child welfare

Reunification Is Possible: The Power of Someone Walking With You

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

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

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

Understanding TANF Reform and Its Impact on Kentucky Families

Understanding TANF Reform and Its Impact on Kentucky Families

This is part of Kentucky Youth Advocates’ series on the federal landscape and the impacts on Kentucky children and families. As a part of the federal government’s overhaul of the country's long standing safety net programs, recent updates and conversations about the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program give insight into the potential changes ahead. This spring, a pilot project that aimed to shift TANF away from strict work requirements and toward measuring success [...]

By Andrew Alvey|2025-05-29T13:04:45-04:00May 29th, 2025|Blog, Economic Security|

Racial Disparities in Foster Care: A Continuing Crisis

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

Child Abuse: A Community Solution

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 Andrea Bennett|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

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 Amy Swann|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

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 [...]

By Terry Brooks|2013-04-04T11:03:06-04:00April 4th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|

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

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 [...]

By Andrea Bennett|2013-04-03T17:13:58-04:00April 3rd, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|

Cruel April Fool’s – Families Facing Cuts to Child Care Assistance and Kinship Care

Cruel April Fool’s – Families Facing Cuts to Child Care Assistance and Kinship Care

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, [...]

By Katie Carter|2013-04-01T13:17:40-04:00April 1st, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security|

Messages to Governor Beshear from Grandparents & Relatives Raising Kin

Messages to Governor Beshear from Grandparents & Relatives Raising Kin

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 [...]

By Patricia Tennen|2013-03-27T15:12:20-04:00March 27th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|