LJWorld.com

Posted by John Poertner on February 23, 2009 at 9:29 a.m.

• permalink

Affordable Adoptions

Reply 8 comments from

Posted by John Poertner on December 23, 2008 at 8:45 a.m.

• permalink

The holidays, economy and the homeless

This holiday time that celebrates something other than consumption has somehow become a time of excess. Yet the news on the economy is awful and it's all our fault. We aren’t consuming enough to keep the economy afloat. It’s all about personal responsibility. Just like the homeless. The Lawrence Community Shelter’s (LCS) newsletter came yesterday with news of people being responsible while struggling with personal problems. Go ahead start the tirades. I am going to speak kindly of the homeless and LCS.The newsletter features several success stories like that of ‘B’ who was helped to obtain housing outside the shelter. These are not isolated incidents. The newsletter includes data saying that 121 residents moved into permanent housing or applied for housing to the Housing Authority, 65 people obtained jobs and 55 people moved into substance abuse detox or rehab. These are just the results that I as a citizen of Lawrence want from LCS. I am sure that the Salvation Army and others who are working with the homeless are also showing results. I just don’t have their newsletters. So if you want to help the economy, help an agency that is successfully helping the homeless become productive members of our community. I am going to go out and buy some gloves and take them to LCS.Happy Holidays.

Reply 8 comments from

Posted by John Poertner on November 25, 2008 at 9:43 a.m.

• permalink

Decarbonize and the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is hardly a mouthpiece for the left or even the center for that matter. I doubt that Rachel Maddow ever reads it although she may have ‘her people’ do that so she has material.The Monday (11/24) issue of the WSJ had a report from the ‘CEO Council.’ This is a group of business leaders that were convened by the Journal to come up with priorities for the new administration. One of the four topics was energy & the environment. The top two recommendations regarding energy & the environment are:1.Comprehensive energy and environment policy.Put national legislation in place that starts us on the road to decarbonize our economy and to create the most energy-efficient economy in the world. Level with the American people that ensuring an adequate and diverse energy supply in a low-carbon world will not be cheap or easy. But make the case that the transition must be transparent and fair to all Americans, and that linking the economy, the environment and energy policy bolsters security for all three. 2.Decarbonize the power sector.Launch a coordinated strategy to curb emissions from electricity production that recognizes the need for a variety of energy sources. To facilitate renewable energy, allow the use of federal eminent domain to site transmission lines, and increase federal spending to improve energy-storage technology. To allow the continued use of coal, promote carbon capture and sequestration technology by boosting federal R&D spending and by streamlining procedures for the licensing and siting of facilities to store the carbon dioxide underground. To expand the use of nuclear energy, resolve storage issues. To promote all these technologies, create a cap-and trade system for carbon emissions.There is enough in these two recommendations to keep a group of environmentalists and their opponents going for months. If Jimmy Carter read this, I imagine his easy smile broadened considerably. After all during his unpopular time in the White House his policies regarding energy conservation and new technology were accompanied by a substantial reduction in oil imports and carbon emissions.Decarbonize is featured in both of the CEO Council’s recommendation. Don’t you just love that word? Bill Gates does not include it in my automatic dictionary. But decarbonize may just be the verb of this new century.Governor Bill Ritter Jr. has a plan to reduce Colorado’s emissions of greenhouse gases by 25% by 2020. That would be to decarbonize. This includes a shared commitment with other states and nations to even deeper emissions cuts by 2050 (http://www.colorado.gov/energy/in/uploaded_pdf/ColoradoClimateActionPlan_001.pdf). I guess Governor Ritter doesn’t read the Kansas newspapers. Our business leaders at Sunflower Electric filed a lawsuit for the right to carbonize our environment to the tune of 11 million tons annually and sell most of the electricity to Governor Ritter’s constituents. Since the Sunflower lawsuit is pending, perhaps we should offer a settlement. Kansas will no longer deny permits for the Sunflower coal powered electric generation plants but simply delay approval until the existence of new carbon sequestration technology that demonstrates a lack of environment damage. Better yet Colorado could pay Kansas legal fees in the Sunflower lawsuit to demonstrate Governor Ritter’s shared commitment to cut emissions.

Reply 15 comments from

Posted by John Poertner on September 26, 2008 at 9:20 a.m.

• permalink

Parents helping parents

Being a parent of a child in foster care is difficult. This family crisis is accompanied by feelings of anger, guilt, shame or failure. Then there is the stigma. Many people paint these parents with a broad brush. They must all be sadistic abusers. Who wants to say that the reason that their child is not living at home is because he/she is in the custody of SRS? Of course some parents are just mean and don't think that there is a problem. Then there are those with uncontrolled mental illness or substance abuse that prevents them from being adequate parents. Some parents have children with mental illness that exhibit behavior that is virtually unmanageable. Poverty, domestic violence and homelessness are just a few additional family problems. There are a host of reasons that children are placed in foster care.The problems resulting in children being placed out of home are not resolved quickly. The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) reports that last year 2337 children were reunified with their families but only 57% of children in foster care were returned within one year. With the stigma, lengthy involvement with SRS, the court and other service providers there are still a group of Kansas parents who have 'been there' and are reaching out to try to help other parents experiencing the same difficulties. They are even helping SRS and other service providers to be as responsive as possible.The Kansas Family Advisory Network (KFAN) is such a group. Their vision is to have a statewide network of family members who are partners in child welfare (www.kfan.org). One example of their work is the Family Navigator Program. Parents who have had children in foster care become partners to parents newly experiencing this stressful situation. The partner helps by explaining what to expect because they have been in the same situation. Currently KFAN only has resources to provide this service in Cherokee and Reno counties.Another project is the Family Planner. This is a three ring notebook of all the paperwork regarding a family's case. It includes a list of everyone involved with the case along with phone numbers. With the involvement of SRS, court, schools, mental health centers and social service providers this can be quite a list. The Planner also includes court orders and meeting dates with actions taken. An important feature is a space for parents to record their own thoughts about meetings, hearings and other events. The Planner may seem like a small thing but one frequently forgotten in stressful times. The ability to easily retrieve this information to recall what has been written or said is a powerful tool since those inside the system don't always share this same information effectively. This tool can help parents hold key actors accountable.KFAN also works on the statewide level to help improve Kansas child welfare. I have the pleasure of serving on a statewide SRS committee with Ruth Heitsman who is one of the founders of KFAN. Ruth is a passionate child welfare advocate who speaks forcefully for parents. At the same time she pushes for better services and outcomes for foster children. KFAN is a new organization struggling to obtain resources to expand. Hopefully their vision of being a statewide leader in child welfare will be realized soon.

Reply 4 comments from

Posted by John Poertner on August 11, 2008 at 10:42 a.m.

• permalink

How did we do raising our 9,187 children last year

Last year we took part in raising 9,187 children. That is the total number of Children in Need of Care who were in out of home placements during the last fiscal year. Since the state produces data on a fiscal year basis our year runs from July 1 through June 30. Children in Need of Care are those who are awarded that designation by a juvenile judge. The Secretary of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) is given custody and most are then placed in foster care. The Secretary is acting on our behalf. The goal for these children is to keep them safe, find a safe and permanent home for them as quickly as possible and maintain their well-being.Safety Children in our custody are reported as being safe. 99.91% of children in out of home placement last year were reported as safe; 98.6% of children were safe after leaving foster care. Nationwide child welfare systems have shown that they do keep children safe. This is generally measured by counting the confirmed or substantiated incidents of abuse or neglect. Kansas has a rather high level of proof needed to substantiate a case resulting in only 8% of all investigations of abuse or neglect being substantiated. This low rate suggests that the safety measure may not be the best indicator of safety. Permanency This is child welfare jargon for children returning to a safe home, being adopted or having someone else assume guardianship of the child. SRS has set a standard that 76.2% of children entering foster care will return home within 12 months. Last year they missed the mark. Only 57.3% of children returned home in that time period.If children are returned home too quickly they frequently return to foster care in a short period of time. In Kansas only 6% of children returned to care within 12 months of going home. This is a low rate and a good outcome. This probably can be attributed to the child welfare contractors having to assume the cost of foster care when a child returns to foster care within 12 months. This has been an effective provision of the contracts encouraging the contractors to provide support and services to families after reunification. SRS reports that last year 712 or 727 (both numbers appear in their data) children found new families through adoption. This compares with 715 the year before. SRS has a standard that 32% of children adopted will achieve this within 24 months of entering foster care. Last year the rate was 30.7%. With 871 children awaiting adoption one wonders if these numbers couldn't be improved.Someone, usually an extended family member, assuming the guardianship of a child is another way that children achieve a safe and permanent home. Last year 330 children left SRS custody through guardianship. This has become a well accepted way for children to achieve a safe and permanent home. Research has shown that these arrangements have many benefits because the people assuming guardianship are usually grandparents or aunts or uncles who are well known to the children.Well-being Many experts suggest that education, health and mental health are what ought to be considered as child well-being. As a parent I know that these were important considerations in raising my children. How are they doing in school? How is there physical health? How is their mental health?Unfortunately we know nothing about the well-being of children in SRS custody or those leaving. This is disturbing. Imagine a parent not knowing how their children are doing in school. Isn't that neglect? In general we know that children entering foster care are not doing well educationally. That is even more reason to make reporting educational status as a priority. Youth leaving care because they reach the age of majority is another group for which well-being is important. These are youth who did not return home, were not adopted and did not have someone assume guardianship. SRS reports that 433 youth fit this description last year. Nationally, research on these youth has shown that they do not do well as adults. They enter foster care with many problems and leave with few resources and few prospects. In recent years these youth have more opportunities to attend college and maintain their health care after leaving care. Yet, we don't know how many are leaving care with a high school education, work experience or a medical card. You can look at the date yourself at http://www.srskansas.org/CFS/datareports08.html

Reply 3 comments from