Welcome to our podcast. This episode will take a closer look at this week’s blog post, focused on this Child Welfare Monitor article which summarizes a paper by Richard Barth et. al. analyzing “10 commonly held misconceptions” about child protection and foster care. The authors are concerned that current efforts to reform these programs are often based on theories that are politically popular but aren’t supported by research.

Please join in on this important discussion, please call in to the podcast, or comment with your thoughts or questions on the blog. We are grateful and honored for any thoughts, theories, or comments you would like to share. Thank you.

Read the podcast transcript here.

Safe Passage for Children’s nonprofit mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential.

If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them.

Please support our work for Minnesota's most vulnerable children here.

Visit our website: www.safepassageforchildren.org

Welcome to our podcast. This episode will take a closer look at this week’s child welfare blog post, focused on the recent Minnesota Supreme Court decision which unanimously overturned lower court rulings in the wrongful death lawsuit against Pope County brought by relatives of Eric Dean, whose 2015 murder at age 5 prompted significant child protection reforms. The combined impact of previous state and federal decisions, notably the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in DeShaney vs. Winnebago County, was to shield child protection caseworkers from lawsuits related to child deaths unless they had engaged in willful or malicious conduct.  The Minnesota decision requires workers to also act in good faith and exercise due care, which lowers the threshold for successful litigation. This decision increases the potential to hold workers and counties accountable for decisions that knowingly put children at grave risk and which lead to their death. Time will tell how this plays out, but it looks like a big win for Minnesota children.

Please join in to this important discussion, please call in to the podcast, or comment with your thoughts or questions on the blog post. We are grateful and honored for any thoughts, theories, or comments you would like to share. Thank you.

Read the podcast transcript here.

Safe Passage for Children’s nonprofit mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential.

If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them.

Please support our work for Minnesota's most vulnerable children here.

Visit our website: www.safepassageforchildren.org

Welcome to our podcast. This episode will take a closer look at this week’s child welfare blog post, focused on this recent blog and accompanying podcast where we described how child welfare philosophy has shifted since the 1970’s away from protecting children and towards parents’ rights. Eventually professionals in our field became so accustomed to parent-centric approaches that we lost sight of our purpose. Ideology drove us into this fog – this upside-down world where it’s considered racist to challenge practices such as not gathering evidence or keeping records. Please join in to this important discussion, please call in to the podcast, or comment with your thoughts or questions on the blog post. We are grateful and honored for any thoughts, theories, or feedback you may have. Thank you.

Safe Passage for Children’s nonprofit mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential.

If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them.

Please support our work for Minnesota's most vulnerable children here.

Visit our website: www.safepassageforchildren.org

Minnesota still screens in significantly fewer maltreatment reports than most states.  But some worry that helping more children will lead to removing more of them from their families, leading to significant trauma.

There is no disagreement that taking children from their parents is traumatic. But it is less so than being killed. Currently one Minnesota child is murdered by their caregivers every 6.7 weeks. Those who survive the maltreatment suffer lifelong adverse consequences, including difficulty in forming relationships, poor self-control, lower earnings, and chronic health problems.

The question is whether current policies strike a responsible balance between the trauma children experience from leaving their families compared to that of staying.

This is not a choice between being pro-family or pro-child. It is about making difficult decisions from the child’s perspective so we give appropriate weight to their safety and well-being.

For a more detailed discussion, read the transcript here.

www.safepassageforchildren.org

Welcome to our podcast. This episode will take a closer look at this week’s child welfare blog post, focused on answering the question of how we got five decades of anti-child policies being utilized in Minnesota child welfare which are based on theories that have been harming children for 50 years. Please tune in to this important discussion, and please call into the podcast or comment with your thoughts or questions on the blog post. We are grateful and honored for any thoughts, theories, or feedback you may have on our blog posts and podcasts. Thank you.

For a more detailed history of these initiatives, read the transcript here.

Safe Passage for Children’s nonprofit mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential.

If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them.

Please support our work for Minnesota's most vulnerable children here.

Visit our website: www.safepassageforchildren.org

Welcome to our podcast. This episode will take a closer look at this week’s child welfare blog post, focused on our own Executive Director Rich Gehrman’s experience running the Yonkers New York Department of Social Services, getting complaints about men showing up at peoples’ homes with guns and removing their children. He had to persuade an upset community that they weren’t their caseworkers. Today some activists favor turning over child welfare to communities.  How would that work?  Would Yonkers-style vigilantes pop up?  Would Neighborhood Watch programs remove children from their homes?  Would the nice neighbors who started taking in kids actually be sex trafficking them? Tune in to this important discussion, and please call in or comment with your thoughts or questions.

Safe Passage for Children’s nonprofit mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential. If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them. Please support our work for Minnesota's most vulnerable children here.

Visit our website at www.safepassageforchildren.org

Welcome to our podcast. This episode will take a closer look at this week’s child welfare blog post, focused on why public policy goals should be set through democratic processes, not by private foundations, such as in 2011 when Casey Family Programs unilaterally established a national goal to safely reduce the number of children in foster care by 50%. Since then they have spent $193.1 million to promote this and their related objectives, including $5.3 million in Minnesota. How do we know when foster care can be avoided safely, and is 50% the right number? Join us for this important discussion on foster care and public policy decision-making. Please call in or comment with your thoughts or questions.

Safe Passage for Children’s mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential. If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them.

This week we held our annual fall fundraising event, this year a virtual gathering. View the presentation and find out more here: https://safepassageforchildren.org/events/fall-fundraiser-virtual-gathering-2021/

Visit our website: www.safepassageforchildren.org

Safe Passage for Children’s mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential.

Join us for our annual Fall Fundraiser gathering, this year a Virtual Gathering! Learn more and register by following this link: https://bit.ly/safepassagevirtualgathering

One of the ways we raise our voice to speak up for the needs and the safety of vulnerable Minnesota children is through these podcasts. If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them.

This episode will take a closer look at our most recent weekly child welfare blog post, focused on asking when it is children’s turn to get justice, in light of the recent Congressional testimony of USA Gymnastic’s women which was quickly followed by convicting R. Kelly for decades of sex trafficking and firing U.S. Women’s Soccer League coaches for sexual abuse. Listen to a reading of the short blog post, followed by in-depth commentary and analysis on this week’s topic.

Visit our website: www.safepassageforchildren.org

Safe Passage for Children’s mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential.

Join us for our annual Fall Fundraiser gathering, this year a Virtual Gathering! Learn more and register by following this link: https://bit.ly/safepassagevirtualgathering

One of the ways we raise our voice to speak up for the needs and the safety of vulnerable Minnesota children is through these podcasts. If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them.

This episode will take a closer look at our most recent weekly child welfare blog post, focused on why antiracism training in Minnesota child welfare worker training hasn’t reduced the disproportionate representation of Black and Indigenous families in child protection and foster care. Listen to a reading of the short blog post, followed by in-depth commentary and analysis on this week’s topic.

Together we can make a difference for vulnerable Minnesota children! Please join us at our Fall Fundraiser Virtual Gathering:

https://bit.ly/safepassagevirtualgathering

Visit our website: www.safepassageforchildren.org

Safe Passage for Children’s mission is to strengthen the Minnesota child welfare system so children are safe and can reach their full potential.

Join us for our annual Fall Fundraiser gathering, this year a Virtual Gathering! Learn more and register by following this link: https://bit.ly/safepassagevirtualgathering

One of the ways we raise our voice to speak up for the needs and the safety of vulnerable Minnesota children is through these podcasts. If you know someone who cares about children, be sure to share this podcast with them.

This episode will take a closer look at our most recent weekly blog post, or “e-brief,” focused on how gymnasts shine a light on a system that protects adults not children. Listen to a reading of the short blog post, followed by in-depth commentary and analysis on the blog post.

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Last week’s Congressional testimony by four American gymnasts shone a light on the cover-up of Larry Nassar’s crimes by the FBI, USA Gymnastics and Olympic officials.  Simone Biles concluded: “I blame an entire system that enabled, perpetrated Nassar’s abuse”.

NBC News cultural historian Lynn Stuart Parramore elaborated:  “If we’re honest, however, it encompasses the entire society — reflecting a longstanding willful blindness to harm inflicted upon children by adults.”

This blindness is reflected in numerous Minnesota parent-centered child welfare practices, including to deliberately not record the names of perpetrators in Family Assessment cases, which comprise 62% of child protection responses.

Every time, so far, that a child abuse scandal like this breaks – think Jerry Sandusky at Penn State and Eric Dean here in Minnesota – institutions revert to business as usual after a brief period of hand-wringing. Let’s disrupt that pattern together.

Visit our website: www.safepassageforchildren.org