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Is the Tide Turning for Kids in Public Discourse?

The following post first appeared in A Better Life, a blog for the Courier-Journal about the aftermath of the recession. http://youtu.be/WIndJDVCPAY In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, child and poverty advocates across the country had their wishes granted – to hear the President discuss poverty issues, and children’s issues. (Gun control advocates and climate change advocates got their wish too – as did many other advocates). While in reality, the SOTU is little more than “political [...]

By |2013-02-13T17:17:48-05:00February 13th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education|
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State Needs More Independent Review of Child-Abuse Cases

This post originally appeared as an Op-Ed in the Herald Leader here. A million years ago, when I was a high school student in Jefferson County, schools were overcrowded to the point where 200 to 300 students were clustered in an auditorium or cafeteria to watch instructional television as the means of teaching. Because of those outrageous student/teacher ratios, we frequently graded our own papers. Maybe it was just me, but a trend line emerged: My grades [...]

By |2013-02-13T09:01:37-05:00February 13th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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Safe Harbor for Kentucky’s Children

Guest Post by Gretchen Hunt, Training Coordinator, Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs The statistics are staggering.  Nationally, between 100,000 and 300,000 children are vulnerable to being trafficked into commercial sex in the United States. Runaways and homeless youth are particularly vulnerable, with one in three being exploited in commercial sex in the first 48 hours of being on the streets.  The average age of entry into prostitution in this country is between twelve and [...]

By |2013-02-11T07:38:41-05:00February 11th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Youth Justice|
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Children’s Advocacy Day 2013: When it comes to kids, do we have courage?

The weatherman cooperated.  Citizens from throughout the Commonwealth – hundreds of them – showed up.  The atmospherics were great – the Blue Apple Players performing a scene from “Lincoln”; a high school dance team jazzing up the scene; and, young people talking about public policy issues like human trafficking and a smoke-free environment  that count in their lives.  And the 9th Children’s Advocacy Day kicked off. The sun may have been shining bright on our [...]

By |2013-02-07T14:37:36-05:00February 7th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|
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FREE Upcoming Bullying/Violence Prevention Curriculum Workshop

If you work for a public school in Kentucky you’ve probably already heard, but we want to make sure after-school programs and summer camps are also in the know about a free bullying/violence prevention workshop taking place April 10 at Murray State University. The Kentucky Center for School Safety, Murray State University Center for Environmental Education, MSU College of Education, and MSU Regional Outreach are sponsoring a full-day training by Operation Respect. Operation Respect is a non-profit organization founded [...]

By |2013-02-05T00:00:05-05:00February 5th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Education|
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Protect Kids from Cuts

On January 29 the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced cuts to some vital programs for children, in response to a projected $86.6 million budget shortfall for the Department of Community Based Services. The planned cuts target the Kinship Care Program and the Child Care Assistance Program both of which affect thousands of families and children across the Commonwealth. Cutting the Kinship Care and Child Care Assistance Programs will cost the state more [...]

By |2013-02-04T16:23:29-05:00February 4th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education|
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Protect Children, Not Guns

After the incident in Newtown, my wife remembered a moment in her classroom with rare clarity.  It happened more than a decade ago when one of Louisville’s neighborhoods had been riddled with violence for a second consecutive weekend.  It was a neighborhood in which the majority of her students lived.  Judy remembers feeling an urge to ask an important question of her youngsters – “How many of you live in a home in which there [...]

By |2013-01-31T08:56:31-05:00January 31st, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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Share Your Experiences Reporting Child Abuse to Strengthen Kentucky’s Intake System

 Citizen Review Panels (CRP) are groups of volunteer citizens throughout the nation who are federally mandated to provide an evaluation of their State’s child protective services system. In Kentucky, the Statewide CRP is composed of members from all nine of the Department for Community Based Services’ (DCBS) regions. In keeping with its mission to involve the larger community in evaluating DCBS practices and policies, the Statewide CRP is assessing community perceptions about DCBS’ current system for [...]

By |2013-01-23T14:42:14-05:00January 23rd, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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“We’ll Need to Equip Our Children for the Future”

    After a national election devoid of much discussion of poverty in America - let alone child poverty - The Children's Leadership Council worked with Spark Action to produce a video highlighting what issues children and young adults care about. The video features the voices of young people, ages 5 to 25, discussing the issues they hope the President and Congress will address in the next four years to ensure all kids can grow up [...]

By |2013-01-21T14:15:00-05:00January 21st, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|
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Citizen Review Panel in Lexington Takes their Charge to Heart

Guest Post by Blake Jones, PhD Anne Frank once said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”  Members of the Southern Bluegrass Citizen Review Panels (CRP) have taken that to heart.  The CRP is a group of citizen volunteers in the Southern Bluegrass Region who are federally mandated to conduct a yearly evaluation of the Department for Community Based Services. However, in addition to the [...]

By |2013-01-15T09:00:08-05:00January 15th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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