A version of the following post first appeared in A Better Life, a blog for the Courier-Journal about the aftermath of the recession. Big news last month was that Kentucky’s unemployment rate was under 8 percent for the first time in four years. It is good news that the unemployment rate has been steadily declining in the last year. However, unemployment remains a problem, not only for parents, but for their children. When a parent loses [...]
To view Part I of this post, click here. My birthday is December 25. That makes birthday traditions and Christmas customs mingle together a bit. But one birthday tradition leaps out. It arrives every December in a large Styrofoam box packed with lots of dry ice. And at the bottom of that crate sit – like precious jewels – artisan made bratwursts! When my wife and one of our good friends were on a trip [...]
Tomorrow Terry Brooks, our executive director, will talk on our blog about how kids fared in Kentucky’s General Assembly this year. While I assume everyone will want to read that version, I wanted to provide a slightly more boring, but objective version of what happened in 2013 for kids in our legislature. Kentucky Youth Advocates is part of the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children which is a collaborative of multiple child serving partners from across Kentucky [...]
Effective today, April 1, about 2,900 children and 1,600 families on average a month will not be able to access public financial assistance for child care. It seems a cruel joke that this is occurring on April Fool’s Day. Freezing applications for the child care assistance program will not allow any new families to receive assistance. This move, while expected to save the state some money, makes up 0.4 percent of the state budget. However, [...]
At Kentucky Youth Advocates, we ask ourselves the same question over and over when we examine issues. It’s a short and simple question: “Is it good for kids?” We strive to be the independent voice for children and that means we want the policies created and implemented by our decision makers to benefit children. Right now, our state leaders have a big decision to make on whether to expand Medicaid to low-income adults and parents [...]
Last Thursday we attended the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Conference in Lexington. In it's 11th year, the conference has grown to attract 400 participants from over 50 counties. The conference provided a wealth of information -- from practical tips on how to raise a high schooler (it's a little different from 20 or 30 years ago...) to advice about how and when to gain legal custody. The organizers say that due to demand, they could easily expand to [...]
In the middle of the day Monday, I received an email from my husband. The subject line was “say waaa?” with a link to this story: “Survey: Ky. kids healthier than US average.” First, it is sad that someone’s first reaction to hearing that Kentucky kids are healthier than the average American kid is disbelief. Certainly we can do better as a state to both improve children’s health and improve the perceptions of children’s health. [...]
What happens when the kids we label as ‘at-risk’ for maltreatment grow up? They become at-risk adults and the research on these adults paints an unfortunate picture of what happens when you grow up in an environment exposed to those risks. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the negative impact of child maltreatment doesn’t end in childhood. An infographic was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Veto Violence initiative this past year. The [...]
It was some eight years ago when Kentucky Youth Advocates’ point person on our case advocacy program brought me information indicating that “something troubling” was happening in alternative programs in Kentucky. The more we probed the “state of the state’s alternative programs,” the more I became convinced we just couldn’t be getting an accurate picture. Were alternative programs really as far behind as they appeared in meeting students’ needs? It turned out we weren’t exactly [...]
