The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform wants you to give them some money so they can try to do what I do for free.
How cute.
Help Richard "The Wex" Wexler out so he can grow up to be like me one day by giving him some money.
The only thing I ask you to give me is your mind, because if I ever received any money, I would have to give up my SNAP benefits and Medicaid for my kids.
Have a great day.
#GivingTuesday
On Giving Tuesday: Want to know how effective NCCPR is? Just ask someone who probably wishes we’d go away!
Of all the journalists who have covered child welfare, few are more keen on pushing a take-the-child-and-run approach than former Los Angeles Timesreporter Garrett Therolf. The issues with Therolf’s work at the Times were so serious that even an ideological soulmate found serious problems in story after story. The crescendo of criticism was such that LA Observed, a Los Angeles news site that closely tracks area media, took notice.
Then, just as he was leaving the Times, Therolf demeaned the work of Black scholars while cheerleading for those who insist that child welfare is magically immune from racial bias.
So, on this Giving Tuesday, where better to turn for a testament to the power and influence of NCCPR – right?
Not that he offered such a testament on purpose, of course. I’m sure he didn’t even realize it.
Last month, Therolf was able to get a sugar-coated version of his L.A. Times-style reporting into a national magazine. (I’m not going to link to it, but you can use the quote below to Google it if you are so inclined.) After noting how horror stories about deaths of children “known to the system” can drive increases in foster care, he discusses one of the very few cases in which it worked in reverse:
Logan Marr, a 5-year-old girl from Maine [had] been removed from her home by the state’s grossly interventionist child-protective-services agency. In a gruesome twist, Logan was placed in the custody of a former caseworker, who disciplined her by gagging her with duct tape and leaving her in the basement, where she died.
The case became the subject of a PBS documentary, and media attention made Logan a symbol of child-protective services’ overreach. The pendulum swung, and the United States saw a nearly 25 percent drop in the number of children in foster care from 2002 to 2012. [Emphasis added.]
Therolf never mentions which organization drew all that media attention to the case of Logan Marr. He probably doesn’t know. It was, of course, NCCPR. We’re the ones who told producers for Frontline about the case. You’ll find an NCCPR op-ed on Frontline’s website for the programs.
It was NCCPR that focused the discussion of this case, in Maine and nationally, on the fact that Logan was taken because her family poverty was confused with neglect. And it was NCCPR that shifted the focus from the usual calls for tougher licensing standards and more visits to foster homes to the real issue: Maine was taking away far too many children. There’s a detailed discussion of what we did and how we did it here.
Some caveats: We didn’t do it alone. It wouldn’t have been possible without activists in Maine led by a fed-up foster parent. And, although one probably shouldn’t say this in a fundraising pitch, the attention we drew to the case of Logan Marr was not solely responsible for that big drop in foster care. But it helped.
There’s more about our successes across the country here – including testimonials from child welfare leaders and journalists who actually like our work.
And best of all, we do it on a shoestring. Now that the entire staff (that’s me) is volunteer, all we need is a few thousand dollars a year for things like the phone bill, office supplies, purchasing overpriced studies from scholarly journals, and – ideally – some travel to meet with journalists and local advocates.
There are a lot of places well worth your support on this Giving Tuesday – but very few where a small donation can get so much done.
Thank you for your support.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
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