Child Advocacy 360, devoted to 'news you can use' in fighting child abuse and neglect

  • Two States-only two-Foot Bill for Foster Kids after 18

    Just two states are footing the bill to help foster care youths who turn 18. Vermont this year became the second state, after Illinois, to use state money to exten its foster care services to age 21, if a youth chooses to remain in the program.
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  • Youth Advocacy Center teaches teens how to shoot for the stars

    We have written before about the work of New York's Youth Advocacy Center and were once again impressed with this one-to-one learning experience...
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  • The 4 M's of Quality: Quality Matters, is Measurable, Moveable and Malleable

    The 4M framework, developed by The Forum for Youth Investment, puts forth in a few concise paragraphs that "quality matters, quality is measurable, quality is moveable, and quality is malleable."
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Connect For Kids and CA 360 Form Content Partnership

We are very pleased to announce that Child Advocacy 360 and Connect for Kids have formed a newsletter and Web partnership in which we will share and expand upon news features of special interest to our respective audiences. There will be high focus on Who's Doing What That Works stories, as well as Voices & Views, all done in the essence journalism style that has characterized our work.

Combining content resources will enhance our joint abilities to track and report continuing progress on the initiatives we cover, and to receive anecdotal feedback from a much wider audience of professional and citizen advocates. The partnering of resources will also give us a wider reach in Voices & Views on critical issues in child well-being.

At Child Advocacy 360 we feel privileged to be working closely with CFK and its parent organization, The Forum for Youth Investment
-- Hershel Sarbin, editor and publisher

Adoption and Foster Care

  • In Mississippi, a Sweeping Legal Victory for Kids

    Mississippi plans a serious overhaul of its child welfare system to do more to protect the approximately 3,400 abused and neglected children in its care. Last week, the state settled a class action lawsuit spearheaded by the advocacy group Children's Rights by enacting a truly comprehensive reform plan. Connect for Kids has the details -- and will track the progress of the reforms on our site.

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  • California group matches faces with families

    More than 4,000 teens age out of California's foster system annually.  Over 50% of those youth leave the state's care without high school diplomas, jobs or - most importantly - families of their own.

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  • Two States-only two-Foot Bill for Foster Kids after 18

    Kristal McCoy, 23, who spent eight years in the foster-care system, became homeless at the end of her freshman year at California State University, Hayward, and started 'couch surfing' with friends or relatives.

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  • New York's Youth Advocacy Center puts teen on path to her dreams

    As a young girl, Ebony dreamed of a career in music. Her father was a musician in New York, and told her she could perform with his group when she grew older.

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  • Top stories: Real people, real results in foster care

    Continuing the "Best Of" series we began last month with Issues and Insights, we move on to revisiting top "Who's Doing What That Works" stories published in the last six months.

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  • Fostering The Future: Let's Hear it for Pat Robinson, 62

    In its May 22 issue American Profile.com celebrated foster mother Pat Robinson, 62, who has welcomed children into her heart and home for 15 years in Stratford, Conn.

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  • The need for angels in foster care: You and me

    We continue this week with our coverage of the ABA National Conference on Children and the Law, held at Harvard Law School.

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  • Casey Family Services Report: Progress in Youth Permanency.

    It is clear that a new way of thinking has begun to take root on issues of how to support older children and youth in foster care in finding families. As a result, there is a promise for brighter futures for foster children and youth.

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  • The Shame Report

    This is a summary review of two recent stories out of Michigan. We call it The Shame Report because, at one end, the death of 2-year-old Isaac Lethbridge is such a powerful reminder that child abuse and neglect is about totally helpless children, victimized in so many ways by their home environments, and then re-victimized by the very system responsible for their care and safety.

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  • Foster Parents: Who Are They?

    Foster Parents? Who Are They? What are their motivations? in a Pew Survey from 2003 covered in Youth Law News, July-Sept 2005

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  • New York Times "A History of Neglect" Series: Expert Q&A

    Nov. 12-This month, the New York Times published a three-part series on the struggles of minority-run foster care agencies in New York City. The articles found "a trail of scandals and disappointments, as well as a new commitment to better caring for the city's vulnerable black and Latino children."

    Now on the Times site are four sets of Q&A, in which writers Benjamin Weiser and Leslie Kaufman, along with a panel of experts, answered readers' thoughtful questions.

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  • New York Times Wraps Up "A History of Neglect" Series

    This month, the New York Times published a three-part series on the struggles of minority-run foster care agencies in New York City. The articles found "a trail of scandals and disappointments, as well as a new commitment to better caring for the city's vulnerable black and Latino children."

    The Times wrapped up the series today with a front-page article that provides a thoughtful perspective and a platform for dialogue on the critical issues raised by the investigation.

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  • Foster Kids' Last Resort: Finding the Lost Relatives

    This excellent report from Wall Street Journal Online, written by Christina Binkley, covers with great care an area of considerable promise in foster care.

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  • Treehouse: A Village to Foster a Child

    It begins with a caring and generous act -- a reaching out to an abused 7-year-old boy named Alex in Northampton, MA just two years ago, by psychotherapist Wendy Gannett , who thought she was well equipped to adopt children from the foster system.

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  • "Powerful Pathways: Framing Options and Opportunities for Vulnerable Youth"

    That was the Title of a 2001 discussion paper from the Youth Transition Funders Group that offered "insights, inspirations, and future directions to frame policies and programs directed at our most vulnerable youth."

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  • Insights on Children's Rights from Overseas Journals

    In pursuing our weekly practice at CA 360 to search for insights and real life stories, we never stop with the Home Page. We hit those navigation bars --too often in small type-- to uncover the house bulletins, dig up research reports, and other nuggets most relevant to our advocacy mission.

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  • Youth Advocacy Day

    Ambition is what advocacy what brought advocacy day upon us, the will to change and make change. The will to create change, it was ambition that brought everyone to come and participate in youth advocacy training, and youth advocacy day.

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  • The results are in: Adult leaders let teens down

    The Teen Report Card on Adults from UCAN of Chicago, and the Child Welfare League of America, grades adults impacting teenagers' lives, from parents to teachers to politicians.

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  • Real People, Real Results: Monterey CASA helps heal the hurt

    "She made me feel a lot better. She was my best friend." That's how Abby, who grew up in and out of the Monterey County, Calif., foster care system, described her Court Appointed Special Advocate, or CASA.

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  • Top Seven Facts About Children's Health in the U.S.

    Facts and figures from the Children's Defense Fund

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Voices and Views:

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    Voices We Need to Hear

    We opened the current issue of the Casey Journalism Center's magazine, Children's Beat, to a spirited, 'right on' message from CJC Executive Director Patrice Pascual about the impact of journalism in the area of children's rights.

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    Selling Outcomes: Q-and-A with Jeffrey Bormaster

    In our March 16 issue, where we covered a provocative and insightful presentation by CWLA Senior Consultant Jeffrey Bormaster, we promised to follow up on Bormaster's assertion that child welfare service providers should stop selling their "services" and start selling their "outcomes." Exactly what did "outcomes" mean as he used the term?

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