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Join the Conversation: Family First Regional Convenings

*Many venues for the regional convenings are at capacity. Please review the list below for those not yet sold out as well as links to view the presentations live via Facebook. Find resources from past convenings here. The Federal Family First Prevention Services Act can be implemented as early as October of 2019, and Kentucky is committed to being one of the first states to implement it. Kentucky Youth Advocates, in partnership with the Department [...]

By |2019-09-05T13:07:03-04:00May 16th, 2019|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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Celebrating National Dental Care Month

Throughout the month of May, we’re joining partners at the Kentucky Oral Health Coalition from across the state in celebrating National Dental Care Month. National Dental Care Month is a celebration aimed to help bring awareness to the importance of preventative dental care. One of the most important components of maintaining good overall health throughout our childhood and adulthood is by establishing positive dental habits at an early age, such as, visiting a dentist after the first baby [...]

By |2019-05-15T20:27:00-04:00May 15th, 2019|Blog, Health|
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Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day: Trends in Youth Suicide

In honor of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, we’ve been reviewing the latest data, resources, and efforts to reduce youth suicide in Kentucky. This week’s blog post looks at what we can learn from the data, with next week’s post focused on prevention resources and actions taking place in Kentucky. The last time we blogged on youth suicide, we looked specifically at the deaths of teens ages 15-19. However, it will likely shock you [...]

By |2019-05-10T12:55:37-04:00May 9th, 2019|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Education, Health|
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The School Safety and Resiliency Act: A Summary

As the 2019 legislative session wrapped up, a significant win for Kentucky’s children in schools across the Commonwealth was signed into law by Governor Bevin – Senate Bill 1, known as the School Safety and Resiliency Act. Since then, there have been a fair amount of questions among educators, health professionals, students, and advocates related to the details and implied impacts of the bill. When it comes to any issue – and that includes school [...]

By |2019-05-02T20:40:26-04:00May 2nd, 2019|Blog, Education, Health|
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Guest Post: (Y)Our Role in Keeping Kids Safe

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Courier Journal and Kentucky Today on April 19, 2019.  By Keith Inman Everyone likes to be ranked number one – especially here in Kentucky with our prized horses, bourbon, and basketball. But this? This is not a number one ranking Kentuckians should be proud of: Kentucky has the highest rate of child victims of abuse and is double the national rate. Since 1923, Kosair Charities has helped [...]

By |2019-04-22T16:12:11-04:00April 22nd, 2019|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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Guest Post: Ending Child Care Deserts Is Possible in 2020 and We Would All Benefit

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Herald Leader on April 18, 2019.  By Cindy McGaha and Andrea Woodward Will Wright’s recent article about Kentucky’s child care deserts brought much-needed attention to the lack of available and affordable child care in the state. Two crucial points we want to emphasize in response are that all of us—whether or not we have children—have incredible gains at stake when we advocate for increases to federal child care subsidies, [...]

By |2019-04-22T11:53:43-04:00April 22nd, 2019|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security|
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A Celebration for Kids and Lighting the Way to 2020

Last week we, along with advocates from across Kentucky, celebrated both progress for kids during the 2019 legislative session and the courageous action of local heroes who are transforming how their communities care for kids. And what a celebration it was! The Cheers for Children 2019 Celebration lifted up four key Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children priority bills that were passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor: Senate Bill 1 [...]

By |2019-04-18T16:49:57-04:00April 17th, 2019|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Health, Kids Count|
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30 Days, Infinite Ripples

Sometimes 30 days can feel like way more than 30 days. And the 2019 Kentucky General Assembly felt like WAY more than 30 days! (OK, technically the session started in January and went through the end of March, and legislators were just in chambers for 30 days, but you get the idea. A lot happened during this legislative session, and Kentucky leaders didn’t even have a state budget to work on.) Better behavioral health services [...]

By |2019-04-03T14:42:27-04:00April 3rd, 2019|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Education, Health|
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Keeping Kentucky Kids in Families: Steps Ahead, Miles to Go

Though the data show stagnant progress from 2007 to 2017, Kentucky has recently demonstrated its commitment to prioritizing family-based placements for children in foster care, according to “Keeping Kids in Families: Trends in U.S. Foster Care Placement,” a new data snapshot released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® project. In 2017, Kentucky had 81 percent of children in foster care placed in a family setting, such as relative foster care, non-relative foster [...]

By |2019-09-05T12:54:57-04:00April 2nd, 2019|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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What We Know About Recent Changes to Kentucky’s 1115 Medicaid Waiver Implementation

This week, a federal judge halted the April 1st implementation of the Bevin Administration’s 1115 Medicaid Waiver, also known as Kentucky HEALTH. We expect the Bevin Administration to announce next step decisions in the coming days, but as of right now, no plans have been unveiled yet. Though several vulnerable populations are exempt from the 1115 waiver, as it protects children, pregnant women, and transition-aged youth in foster care from the potential negative impacts of [...]

By |2019-03-28T17:48:29-04:00March 28th, 2019|Blog, Health, Medicaid|
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