This says it all for me , how about YOU..?

They should hold their heads in shame…..

…and so should they

http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Media-releases/Pages/2012/First%20Quarter/26-March-2012—More-support-for-parents-left-behind-by-international-child-abduction.aspx

The corruption in Family Justice Worldwide acts like a terrorist from within, and underminds our society!

Victoria is clearly a wounded and angry child/young woman.  If the right to love is a basic human right, Victoria’s right has been egregiously violated, her dignity as a human being has been ignored. Or has it?  The story follows Victoria as an 18 year old struggling to make a life, struggling to deal with a powerfully painful secret, even as Victoria remembers her days as a young child. The child Victoria hid in silence, and communicated with the world through the Victorian era language of flowers.  The young adult Victoria struggles to find her voice, even as she hides in the back of a florist shop arranging flowers.

Within  the book we meet Renata who owns a florist shop and hires the 18 year old Victoria to help in arranging flowers. Renata sees the pain and the potential in Victoria. It is in Renata’s shop that Victoria’s gift in using flowers to help others realize their dreams comes to full bloom.  We also meet Elizabeth and Grant, each of whom plays a significant role in Victoria’s past and future – but I will not write spoilers here.  Each of these characters plays a transformative role in Victoria’s life.

This is a book about the search for forgiveness, about the yearning for happiness and love.  It is sad and lovely and quite wonderful as it hints at the possibilities and the limitations of hope.

The author, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, was born in 1978. She was a writing teacher, and with her husband was, and is a foster parent.  I have read that she was inspired to write “The language of Flowers” as she witnessed the struggles of youth who are transitioning out of foster care.  She is the founder of the Camellia Network, whose mission is to create a nationwide movement to support youth transitioning from foster care. The Camellia network emphasizes a belief in the interconnectedness of humanity (not unlike the African principle of ubutu, which can be translated as ‘I am because you are’). The Camellia network reminds us that our destiny is in the hands of our youngest citizens.  You can read more about the network at www.camellianetwork.org. 

Do you know anyone who reminds you of Victoria? or who Victoria reminds you of?

Do you have any ideas on how the child welfare system could be more respectful of the dignity of the children it was created to protect? (there’s a small question!)

Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  2011. The Language of Flowers. Ballantine books: New York.

Telegraph Herald  April 17, 2012

On the deadline for taxpayers to file their federal income tax returns, Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, introduced a bill to renew and expand a tax credit for families that choose to adopt children.

http://www.thonline.com/news/national_world/article_85559e10-88b0-11e1-9835-001a4bcf6878.html

The uniform

The cause

JUSTICE!

I am currently in Washington, DC to attend the 18th Annual National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect.  While there are many things I’m am sure I will be impressed with here at this event, one of the things that surprised me was the technology available for participants. I was able to go to the conference website and download an app for my iPhone listing the conference programs, sessions and events information, and even giving me the chance to “add” it to my calendar!

For starters, as I read the bill, the mandate is upon the state agency to ensure youth in foster care have the opportunity to visit college campuses. The author of the editorial, whose identity I could not discern, apparently interpreted the mandate to be directed at youth in care. (I am referring to the comment: “we are not at all comfortable with the thought of government telling children what to do”.) As a long-time advocate for youth in foster care and former case worker, I know that activities such as visits to colleges are often a luxury not afforded to this vulnerable population. I also know, that for many children and youth in foster care, college is not perceived as a realistic option.  Their futures are generally much more bleak, as was alluded to in the original editorial with mention of drug and alcohol abuse and criminal activities. For many youth in foster care, this is the world in which they were born and often, the world to which they will return when they exit the foster care system.

It is also interesting that the author of the editorial focuses on the roles and responsibilities of educators rather than that of the child welfare agencies. While I agree that educators bear responsibility in ensuring a quality education and career counseling services, I am also a realist. I recognize that often foster youth experience instability in their education and the entity that remains constant is the public child welfare agency. There are efforts at the federal level to improve this through legislation such as Fostering Connections but we have a long way to go to be able to claim success in providing a stable educational environment for children and youth in foster care. I would add that it is incumbent upon both education and child welfare to collaborate to address this troubling aspect of foster care placement.

I would also posit that college visitation is an effective means of increasing awareness of opportunities available in higher education and in creating a positive, productive life beyond foster care. This is a strategy that I have seen used in communities where economically disadvantaged youth may be isolated and have limited exposure to opportunities outside of their family or community environment. Being afforded the opportunity to visit, to actually see and experience a college environment with peers who are career-focused, opens a world that is often perceived as unattainable to vulnerable youth. Such activities can create an attitude of possibilities in youth whose only exposure to college life may be through television or media.

My one final point is in response to the statement, “the government should never come this close to taking over the parents’ role”. This is exactly what happens when a child is placed in foster care and it happens in most cases because a parent is unable or unwilling to provide the care and nurturing needed by children and youth. There are situations, of course, when circumstances beyond the control of the parent may require foster care placement. For instance, in some states, out of home placement is sought to obtain needed medical, mental health, or physical care because a parent lacks the resources to do so. However, most children and youth in foster care system are there as a result of child abuse and/or neglect. In the majority of child welfare cases, the parent has demonstrated an inability to adequately care for the child(ren) and temporary intervention is necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of vulnerable children and youth.

As is likely abundantly clear by now, in general,  I see this legislation as a positive move towards opening opportunities for youth in foster care. I would concede that it is unfortunate that a mandate is required to ensure that youth experience what most of their peers take for granted. My hope is that one day, there is no need for such legislation, or better yet, that one day there is no need for foster care.

….not in Family Court or the hearts of those within the CPS, CYFS, SS. CAS or any other child welfare authority it would seem…

…..nor is it to be found in the hearts of our so called family friendly leaders Obama. Cameron, Keys. Harper and Gillard should all hold their heads in shame as childhood is such a short span of time, they are all culpable of causing untold misery to so many and leaving them with a life time of regret! (Consider this as you listen to this video!)
I dedicate this powerful anthem and the sentiments of this blog to the Family Justice campaigns the world over! 
                                              @DaveyoneF

Here are some additional materials in the ongoing federal suit:

Koniag Motion for TRO

Karluk Tribal Court Materials [Note the location of the tribal court -- it's in Washington state, a thousand miles from the Native village on Kodiak Island]

First Amended Complaint

Here is an order issued by the “Karluk Tribal Court” purporting to declare a Washington state court ICWA proceeding invalid:

In re Baldwin

Here is a suit filed by the defendant in the initial case attempting to intervene in an ICWA case captioned Kanum v. Downs (W.D. Wash.):

Kanam v Downs

And here is an odd notice from the minutes of a Gilpin County, Colo. Board of Commissioners meeting trying to figure out what to do with a judgment from the Karluk Tribal Court attached to the “Kikiallus Indian Nation”:

BOCCMins030111

More recently from the Gilpin County News (in fact, today):

County Attorney Jim Petrock informed Commissioners that a “Notice of Filing of Foreign Judgment” had been received at Gilpin County District Court. The Karluk Tribal Court, (with an address of Olympia, WA), on behalf of the native village of Karluk, ruled in favor of the Kikallus Indian Nation in their case against Gilpin County and issued a permit to “Kikiallus Indian Nation and it’s contractor Brannon Sand and Gravel to mine gravel and minerals from the land known as 2982 Robinson Rd, Golden CO.” The land in question, now in foreclosure, is that of Phil Wolf. Petrock said the Karluk is a tribe in Alaska but according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (in Alaska) the tribe has no jurisdiction beyond their village. Washington does not have state-recognized tribes and the Kikallus, though listed on the Washington State Tribal Directory (at their request) are landless and not a federally recognized tribe. Petrock said no one was able to account for how the Karluk could have jurisdiction for the Kikallus. Even so, because the notice has been filed in Gilpin District Court, the County will file a motion to have it dismissed, incurring further cost at the taxpayer’s expense, for this latest in the long litigation history associated with this property.

A:  According to ACL 12-12, the original county retains jurisdiction, but a youth who wishes to re-enter can contact either the county of jurisdiction or the county of residence.  If the child welfare agency that the youth contacts is not the one that has jurisdiction over the case, the county of residence is required to immediately assist the youth in determining the county of jurisdiction and allow the youth to phone the point of contact in the county of jurisdiction in order to begin the application process.  In some cases the county of residence may be able to provide assistance to the youth with completing the necessary forms and send them to the county that has jurisdiction.  If they are not able to provide this assistance, the county of jurisdiction must assess the circumstances of the youth’s request and get the completed forms from the youth in a timely manner.

A dull, dormant life can not be fully responsible for the rise of the infamous “choking game” played largely amongst kids, but it surely must be a contributing factor. The constrictive and restrictive nature of school, regulations, non-active lifestyles and anti-socialised extra-curricula activities must be factored into the increased popularity of this dangerous game.

Although the choking game is not new, very little research has been done to investigate how often it happens or which kids are more likely to try it. But the new study published today in the journal Pediatrics gives a snapshot of who is engaging in this risky activity.

Researchers surveyed nearly 5,400 Oregon eighth graders, and 6.1 percent reported playing the choking game at least once in their lives. Among those who had played, 64 percent had played more than once and 27 percent had done it more than five times. Boys and girls were equally likely to have participated.

The researchers found that kids who participated in the game commonly engaged in other risky health behaviors. About 16 percent of boys and 13 percent of girls who reported using alcohol, tobacco or marijuana on the health survey also reported playing the choking game. Girls who reported being sexually active were four times as likely to participate in the choking game as those who had never had sex.

Robert Nystrom, adolescent health manager at the Oregon Public Health Division and one of the study’s authors, said it’s significant that kids who play the choking game are also experimenting with alcohol, drugs and sex.

“Risk-taking is a part of normal adolescent development. The fact that a lot of adolescents are participating in these behaviors shouldn’t surprise us,” Nystrom said. “What we want to do is prevent it.”

Nystrom noted that the choking game is different from autoerotic asphyxiation, where the goal of near-strangulation is sexual gratification. In the choking game, kids simply seek the rush that comes from passing out.

Before adults become hysterical about this growing trend, I ask them to consider the life of a standard teenager and reflect on what we can do to help them appreciate the real thrills that life has to offer.

Do you know how often your nanny or babysitter yells at your child or children? Probably not, it is not like you can ask him or her, the nanny is obviously not going to tell you that all she does is yell all day long! And if your child is very young he or she is not going to be any help either, but a hidden nanny camera would be. When you have a hidden nanny camera in your home nothing is going to be a secret any longer, you will know exactly what is happening when you are not there. Either you will finally have your mind put to rest about the quality of care that this nanny is providing or you will find out that she is terrible and that it is time to get a new one. Either way you win, you simply cannot go wrong when you purchase a hidden nanny camera.

There are a few different kinds of hidden nanny camera on the market today. Some are as small as pins and they can be hidden absolutely anywhere and the nanny will never detect it. There was a time when they were all hidden in teddy bears, well that is done, now you can hide them in pictures, fire alarms, in the VCR, absolutely anywhere that will give you a good view of the room is a great place to put your hidden nanny camera. And since they are all so tiny now this is beyond simple to do. Having a good hidden nanny camera is the only way to know that your child is safe when you are not home, safety is the most important thing for your child, the most important. So take care with the life and wellbeing of your baby and get a hidden nanny camera to use, and then use it!

Long thought to be a largely lower socio-economic problem, alcohol abuse seems very much alive and well among middle-class children. This presents a very gloomy picture for what the future has to offer.

More than one in three of those born in professional households had downed a full glass before reaching their teenage years, the statistics show.

The 35 per cent figure among the middle classes is almost twice the level found among 12-year-olds across all economic groups.

The Ipsos Mori poll for charity Drinkaware, which is funded by the alcohol industry to promote sensible drinking, surveyed more than 500 parents from the social groups ABC1 and their children, aged between 10 and 17.

This also reminds us that we are not doing nearly enough to remedy the problem.

The Defending Childhood Task Force is interested in hearing from community members and professionals working with children and families who have experienced violence, and those who have personally experienced children’s exposure to violence, both as victims and witnesses.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency site on the topic is here and has information on past task force hearings.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit proposals for projects to improve the socio-emotional and behavioral well-being of infants and young children, ages birth to 5 years old, and their families, through collaborative service delivery. These projects will build infrastructure capacity between State, local, or tribal child welfare agencies and early childhood systems to ensure that infants and young children who are in or at-risk of entering into foster care have access to comprehensive, high-quality early care and education services. Applicants will be required to demonstrate commitment of the appropriate State, local, or tribal child welfare agency and an appropriate early care and education agency(ies) to undertake the proposed work under this funding opportunity.Projects will promote and utilize multi-disciplinary interventions that build on protective factors and mediate the effects of adverse experiences.These projects may develop new models or replicate existing models of collaborative policies, procedures, and/or practices for identifying and addressing the early educational needs of this population.

Source: Grants.gov

Available at: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do;jsessionid=ZQ0tPGtP96VvsmsHM1hV9mvtHPsxnRTHMGp09t7w9xCxLNdGylQY!582005965?oppId=163753&mode=VIEW

“Will no one thing of the children?” we say to each other, in mocking tones, when people try to play the kiddie card to score political points.

But today, I actually want to ask the question in earnest myself. And not, I hope, in a cynical move to pluck your heart-strings.

On Wednesday, I took a “break” from covering the Alberta election campaign, to attend the sentencing of a young Metis woman, convicted of manslaughter in the death of her four-year-old niece. (To read Ryan Cormier’s story on the sentencing, click here. To read my own column on the tragic conclusion to this tragic affair, click right here.)

Due to the censorship of Alberta’s Child, Youth, and Family Enhancement Act, I can name neither the little girl, nor the aunt. The girl’s identity is forever hidden, even in death, because she was a foster child. The aunt’s name is hidden because to name her might identify the child, for whom she served as guardian.

The birth father and the paternal grandmother of a four-year-old Metis girl who died in a kinship care placement embrace outside the courthouse Wednesday

I’ve been investigating this story, ever since the girl died in early 2009. (To read one of my first  stories on the case, written with an assist from my colleague Elise Stolte,  please do click here. It will provide you with a tremendous amount of background and context. )

Three years later, the aunt who struck the fatal blows has been found guilty and sentenced. But we’re still no closer to fixing the catastrophic failures of our child welfare system, the system that thought it was a good idea to place SIX neuro-compromised chidlren under the age of six in the care of a homeless young woman who had addiction issues and no parenting experience, all in the name of cultural sensitivity.

Obviously, we don’t want to re-create the world of residential schools, where we scooped up aboriginal children, willy-nilly, in the name of “saving” them, and sent them to boarding schools where they were stripped of their language, religion and culture, and often physically and sexually abused, into the bargain.

But leaving children in unsafe family situations is no solution, either.

Earlier this week, I asked all five of the major political parties in this election to respond to this story, and to the issues it raises. I had no response from either the Alberta Liberal or the New Democrats. The Wildrose Party sent me an excerpt from their policy book:

“Caseload management needs to be reviewed to ensure social workers are not
overburdened,” it reads.

“The cultural needs of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children are of
particular importance when intervening through use of residential care.
There needs to be a clear direction and mandate that allows all aboriginal
children to stay connected with their families and their communities.
Connection may take diverse forms and will be assessed and determined based
on the individual needs of the child and the input, expertise and knowledge
of the First Nation, Inuit and Métis people.”

That’s nicely libertarian and culturally sensitive. But, ironically, in this case, the Wildrose may be guilty of too much political correctness.  A concern for family and cultural connection is admirable – but not at the expense of keeping children safe.

The Progressive Conservatives have a long and dismal track record on this file. But when I spoke with PC campaign spokesman Stephen Carter on Wednesday, he said that Alison Redford is very interested in changing the way we deliver foster care in this province – to move away from the 1950s volunteer model, towards a more professional system, where foster parents would be paid for the work they do.

Alison Redford: Her campaign says she favours the professionalization of foster care.

“She’s comfortable with the professionalization of foster families, with giving them the training and the support they need, and then holding them accountable as professionals,” Carter told me.

Carter said the party is also committed to improving early intervention services to help keep families at risk coping and together. But, Carter acknowledged, aboriginal child welfare is such a touchy, politically sensitive issue, no party wants to make it part of their campaign strategy, or bring it up as a central election issue.

“It’s tricky,” he says, of tackling the aboriginal child welfare crisis. “It’s tough to do. It’s easy to talk about, but it’s hard to do.”

Actually, Carter’s only half-right. It isn’t easy to talk about our aboriginal child welfare crisis. That’s why no party wants to. It’s the unwelcome elephant in the room. But this is an issue that every party should be thinking about. Our child welfare system is overloaded, we don’t have enough foster homes to cope, and children in care are dying at a disturbing rate. In Edmonton, more than 70 per cent of the kids in care are aboriginal – which is stunning, given that aboriginal people make up less than 10 per cent of the population of the city.

But it isn’t just our child welfare system that’s breaking under the strain. Our schools and our teachers struggle to cope with teaching kids who come from transient, troubled families, kids who arrive in kindergarten without adequate language and social skills, kids who come to class hungry. Often, aboriginal children thrive in elementary school, where they get more individualized attention, but then lose their way when they hit junior high school. Our aboriginal high school completion rates are dismal enough – but they are artificially inflated, since they only count the kids who enroll in high school, and relatively few First Nations and Metis students even make it through grade 9.

And when those kids grow up, it’s our health care system, and our criminal justice system, that bear the consequences of our child welfare failures.

Want to lower education costs, health care costs, law enforcement costs? Investing in aboriginal children and families would be a prudent, yet visionary, place to start.

The only party leader who was eager to speak to me about this vexing subject was Glenn Taylor, of the Alberta Party.

Taylor’s wife Donna is Metis  – part of what Taylor calls a large and robust aboriginal family. Taylor’s wife was actually a successful product of kinship care. She was adopted as a young child, by extended family. Her adoptive father, Taylor’s 82-year-old father-in-law is a Status Treaty Indian, and a residential school survivor. His mother-in-law is Metis.

Yet despite his in-law’s painful residential school experiences, despite his wife’s own successful adoption by family members, Taylor has seen enough disasters to be deeply skeptical of the ideology of kinship care.

“We need a much stronger screening process, and much more support,” he says.

Alberta Party leader Glenn Taylor

“It makes a lot of sense that we try to put foster children from broken families in homes that respect their First Nations or Metis heritage, but that cannot be our only consideration. Too often, in our haste to place the child, we’re not looking at the family situation. It’s too easy to just immediately place them with another family member. We have to look beyond just placing children with family, to what’s in the best interest of the child. We need to respect and understand cultural sensitivity, but not at the expense of the child’s safety.”

Taylor says front line social workers aren’t able to keep up with the scale of the crisis.

“The case load is unbelievable, the workload is insurmountable and then we blame them,” he says. “This problem is unbelievably huge in the aboriginal community, and the further north you go, the worse it gets. It’s something that we sweep under the carpet, and we shouldn’t. It just goes around and around, and it’s generational.”

“How do we not look beyond what’s expedient, to what’s right?”

Taylor and his upstart party haven’t been able to get a lot of traction in this election. A few individual Alberta Party candidates are running solid, competitive campaigns in a handful of ridings, but Taylor, as leader, hasn’t been able to make a strong impression on voters. He’s not been invited to take part in tonight’s leaders debate.

(I understand why a party standing at 2% in the polls, with no elected members, isn’t represented. But I’m still rather disappointed. At the Edmonton Journal’s recent health care pre-election forum, Taylor distinguished himself as the wittiest debater, with the cleverest comebacks. His humour, and his good humour, might have been a welcome counter-balance.)

But perhaps, having nothing to lose gives Taylor a little more freedom to speak to one of the most important, most ignored, most politically difficult challenges facing our province. Here’s hoping he keeps it up. We might not hear his voice in Thursday’s TV debate. But we need more voices speaking with passion, courage, and knowledge on the topic few politicians have the gumption to address.

AND if we don’t force these discussions, no one will!

You have maximum 10o dollars to spare.

You first look for organizations that need and ask for your money.

Let’s say you notice 3 of them; say

Unicef
Oxfam
Mercy Corps

How would you give your 100 dollars away?

Would you give all of it? Or maybe keep some for a next time?

What if, instead of 3, there were 8 of them actively auditioning for your money?

Children’s Network International
Every Child
Global Fund for Children
Mercy Corps
Oxfam
Stop Child Poverty
Unicef
United Children’s Fund

How would you feel now?

What if there were even more of them, say 16?

Care
Children in Crisis
Children’s Network International
Doctors Without Borders
EveryChild
Global Fund for Children
Mercy Corps
Oxfam
Plan International
Serving Our World
Save the Children
SOS Kinderdorf International
Stop Child Poverty
Unicef
United Children’s Fund
World Emergency Relief

It turns out, people donate more when they face more alternatives.The reason, I suspect, is that when there are 3 NGOs asking for help, we perceive a certain need for aid, But when there are 16 of them, the need for aid we perceive is much greater.

Now the question becomes?

How would you distribute your money when there are 3 NGOs?
How would you distribute when there are 16?

More on that later…

California is in the midst of a grand experiment regarding the funding structure of programs designed to protect vulnerable children.  In July 2011, the California Legislature adopted “realignment,” a fiscal policy that shifts a portion of the state sales tax, along with seven functions from the state level to the county level, including the core programs of California’s child welfare system.  These core programs include Foster Care, Child Welfare Services, Adoptions and Adoptions Assistance, and Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) mental health program. While realignment of programs aimed at providing support and protection to vulnerable children is problematic, the realignment of EPSDT is particularly troubling and will likely result in lasting harm to our state’s most fragile citizens.

Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT), is part of the federal Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal in California. EPSDT provides comprehensive medical benefits, including mental health services, for low-income children from birth and up until age 21.  The mental health services that are required under EPSDT are especially critical for children in foster care. Research has shown that up to 80% of youth involved with the child welfare system experience emotional and behavioral problems that indicate a need for mental health treatment.

Prior to realignment, counties paid a small portion of the cost of EPSDT mental health services, just 5%. The rest was paid by the federal government (50%) and the state (45%).  Under realignment, the amount paid by counties will now increase from 5% to a full 50%; the federal government will continue to pay its 50%; the state will pay nothing.

Even before increasing the county share of cost tenfold, California was doing a bad job of providing medically necessary mental health services to children in foster care.  According to a report from the state’s own California Department of Health Care Services, just 60% of youth who required mental health services received them.  That’s right – only 60%!  Why?  Because that relatively small share of cost was still a cost to counties – and one they felt they could contain by controlling the services offered and access to those services.

Realignment will exacerbate the problem of access to critical mental health services by creating a greater fiscal incentive for counties to reduce or curtail access to medically necessary mental health services for children.  Under realignment, counties will be responsible for a full 50% of the cost of EPSDT services, with no guarantee that the level of realigned revenues will be adequate.

What is a predictable response for a county in this position? Manage costs by controlling caseload.

This notion that caseloads can – or should – be controlled is completely contrary to the legislative intent and mandate of EPSDT.  EPSDT is not intended to be limited or capped based on arbitrary fiscal allocations.  Rather, it is supposed to provide each child the care he or she needs to thrive.

In addition, the capped allocation makes little sense given pending policy changes that will greatly expand the population of youth eligible for EPSDT.  Over the next couple of years, an additional 878,000 new children will enter the Medi-Cal program due to the elimination of the Healthy Families program. In addition, thousands more children will be newly covered by Medi-Cal due to implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act.  Finally, the recent settlement in Katie A. v. Bonta will require that specialized clusters of EPSDT mental health services be provided for youth at risk of group home placement.

However, the legislature is in the process of establishing the fiscal base line for EPSDT when we have no idea how much counties will require to serve these newly eligible children. The combination of these three policy changes create a perfect storm that, without careful deliberation and planning, will likely leave many needy children without critical care and supports.

The Governor’s approach to realignment of EPSDT should be reconsidered. The Legislature should slow down the process and ensure that adequate time and attention is paid to ensuring that our EPSDT mental health system will meet the needs of children and families.   Rather then proceeding full steam ahead with all of these changes at once, I believe the Legislature should establish a statewide working group tasked with developing a plan to improve the service delivery system, ensure equity of access between counties, increase accountability, develop outcome measures, determine if EPSDT should be realigned ongoing, and if so, ensure adequate funding for the program in the realigned system.

This Thursday, April 12th, the Senate Budget Subcommittee will hold a hearing on EPSDT realignment starting at 9:30 a.m. in Room 4203. Please join me in encouraging the legislature to press the pause button on the realignment of EPSDT to provide more time for careful deliberation and planning. Yes, the state budget is in a crisis. That is no excuse for proceeding recklessly with the lives of abused and neglected children.

Like my associates at Real Fathers for Justice I have been troubled by the increase in suicides by fathers facing the unrealistic constraints from the Family Law courts and the erroneous CSA!

   

I read the first 150 pages then saw the film
 Rogue Trader before reading the remainder!

I have often joked about my early career trying to sell British
Leyland products in East London having had recently passed my HGV at
22 was able to drive all the new range of  heavy trucks as well as
Range Rover and the last mini van and FG/EA range I  naively tried to
sell at a time of recession and when Red Robbo and Sir Michael Edwards
made it undesirable to buy British. After a short stint at Volvo and
DAF I had also achieved my CPC in Road Haulage so much to my first
wife’s amusement was able to switch careers and remain one of the
youngest people to have left Truck sales as many do not entre till
much later in life!

10 years later I took the risk of starting my own courier business
with 1000 pounds from a credit card and within a year I had 6 vans and
a truck but once again the recession hit with 15% interest rates and
sadly in a period of time when my in-laws and own father were lost and
I woke up to find I was owed £17,500 by many customers who were limited
companies and whilst I only owed a few hundred in wages and £7,000
diesel bill I decided to quit and regroup so sold on my assets and
took on the role of  Transport Manager elsewhere on a convenient salary
of £17,500 plus a company car and was able to route a driver named
Maurice, and built like Jaws from James Bond’ to recover as much of my
debt as possible for 10% and was able to redeem my financial position
within 6 months!

On April 27, Senator Max Baucus, Senator Orrin G. Hatch and Senator Ron Wyden, as Members of the Senate Finance Committee, will convene a roundtable discussion on: “Child Well-Being in Foster Care: Examining the relationship between data and efforts to effect positive outcomes for children.” This is the first in an ongoing series of Senate Finance roundtables discussing challenges and opportunities in federal child welfare policy. This roundtable follows on the heels of a recent effort by Senator Wyden to bring child well-being into mainstream child welfare discussions. In August 2011, Senator Wyden introduced the Promoting Accountability and Excellence in Child Welfare Act, which would establish a 5 year grant program to give states and localities greater flexibility to implement comprehensive reforms to existing child welfare programs provided they can demonstrate success in improving child well-being. Among other provisions, the bill establishes annual performance measures that must be achieved, with an emphasis on implementing reforms and methods for achieving significant results that improve the well-being of all children in the child welfare system. Additionally, it encourages: (a) partnerships between participating State and local agencies and organizations and a demonstration of shared accountability for child well-being; and, (b) collaboration among agencies responsible for administering programs that affect the child welfare system by requiring an inter-agency working group that includes representatives from the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in order to identify existing Federal financial resources that can be used to provide additional resources to grantees. The bill provides states with critical funding to improve the well-being of children in the child welfare system through systemic reforms and innovations, and paves the way for broader reforms to the child welfare system.

Following that effort, the roundtable will help to highlight child well-being and to: “1) identify the nexus between the unique health, mental health and education challenges of children who are involved in the child welfare system and the current inroads being made in the understanding of youth brain science.; 2) discuss the ways in which safety, permanency and well-being are inter-related; 3) highlight best or promising practices across states; and 4) identify possible gaps or barriers in federal policy in order to improve outcomes for children connected to child welfare systems.”

Discussants will highlight key findings in their relevant area of expertise and help guide discussion among attendees consisting of congressional staff as well as stakeholders in the child welfare community. We applaud Senators Baucus, Hatch and Wyden for creating a forum to discuss child well-being in foster care and believe it is important to promote opportunities for such dialogue and support efforts to shift the emphasis within child welfare practice to fostering resiliency and promoting child well-being. Child well-being should be made a priority for child welfare systems. This roundtable is a critical first step in doing so.

-By Shadi Houshyar

This blog post was originally featured by First Focus. 

I don’t mind, how can I when he’s exactly in the same position where I’m concerned? I’m still married and went to my Mum’s house this evening with my ex and our children! It’s just that I understand my relationship with my ex, we are still very good friends, TT insists it is the same for him and Mrs TT but of course it’s harder for me to see being on the outside looking in.

He text me earlier to say he had arrived safely and that although he was glad to be with the children he wished I was there too. I’m glad I’m not, I’m not ready to be publically introduced as the mistress just yet, we’ve only been seeing each other for four weeks and although I’m happy for him to get to know my children (they are important after all) I’m not ready to introduce him to my family or meet his, give it a few months and we’ll review the situation.

These next few days knowing he is with her will really test my mettle because even though I’m not jealous or concerned at the moment my paranoia hasn’t kicked in yet, that’s when the fun will really begin.

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