Kids At Risk Action has partnered with Minnesota Public Television to address the rights, education, and well-being of at-risk children.
Hi, I'm Mike Tikkanen, long time Hennepin County volunteer guardian ad-Litem, Founder of Kids At Risk Action (501c3), and author/speaker on children's issues.
KARA'S Public Television documentary partnership will bring awareness and healthy change to the thousands of abused and neglected children that go without help in our communities each year. We have delivered this message in person to thousands of people over the years (including a presentation at the United Nations). This televised opportunity will reach many more people and have much more impact.
Core issues;
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Mental health and coping skills – if not delivered in
the home they must come from the community or crime and prisons build, and
schools and our communities will continue to struggle. Instead of
facing the core issues troubling abused and neglected children, “Our
institutions today are creating exactly what they were designed to
stop”*. Child protection services workers are seeing the fourth,
fifth, and sixth generation of abused and neglected children re-entering the
system with their own dysfunctional families (because they don’t have the
mental health* or parenting skills to do otherwise).
*Dr Read Sulik’s definition of Mental health is “the
ability to cope in one's own environment.”
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Children’s Civil Rights and protection under the
law. Child abuse and neglect are underreported and euphemized in the
media and in child protection services. County and state record keeping
is insufficient leading to a lack of understanding, support, training, and
achievement at all levels. There is almost no public discourse and
lawmakers pay little attention to the needs of abused and neglected children.
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The committed and hardworking people doing the work
cannot meet the existing needs of the children they serve (only the worst
cases get in to the system) and the privations of these children regularly
exceed the training, resources, and capacity of our institutions.
Political neglect and lack of public awareness keep things the
same.
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The documentary will blend experts and personal stories in a 30-min documentary done in 3 parts. Those
“parts” will be useful as separate pieces to use in community work. KARA will be highlighting the work of The Academy on Violence and Abuse, Safe Passages For Children, CASA, the Youth Law Center, foster and adoptive parents, court and justice workers and administrators along with children who are in or have passed through the child protection system.
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Kids At Risk Action believes that once more people know how our institutions are failing our children, change will happen, and the cycle of abused and neglected children having their own families of abused children will be broken and all children can grow up to lead productive lives. Schools will graduate more students, prisons will become empty, and streets will become safer.
For more information on KARA visit our website; www.invisiblechildren.org
KARA seeks one hundred and twenty eight thousand dollars to fund this project. The cost breakdown appears at our site under "About Us"
Major donors will receive televised recognition, all donors will be recognized, and out book, INVISIBLE CHILDREN sent to all donors of $50 or more.
Share this with your friends, write to us at our blog, and consider inviting KARA to speak at your next event.
Thank you,
Kids At Risk Action
info@invisiblechildren.org