Giving Tuesday: NCCPR Wants Money To Be Like Me

Oh lookie!

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.©

Privatization of Chattel and Services In A Global Economy

For those of you who do not understand the movement of privatization, this video gives a global glimpse into one of its mechanisms.



The privatization  movement originated in child welfare, because, as we all know, no one cares about child poverty and its ills.

A handful of states commenced the experiment, with Michigan being the leader as the first state to privatize its child welfare services.

Then came Religious Freedom Restoration movement, another Michigan initiative to breath life into the corporation.

The Citizens United decision ceremoniously granted corporations with the power of speech through voting rights via the dollar.

With the Trade in Services Agreement, released through Wikileaks, we now know the final leg of the animation of privatization.

Once a service is privatized, it can never go back to being public, ever. 

Now, let us examine Detroit Public Schools and "The Elected Ones" as our privatization test subject.

Child welfare has already been privatized in Michigan with major investors promoting their evolving charter models.

The emergency manager law has silenced community representation as "The Elected Ones" have no clue of what is going on, nor do they have an alternative plan to bring to the table.

"The Elected Ones" can only remain in office by doing the will of the pastors who pay for them to remain in office, so, they do not care about learning about privatization and the technology behind it.

The rate of child poverty is high enough to trigger charity campaigns to tout the wonders of the non-profit corporate education models and its social impact bonds.

Home-based,community-based child welfare service models are being designed by banks and charities to blend into the educational system, with appropriations, Medicaid, in the pipeline.

These are the markings of chattel law 2.0.

I have nothing against privatization as long as there are checks and balances.  As of this moment, the privatization Leviathan is alive and thriving.

The Wex, a term of endearment for Richard Wexler, who has resurfaced, recently published an interesting piece.

Family First Act Institutionalizes Institutions, Sets Up Prevention to Fail

It is reflective of what I have been doing for almost 20 years, just not as sophisticated, but it does give a good foundation to understanding the long term implications of the Trade in Services Agreement and privatization in a global economy.

It started with children and will end with the privatization of land, air and water.

Selling Chattel: The Oldest Form Of Survival

Family First Prevention Services Act Summary 061016 by Beverly Tran

Yes, there is relevance in this video.  It's a chattel theoretical Hobbes v. Locke kinda thang.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

How Powerful Is The Platform

At times, it takes a prestigious name to get people to listen, but it takes a much more powerful platform to carry the message:

Attn: Richard Wexler!!!

Dear Mr Wexler

In regards to your expert media consulting service in articles such as the following...

Study: Why Child Abuse Investigations Don't Help Kids

Child welfare agencies have a thankless task: investigate reports of child maltreatment and determine, first, whether they are true or false, then whether more damage will be done by a) leaving children in a potentially harmful environment, or b) ripping them away from the only parents they know and placing them in a new family that may or may not be better.

I would like to ask you why you never acknowledge the criminal element within the child welfare system? I am not disagreeing with your interpretation of incompetence, inadequate funding, lack of training, on the part of the United States Child Protective Industry, but you never mention the fact that a lot of these people are simply criminals.

Seeing how you are the Child Protective Industries spokesman for Child Welfare Reform, and considered a national expert on the subject, as well as the one the reporters call whenever they need a perceived oppositional statement from a so called expert, perhaps it's time you acknowledge that which a good many of us already know.

The system is fraught with fraud.

Wexler thinks that much of the problem with CPS has to do with the way families are approached when trouble arises. “It's almost always a cookie-cutter 'service plan' requiring lots and lots of 'counseling' and 'parent education' while the actual problems of poverty are ignored. So the 'services' only add more burdens to this family,” he says.

See, I'm really not disagreeing with you here, I'm just curious as to why you seem to think that they all actually try to help families, when in reality a good many of them are looking for ways to undermined the family and any excuse that they can use to remove the child.

I'm just curious.

Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built In Early Childhood

Stop Medicaid fraud in child welfare.

Drama in Rhode Island

I just adore public debate.

Here you have one side, Children's Rights taking a stance in the courts to change public policy. The gravamen of the case is to protect those children who have been remanded to the foster care system and to accelerate and expedite exits from the foster care system through adoption or reunification, mostly focused on the former.

Then, on the other side of the dramatic spectrum, you have the one man show of the National Coalition on Child Protection Reform who is taking a stance in the media to change public policy. The crux of his advocacy is to cease and desist the improper and unnecessary removal and placement of children in the foster care.

So why is it these two positions cannot merge into one significant force to reform child protection?

It's because neither of them understands the system or its secret...yet...

Child Welfare Advocates Clash Over Rhode Island
7/26/2010

With Rhode Island’s child welfare system facing a lawsuit by one advocacy group, another advocate has taken aim at both the state and the plaintiff.

Richard Wexler, head of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, held a news conference in Rhode Island Thursday to issue a 64-page report calling the state “the child warehousing capital of America.” The report, State of Denial: Why Rhode Island’s Child Welfare System is so Dismal – and How to Make it Better, says the state removes children from their homes 80 percent more frequently than the national average, and places them in the poorest of group homes and institutional care.

Children’s Rights, a New York-based advocacy group, also believes Rhode Island’s child welfare system is a mess, and in 2007 joined a class action lawsuit by the state’s child advocate, Jametta Alston, against the state Department of Children, Youth and Families in an effort to force reforms. In June, the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit, which had been thrown out by a lower court. The case is now awaiting reassignment to a judge.

Wexler charged that reforms pushed by Children’s Rights in other states rely too heavily on continuing to remove children from their homes, and that any settlement in Rhode Island would probably “exacerbate” that practice. He called for a settlement emphasizing “safe, proven alternatives to taking away so many children in the first place.”

Susan Lambiase, associate director of Children’s Rights, replied via e-mail that Wexler’s report “identifies issues we have been trying to get Rhode Island officials to address” through the lawsuit, including “the growing number of children placed in large, unsafe institutional settings.” She said lawsuits by Children’s Rights in other states led to changes that include reducing foster care populations.

The nonprofit National Coalition for Child Protection Reform advocates alternatives to removing children from their homes. The nonprofit Children’s Rights has brought class actions lawsuits against several states to reform their child welfare systems.