Reunification Is Possible: The Power of Someone Walking With You

By Kayla Harmon, a member of KY SEAT Reunification—the process of bringing a family back together after separation—can feel like an uphill battle. It’s overwhelming, emotional, and filled with obstacles that sometimes seem too heavy to bear. But here’s the truth: you can succeed. And one of the greatest factors in that success is having someone walk beside you—someone who believes in you even when you’re struggling to believe in yourself. You Weren’t Meant to [...]

By |2025-06-25T12:51:07-04:00June 2nd, 2025|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|

Connection to Support: How Regional Prevention Collaboratives are Prioritizing Family Needs

When it comes to preventing child abuse and keeping families from unnecessarily engaging with the child welfare system, economic and concrete supports are essential. In Kentucky, many of the Thriving Families, Safer Children Kentucky Regional Prevention Collaborative teams noted that knowledge of and access to supports and resources for families is a need within their community, including transportation, child care, housing, and access to service providers. The need for these supports and resources were highlighted [...]

By |2025-05-29T15:20:59-04:00May 29th, 2025|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|

Racial Disparities in Foster Care: A Continuing Crisis

This blog was originally published on True Up. By: Tatum Abel, Peer Engagement Coordinator The foster care system is designed to protect children in vulnerable situations, offering them a haven when their biological families cannot safely provide care. However, data compiled by Kentucky Youth Advocates persistently shows that Black children are being removed from their homes more than their white peers once involved with the child welfare system.  In 2021, more than 390,000 youth across the country [...]

By |2025-05-15T15:30:55-04:00May 15th, 2025|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Race Equity|

Become a volunteer with KY’s Citizen Review Panels

Are you looking for a way to improve the lives of children and families in Kentucky as well as those who serve them? Kentucky's Citizen Review Panels for Child Protective Services are currently seeking volunteers. The Panels are groups of volunteers who are federally mandated to review Kentucky’s child protection system and make recommendations for improvements in policy, practice, and procedure.  Citizen Review Panels are located in the Southern Bluegrass (Lexington and surrounding counties) and [...]

By |2013-06-10T14:03:49-04:00June 10th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|

Kids, Families and State Budget Debates

There is a swirl of speculation about the topic.  Is the Governor going to call a special session, and – if so – what will be on “the call?”  Or what are the priorities emerging at this very moment in Cabinet-level planning for the 2014-16 budget? Any talk about budgets offers us both hope and worry.  Will it spotlight the very real need for fundamental and systemic changes in the state’s tax and budget structures [...]

By |2013-04-25T11:04:15-04:00April 25th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education|

Child Abuse: A Community Solution

Last Thursday, April 11, Terry Brooks spoke at the Rotary Club of Louisville on child abuse. April is Child Abuse Prevention month as we've previously mentioned on the blog. We hope this video of Terry's speech inspires us to  all play a role in ending child abuse. A first step is to become an ambassador of the Face It Movement, which is a recently launched campaign by Kosair Charities to end child abuse in our [...]

By |2013-04-17T11:10:22-04:00April 17th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|

Child Abuse Prevention Month: We Can All Face It and Make a Difference

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month – commonly marked by citizens rallying across the Commonwealth and the nation to raise awareness of the prevalence of child abuse in our communities. Yesterday, Kentucky Youth Advocates joined Kosair Charities and several other partners at Slugger Field in Louisville for a rally to end child abuse. The rally also served as the official launch of the Face It campaign, a ten-year initiative led by Kosair Charities to end [...]

By |2013-04-10T16:15:11-04:00April 10th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|

General Assembly Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children Wrap-Up Part II: The Unleashed Version

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 [...]

General Assembly Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children Wrap-Up Part I: The Objective Version

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 [...]

Statement on Governor Beshear Signing HB 290 (Child Fatality Review Panel)

Today marks the final step in placing a panel to review child abuse deaths in Kentucky statute. Governor Beshear signed HB 290 today and we commend him for taking this important step. We reiterate our thanks to Representative Burch and Representative Wayne for championing this bill through the House and Senator Denton for strengthening the bill in the Senate. We also thank the many representatives and senators who supported this bill which will help identify [...]

By |2013-03-20T14:19:42-04:00March 20th, 2013|News Room|
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