safety than Jail Jeffersontown, KY – Kentucky has one of the highest rates of any state in the nation of putting kids in jail for things like running away or missing school, yet the trend is moving to fewer youth incarcerated, according to an updated report, Ending the Use of Incarceration for Status Offenses in Kentucky, [...]

By admin|2012-05-15T12:53:16-04:00May 15th, 2012|News Room|

Opportunities for Physical Activity Abound with Shared-Use

Two years ago I had the opportunity to visit William Wells Elementary in Lexington, Kentucky to tour their school-based health center. While there, it became very clear that William Wells not only had a school-based health center, but it was a full-scale community school too – it was used during non-school hours for community activities such as adult aerobics classes, financial literacy classes, youth sports activities and more. I was amazed at the various activities [...]

By admin|2012-05-10T11:10:17-04:00May 10th, 2012|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Education|

New Study Shows Kentucky Schools and Community Agencies Often Collaborate to Share Facilities

Opportunities for Physical Activity Abound with Shared-Use New Study Shows Kentucky Schools and Community Agencies Often Collaborate to Share Facilities Jeffersontown, KY – Schools across Kentucky have opened their facilities to their communities during non-school hours for many years, allowing people of all ages to use their gymnasiums, tracks, cafeterias, and athletic fields for recreation. This practice, known as “shared-use,” not only saves cost, it deepens school and community connections and expands opportunities for physical [...]

By admin|2012-05-09T12:59:23-04:00May 9th, 2012|News Room|

Guest Post: It’s Not a Fight, It’s a Family

By: Mary Annese Musgrave and Donna Butts Like Katie Carter, many Kentuckians age 50 and older are deeply concerned about sorely inadequate investments in our children. In fact, raising the voices of older people in support of policies that benefit children and youth is the main reason Generations United started Kentucky Seniors4Kids. As children’s book authors Charles and Ann Morse observe, “a child needs a grandparent, anybody’s grandparent, to grow a little more securely in [...]

By admin|2012-05-09T09:26:08-04:00May 9th, 2012|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security|

New oral health coalition expected to spur changes in state

For the past 30 years, Dr. Fred Howard of Harlan has been seating patients in his blue dental chair and telling them to open up. When they do, he’s seen all kinds of scenarios, from toddlers whose teeth are already rotten from sucking on bottle filled with soft drinks to 20-year-old adults with no teeth at all. On some occasions, children walk in with such a severe abscess in their mouth their eyes are swollen [...]

By admin|2012-05-07T11:07:16-04:00May 7th, 2012|Blog, Health|

Wins for Kids during the 2012 Kentucky General Assembly

Kentucky Youth Advocates celebrates the following as wins for Kentucky kids in the 2012 General Assembly. $21 million to reduce social worker caseloads – In response to the high rates of child deaths due to abuse and neglect in Kentucky, Governor Beshear proposed a $21 million increase over the next two years to hire 300 additional state social workers. The final budget passed by the Kentucky General Assembly retained this funding, so new social workers [...]

By admin|2012-05-02T11:09:22-04:00May 2nd, 2012|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Health, Youth Justice|

Kentucky Youth Advocates celebrates the following as wins for Kentucky kids in the 2012 General Assembly.

$21 million to reduce social worker caseloads – In response to the high rates of child deaths due to abuse and neglect in Kentucky, Governor Beshear proposed a $21 million increase over the next two years to hire 300 additional state social workers. The final budget passed by the Kentucky General Assembly retained this funding, so new social workers will soon be hired to reduce caseloads and more effectively work to reduce child deaths and [...]

By admin|2012-05-02T09:24:09-04:00May 2nd, 2012|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Education|

Action Alert: Potential Cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

The US Senate Agriculture Committee is poised to release its farm bill over the next several days and we need to make sure that their bill protects and strengthens critical hunger-relief programs. People all across Kentucky are struggling to put food on the table. With unemployment expected to remain above 8 percent this year and long-term unemployment still at record highs, programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance [...]

By admin|2012-04-18T10:00:30-04:00April 18th, 2012|Blog, Economic Security|

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