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Editor's
Note: POY is pleased to
present its Winter/Spring 2004 Articles Section: Perspectives
on Innovative Interdisciplinary Programs & Practices for
Professionals that Work With Youth.
The tasks of those that work with youth have never been more
important. As researchers Robert Brooks and Sam Goldstein
recently noted in The Power of Resilience (McGraw-Hill,
2004) one of the most important factors in adults who were
resilient and overcame significant challenges as children
and grew up to lead successful and rewarding personal and
professional lives was “having at least one
adult who cared about them and loved them when they
were children” (p.153). It is a great statement on the
powerful difference just one adult
can make in the life of a child. Most often that one person
is a family member; other times that one adult is a professional
who was in some way involved in a child's life, directly or
indirectly helping the child to surmount obstacles, and become,
in effect, resilient.
“Resilience” is a pervading theme throughout Perspectives
On Youth, and in particular, POY's
section on Perspectives
In Perseverance. It is also a pervading theme in the articles
below which detail organizations and approaches that that
are often innovative and interdisciplinary in nature, providing
the programs and places that make significant differences
in lives of individual children and/or in public policy affecting
millions of children—and perhaps facilitating the meeting
of that one adult who will make
a difference.
—Joi
Kohlhagen
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If
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Perspectives
on Innovative Interdisciplinary Organizations
Prevent
Child Abuse America
By Anne Reiniger, M.S.W., J.D*
"If
20 million people were infected by a virus that caused anxiety,
impulsivity, aggression, sleep problems, depression, respiratory
and heart problems, vulnerability to substance abuse, antisocial
and criminal behavior, retardation and school failure, we
would consider it an urgent public health crisis. Yet, in
this country alone, there are more than 20 million abused,
neglected and traumatized children vulnerable to these problems.
Our society has yet to recognize this epidemic, let alone
develop an immunization strategy for it." Bruce D. Perry
MD, PhD, CIVITAS Childhood Trauma Programs.
Mission: To prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation's
children.
Core
Values: Valuing children, strengthening families and engaging
communities.
Guiding Principles: Leadership, collaboration, integrity,
diversity and respect, and research-based
Scope
of the Problem: Each year an estimated three million cases
of suspected child abuse and neglect are reported to Child
Protective Services agencies. More than three children die
each day in America from child abuse and neglect. There is
no disease or natural disaster or trauma that is killing more
children under the age of four than abuse and neglect.
The annual cost to society of child abuse and neglect is estimated
at $94 billion. For every dollar spent on treatment, America
spends one penny on prevention.
According to a study conducted by PCA America in 2001, it
is estimated that child abuse and neglect cost this country
$258 million each day - equivalent to $1,461.66 per American
family. For every dollar spent on child abuse prevention,
at least two dollars are saved that might otherwise have been
spent on child welfare services, special education services,
medical care, foster care, counseling, and housing juvenile
offenders. An additional survey has shown that 83% of Americans
believe it is possible to prevent abuse and neglect before
it starts, yet for every dollar spent on the treatment of
child abuse, the U.S. spends only one penny on prevention.
In
2000, a survey conducted by PCA America found that nearly
one-half of Americans with children believe that parents find
themselves in situations where they are afraid they might
abuse or neglect their child more than just occasionally,
and 43% of parents reported hitting or spanking their child.
Nearly 70% of Americans surveyed also believe that educating
new parents about the developmental stages and needs of their
children can be an effective tool in reducing the incidence
of abuse or neglect.
Overview:
In 1972 Prevent Child Abuse America (then called the National
Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse) was created to
build a nationwide commitment to preventing child abuse and
neglect. We are an interdisciplinary family of physicians,
social workers, lawyers, law enforcement, nurses, professors,
psychologists, teachers, policy makers, volunteers, donors
and parents who are preventing child abuse and neglect before
it starts. Since 1972, Prevent Child Abuse America has led
the way in building awareness, providing education and inspiring
hope to those involved in the effort to prevent the abuse
and neglect of our nation's children. Working with chapters
in 40 states and the District of Columbia, we provide leadership
to promote and implement prevention efforts at both the national
and local levels. With the help of our state chapters we're
strengthening families and engaging communities nationwide.
Our many local programs, prevention initiatives and events
help spread the word in communities throughout the nation,
creating awareness that prevention is possible. Today, Prevent
Child Abuse America is widely known for its public awareness,
education, prevention programs (such as Healthy Families America
and Circle of Parents), advocacy and research. In 1986 we
founded the National Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research
which researches the effectiveness of prevention efforts.
Chapter
Network: We believe that a strong presence at both the
state and national level is essential to leading child abuse
prevention efforts. We have chapters chartered in 40 states
and the District of Columbia and our goal is for a chapter
in every state. The chapters are the child abuse prevention
leaders in their state and all of them work to raise public
awareness and educate the general public. They also advocate
for effective laws and adequate funds to prevention services
and efforts, serve as an information resource to parents and
professionals, offer 1-800 help lines and provide training
to professionals and parents.
Prevention
Programs:
Healthy Families America: In 1992 Prevent Child Abuse
America launched Healthy Families America. This innovative
voluntary home visiting service seeks to prevent child abuse
and neglect, promote positive parenting and encourage child
health and development. The home visitors reach out to overburdened
parents of newborns, and in many communities' expectant families,
and offer ongoing service of support, counseling, education
and referrals to help them to raise their children in a most
positive way. The service is provided to families based on
their needs and continues to be available to them until their
child is ready for school or Head Start. The home visitors
are well trained and supervised paraprofessionals and the
staff includes social workers and health professionals. Sponsoring
agencies include community based agencies, universities, medical
centers, and public and private local social service and health
agencies.
There are over 430 sites in 39 states. PCAA credentials the
sites to assure they adhere to proven best practices standards
that ensure the highest quality of service delivery. For more
information please check our Healthy Families America website
at www.healthyfamiliesamerica.org.
Circle
of Parents: These mutual self-help parent support programs,
a collaboration of Prevent Child Abuse America and the National
Family Support Roundtable is funded through grants from the
US HHS Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN) and the US
Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP). Through this grant we have established
400 new groups and nine new state networks across the country.
These programs are a time-tested child abuse prevention approach
that promotes positive parenting through open-ended weekly
meetings free to anyone in a parenting role. This program
model provides confidential and non-judgmental groups in which
caregivers can participate. Under the guidance of a trained
facilitator, parent leaders learn how to help other caregivers
offer and receive insight into common problems. Some sites
also provide children's programs too.
Research:
The National Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research was
established in 1986 to increase the understanding of the complex
causes of child maltreatment and to establish an empirical
base of information of the effectiveness of child abuse prevention
programs. In 1994, the Center established a formal national
network of prevention researcher to solidify the link between
research and practice.
Public
Awareness and Education: Initially, Prevent Child Abuse
America focused on public education. Through a partnership
with the Advertising Council we got the prevention message
out to the general public. We produced and disseminated "What
Every Parent Should Know", the first of many educational
pamphlets. Public opinion polls indicate that the percentage
of people aware of the problem of child abuse has increased
significantly over the years. Prevent Child Abuse America
is the leading organization in America that changes public
attitudes toward child abuse and neglect in a large part through
its ad campaigns with the Ad Council.
In addition to our national media campaigns, Prevent Child
Abuse America produces and maintains a library of more than
70 publications, which have an annual circulation of more
than two million throughout the United States, Canada, and
Europe. Included is a series of Spiderman comic books. These
comics have proven to be an effective tool in teaching children
and adolescents about such topics as fatherhood, sexual abuse,
emotional abuse and bullying.
Since 1983, the April Child Abuse Prevention month has become
a national event. Prevent Child Abuse America distributes
thousands of "Prevent Child Abuse" packets. This
material is designed to seek the involvement of entire communities
by encouraging the formation of partnerships to build a support
network for families and children.
Advocacy: Prevent Child Abuse America is a leader in
educating our policymakers at the federal, state and local
levels about the need for laws ensuring child abuse prevention
services and research and to ensure that adequate funding
is provided to them. We took the lead in establishing Children's
Trust Funds in almost every state. Using both public and private
revenue sources, these trust funds serve as a continuous funding
mechanism for child abuse prevention efforts at the state
and community levels.
Prevent Child Abuse America has been instrumental in ensuring
that the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act is reauthorized
and that funding is continued for local child abuse prevention
effort through Community-Based Resource and Support grant.
We also worked to ensure the enactment of the Adoption and
Safe Families Act, which reauthorized the Family Preservation
and Family Support grants (renamed Safe and Stable Families).
Many of our Healthy Families America sites are funded in part
by these monies. Prevent Child Abuse America was also instrumental
in assuring the enactment of the Child Abuse Prevention and
Enforcement Act (CAPE). This law gives state and local official
the flexibility to use existing Department of Justice program
funds to prevent child abuse and neglect, and to intervene
and protect children who have been mistreated.
Prevent Child Abuse America recently adopted a public policy
agenda which sets forth the important child abuse prevention
issues and is a guide for policymakers and advocates to establish
child abuse prevention as a national priority.
Public
Policy Agenda:
Preamble
Historically, our nation largely viewed child abuse and neglect
as a private family matter, best left unexamined except in
the most extreme cases. Over the years, however, a new public
consensus has emerged calling for the protection and nurturing
of children as essential to society's health and future potential.
Most Americans now agree that we all have a responsibility
to protect children from maltreatment and to promote their
optimal growth and development. Prevent Child Abuse America
believes that the most effective and humane way to do so lies
in fostering the conditions necessary for successful families,
thereby preventing child abuse and neglect from developing
in the first place.
When
child maltreatment is not prevented children and families
as well as society as a whole suffer. Taking into account
mental health services, crime, medical care, and child protection
services, Prevent Child Abuse America estimates that child
maltreatment costs the United States $94 billion a year. Consequently,
the prevention of child abuse and neglect demands the attention
of policymakers because of the human toll maltreatment exacts
on children and the high cost maltreatment imposes on society.
This
public policy agenda represents a set of policies that, if
fully implemented, will significantly reduce child maltreatment
and foster the development of healthy and nurturing families.
The public policy agenda does not offer pat, one-size-fits-all
solutions. To do so would ignore the diversity of American
families and the situations they face. Instead, it calls on
policymakers to recognize the continuum of public policies
that need to be in place to support American families. Such
a range of policies reflects the broadened scope of child
abuse and neglect prevention - taking us beyond traditional
child abuse and neglect prevention approaches such as home
visiting and public education - to include related policies
that address economic stability, substance abuse, domestic
violence, housing, healthcare, and child care.
We
all have a role to play in preventing child abuse and neglect.
Individually, we strive to be better parents and neighbors.
As communities, we come together to create safe and healthy
environments in which to raise children. Public policy shapes
such efforts in fundamental ways, setting national and state
level priorities, and providing and directing essential resources.
Child abuse prevention and the issues surrounding it need
to be a priority. This document provides the roadmap; as advocates,
concerned citizens and policy-makers, we must pave the way.
Public
Policy Agenda
The following public policy agenda encompasses the policies
that Prevent Child Abuse America believes are essential to
preventing child abuse and neglect and to fostering healthy
and nurtured families. These policies fall under eleven broad
categories:
•
Promoting Parent Support and Parent Education
•
Promoting Family Economic Stability
•
Promoting Healthy and Age-Appropriate Development
•
Promoting
Health
•
Addressing Substance Abuse
•
Promoting
Early Education and Child Care
•
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse
•
Promoting
Safe and Non-Violent Environments for Children and Families
•
Promoting Systems Reform
•
Promoting
Research
•
Promoting Public Awareness and Education
POSITION STATEMENTS: Prevent Child Abuse America has
issued position statements that are at the core of our work.
They are as follows:
Preventing
Child Neglect
Child neglect is the most common form of maltreatment and,
although pervasive and sometimes life threatening, is often
difficult to identify. Child neglect can lead to depression,
apathy, lack of empathy, and, too frequently, to criminal
behavior and in some instances death.
We, as a nation and as individuals, have the collective responsibility
to promote strong and healthy families, thereby preventing
neglect. To accomplish this, we must strengthen services that
prevent child abuse and neglect and support children and families.
And we must promote research, training, and public education
to address the risk factors that can lead to child neglect
and to foster the factors that protect against it.
PCA
America Advocates for:
•
Increasing
services to families such as home visiting, early childhood
education, parent education, and family planning.
•
Providing
mental health services to parents who need and want such
services, and making mental health services available to
victims of child neglect as early as possible to prevent
the future perpetuation of neglect.
•
Increasing
efforts to address social problems such as poverty, substance
abuse, and family violence which are related to child neglect.
•
Increasing
public awareness efforts to educate the public about child
neglect and how it can help to prevent it.
Preventing
Child Physical Abuse
Child physical abuse brutalizes, traumatizes, and intimidates
children, and can lead to physical injury, violent behavior,
mental and medical health problems, long-term physical and
mental disability, brain injury, and in some instances death.
We, as a nation and as individuals, have the collective responsibility
to promote strong and healthy families, thereby preventing
child physical abuse. To accomplish this, we must strengthen
services that prevent child abuse and neglect and support
children and families. We must enact legislation to protect
children from child physical abuse. And we must promote research,
training, and public education to address the risk factors
that can lead to child physical abuse and to foster the factors
that protect against it.
PCA
America Advocates for:
•
Increasing
funding for effective family support services such as home
visiting, parent support groups, and parent education classes.
•
Allocating
increased resources to initiatives that address the co-occurrence
of child abuse and domestic violence.
•
Increasing
research to enhance the effectiveness of existing prevention
programs.
Preventing
Child Emotional Abuse
Child emotional abuse is a misunderstood, insidious, and psychologically
damaging form of child maltreatment, which can lead to low
self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and self-destructive behavior.
We, as a nation and as individuals, have the collective responsibility
to promote strong and healthy families, thereby preventing
child emotional abuse. To accomplish this, we must strengthen
services that prevent child abuse and neglect and support
children and families. And we must promote research, training,
and public education to address the risk factors that can
lead to child emotional abuse and to foster the factors that
protect against it.
PCA
America Advocates for:
•
Increasing
research efforts to gain a clear understanding of the origins,
nature, and risk factors of child emotional abuse.
•
Increasing
research so that family support programs can effectively
address child emotional abuse.
•
Raising
public awareness on what is currently known about the severity,
prevalence, and warning signs of child emotional abuse.
•
Making
mental health services available to both victims and perpetrators
of child emotional abuse to prevent the intergenerational
transmission and future perpetuation of child emotional
abuse.
Preventing
Child Sexual Abuse
Child sexual abuse exploits and degrades children, and can
lead to feelings of hopelessness, depression, and to self-destructive
and anti-social behaviors.
We, as a nation and as individuals, have the collective responsibility
to prevent child sexual abuse. To accomplish this, we must
strengthen child abuse prevention services that support children
and families. We must enact legislation that protects children
from child sexual abuse. And we must promote research, training,
and public education to address the risk factors that can
lead to child sexual abuse.
PCA America Advocates for:
•
Raising
awareness of the dangers of child sexual abuse, and promoting
the notion that stopping child sexual abuse is everyone's
responsibility.
•
Educating
the public, especially policymakers, about the true nature
of child sexual abuse.
•
Rigorously
evaluating and strengthening existing child sexual abuse
prevention programs.
•
Shifting
the prevention of child sexual abuse from children to adults.
•
Exploring,
evaluating, and strengthening new approaches to child sexual
abuse.
Promoting
Effective and Nurturing Parenting
Effective parenting and nurturing familial relationships lay
the foundation for healthy children and a stable and productive
society. Families need to be supported by policies and services
that ensure that children live in nurturing and safe environments
free from abuse and neglect, thereby enabling children to
reach their full potential.
PCA
America supports public policies that promote effective parenting,
and that reinforce parents' aspirations to raise their children
in loving, supportive, and healthy homes.
PCA
America Advocates for:
•
Increasing
funding for family support programs and other necessary
supports so that they can be established in all communities
and made available to all families.
•
Raising
the value of parenthood among members of our society so
that voters and communities agree that such services are
worthy of funding.
•
Conducting
research to understand the best ways to reach parents and
the public with messages underscoring the importance of
family support programs.
*Anne
Reiniger is the chair of the Board of Prevent Child Abuse
America and former Executive Director of The
New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Preamble
From, Suzette (2001). "Total Estimated Cost of Child
Abuse and Neglect in the United States:
Statistical Evidence." Chicago, IL: Prevent Child Abuse
America. Available online at http://www.preventchildabuse.org/learn_more/research_docs/cost_analysis.pdf
Editor's Note: Prevent Child Abuse America is one of
the most highly regarded and respected child abuse prevention
and child advocacy organizations in the world. To learn more
about Prevent Child Abuse America and its many State chapters,
you can click here www.preventchildabuse.org.
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Childrens'
Rights:
Winning
for Children
By Geoffrey Knox*
OVERVIEW
Children's Rights is a national non-profit advocacy organization
for children, dedicated to establishing and enforcing children's
legal rights when they become involved with child welfare
systems. Over 1 million children in the United States are
victims of abuse and neglect each year. Currently, 600,000
abused and neglected children live in foster care. Foster
care is supposed to be safe and temporary, but children are
staying in state custody an average of three years -100,000
languish over 5 years-re-abused, neglected or denied education
and health care they desperately need to thrive.
Children's
Rights' goals are to make sure these vulnerable children are
safe from abuse and neglect; receive the quality care and
services they need; return quickly and safely to their families
whenever possible; and, if necessary, move swiftly through
the adoption process to permanent, loving families.
Children's
Rights uses a unique strategy that combines advocacy, policy
analysis, public education, and targeted litigation to take
specific actions on behalf of children, that include:
•
Exposing what happens to children in failing child
welfare systems.
•
Educating the public on why specific systems fail
and how they can be fixed.
•
Creating support for programs and initiatives to
prevent abuse and neglect and benefit endangered children.
•
Utilizing the power of the courts to compel government
systems to fulfill their legal mandates on behalf of children.
•
Interacting with child welfare advocates, professionals
and policymakers to share insights and advance a common
agenda.
Children's
Rights employs its expertise to build the sustained political
and public pressure needed to compel child welfare bureaucracies
to change. The first step is to put failing systems under
close scrutiny, identify the problems and generate solutions.
When a system fails to respond, Children's Rights brings litigation
to force reform and then monitors implementation of promised
reforms to ensure that children's lives actually get better.
By
creating beneficial and lasting change in child welfare systems,
the organization hopes to ensure that children who are dependent
on these systems stay safe, receive proper services, and return
to their own families safely or find adoptive families so
that they can have healthy childhoods that lead to productive
adult lives.
ORIGINS
AND STRUCTURE
For over 30 years, Marcia Robinson Lowry, founder and executive
director of Children's Rights, has been a leader in creating
new law and obtaining sweeping court-ordered decrees that
serve as a model for reforming child welfare systems nationally.
Originally a project of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), Children's Rights became an independent non-profit
organization in 1995.
Over
the past eight years, the organization has grown substantially
to now include a staff of 25 people, as well as interns, who
work on different legal cases and policy issues. The organization
also partners with local and national child welfare experts,
policymakers and advocates.
Legal
Department
The staff of Children's Rights decides to investigate a child
welfare system after being approached by local advocates,
foster parents or caseworkers over a period of time. They
then conduct extensive interviews and meet with the people
involved in the day-to-day operations of the child welfare
system, including state judges, state and private agency caseworkers,
educators, foster parents, adoptive parents and children living
in foster care. From these interviews, specific examples of
systemic failures often point to the need for a lawsuit to
force reform of a child welfare system's practices. Those
deficiencies often include:
•
Leaving
children in homes where they are abused and neglected, and
even killed;
•
Removing
children from homes when they could be safely maintained
there with provision of services;
•
Keeping
children in foster care unnecessarily with little attempt
to reunite them with families;
•
Moving
children from foster home to foster home without adequate
services or support;
•
Allowing
children to languish for years in child welfare custody
with little hope of a permanent adoptive home.
Children's
Rights' legal team is currently active across the country,
involved in different stages of litigation in nine states,
counties or cities. These include: Connecticut; Fulton and
DeKalb Counties in Georgia; Kansas City, Missouri; New Jersey;
New Mexico; New York; Tennessee; Washington, D.C.; and Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. Two additional jurisdictions are currently under
investigation.
Policy
Department
The Children's Rights' policy department was created in 2000
to conduct national and local studies in various locations
throughout the United States. In 2001, it released the first
national study on the effects of privatization on child welfare
services. Unlike other studies, which have taken a theoretical
or "macro" look at the privatization of child welfare
services, the two-year Children's Rights study, entitled Privatization
of Child Welfare Services: Challenges and Successes, examined
how privatization has played out in reality. The study reveals
both benefits and negative consequences of privatization on
children, families and the child welfare system itself. At
a time when growing numbers of public agencies are entering
into new types of arrangements with private, for-profit and
non-profit agencies to provide services to children and families,
the study offers important policy and practice recommendations
based on "lessons learned" which can serve as a
blueprint for child welfare privatization initiatives in the
future.
The
Policy Department is currently involved in efforts to improve
child welfare in New York City:
•
In
February 2003, a report was released entitled Continuing
Danger: Child Fatalities in New York City that details the
factors associated with child fatalities in New York City.
Working with pediatric and case practice experts, Children's
Rights evaluated 194 child fatality review reports issued
by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services
(OCFS) and analyzed the fatality reports to identify the
key practice and medical issues that compromise children's
safety and place children at risk of death. The report provides
specific recommendations for improving practice in this
area and has been shared widely with the child welfare advocacy
community in New York City. Children's Rights is partnering
with the NYC Public Advocate's office to promote the creation
of an independent child fatality review process for New
York City.
•
Children's
Rights partnered with two other child advocacy groups -
Lawyers for Children and the Juvenile Rights Division of
The Legal Aid Society - to address the City's performance
in two critical child welfare areas: placements and services
for teenagers in foster care, and the length of time that
children and youth remain in care. This collaborative effort,
which is being guided by national advisory boards of experts,
involves data analysis and structured interviews and focus
groups with key stakeholders.
•
Children's
Rights released the first report-Time Running Out: Teens
in Foster Care-in November 2003. The study focuses on youth
placed in group and residential care and features interviews
with social workers and with youth on their placements,
the services they received, the safety of group and residential
care placements, and the extent to which they are prepared
for life after foster care. The second report, on the length
of time that children are in care, is due to be released
in the spring of 2004. Both reports make practical recommendations
to ensure positive outcomes for children and youth in the
foster care system.
In
addition to the studies in NYC, Children's Rights' Policy
Department has three other major studies underway, including:
•
A
study of youth who are dually involved in the juvenile justice
and child welfare systems;
•
A
study of the use of emergency shelters as placements for
children and youth who enter foster care; and
•
An
analysis of how kinship care can be supported as a service
for children and families, and can reduce the overrepresentation
of children of color in the child welfare system.
Public
Education
Children's Rights uses its Public Education department to
build awareness among and engage a broader and wider constituency
to promote and protect the rights of abused and neglected
children. The organization works through the media and its
own publications to educate and engage a greater national
population in support of local and national child welfare
reform efforts. The public education effort works collaboratively
with the legal and policy departments to increase interaction
and dialogue with child welfare professionals, policymakers
and advocates everywhere to share successes, experiences and
insights.
Children's
Rights has also re-designed its website-www.childrensrights.org-to
reach a broader range of audiences with the latest information
on its work and key developments in the field of child welfare.
A navigational system, plus a range of new features, provides
users with quick access to information on Children's Rights'
legal work, other child welfare resources and data, and new
policy analyses. A new search engine further facilitates use
of the site-making it a valuable resource to child welfare
professionals, policymakers, legislators, local and national
advocates, researchers, the media and the general public.
Funding
The work of Children's Rights is funded by the generous support
of individual donors and foundations. When the organization
prevails in a class-action lawsuit, it also receives attorneys'
fees as provided by federal law. Children's Rights receives
no government funding. The organization's budget and location
does not allow it to represent individually all of the children
who are in need of legal representation. The focus of its
efforts is on having an impact on large groups of children
and achieving system-wide reform through class action litigation,
with the intent to help thousands of children in the systems
in which it is involved.
CREATING
CHANGE
In every jurisdiction where Children's Rights has initiated
reform, measurable results are making a difference in the
lives of children. Achievements include: more funding; stronger
child protection services; shorter stays in foster care; fewer
moves for children while in foster care; increased training
for caseworkers and foster parents; and increased adoptions
for children who could not be reunited with their parents.
Highlights of reforms include:
Prohibiting
Discrimination
The landmark New York City Wilder lawsuit settlement,
prohibited, for the first time anywhere, discrimination and
imposition of religious practices in foster care by private,
publicly-funded religious organizations. (The Wilder
lawsuit is the subject of a book by Nina Bernstein, entitled
The Lost Children Of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change
Foster Care, published by Pantheon in 2001.)
Increasing
Funding
Children's Rights has helped generate well over $2 billion
in new funding nationwide for critically needed services in
child welfare systems.
Improving
Child Protective Services
Because of Children's Rights' lawsuits, child protective services
in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Kansas and New York now
are closely tracked on the speed and quality of child protective
service investigations to ensure a prompt response to abuse
and neglect charges and to ensure that caseworkers have the
necessary face-to-face contact with children, parents, and
other relevant parties.
Reducing
Caseloads
In Tennessee, a year after a landmark settlement in our lawsuit
there, over 350 new caseworkers were hired, reducing the typical
caseload down from 50 children per caseworker to a cap of
20. In New York City, average caseloads decreased from 27
to less than 20 per caseworker.
Speeding
Adoptions
In Connecticut, the rate of adoptions jumped 655%, and Children's
Rights forced the state to address a backlog of over 600 children
who had long been ready to be adopted. Now almost 400 of these
children are with their new adoptive families.
RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
New Jersey
Four years ago, Children's Rights filed a lawsuit in New Jersey
to expose the serious dangers in this child welfare system
and pressed hard for reform. Just four months ago, New Jersey
finally recognized just how dire the situation had become,
and agreed to a sweeping settlement agreement that promises
relief for thousands of children who are defenseless and in
desperate need of protection. The settlement mandates additional
funding for caseworkers and creates a panel of experts who
will work with the state and Children's Rights, with the backing
of a court order, to make sure that such abuses are discovered,
corrected and, better still, prevented. Children's Rights
will remain focused on ensuring the safety and well-being
of the children of New Jersey until the system itself can
be trusted.
Atlanta,
Georgia
In response to deplorable conditions that had persisted for
decades, Children's Rights brought a class action lawsuit
in Atlanta that immediately secured the closure of two dangerous
shelters being used to house hundreds of children, many of
whom were infants. Children's Rights is now pursuing broader
reforms in that child welfare system.
Connecticut
After years of noncompliance with court-ordered reforms, the
State of Connecticut has agreed to give a Court-Appointed
Monitor complete management authority over the Connecticut
Department of Children and Families with power to break through
obstacles and institute broad reform.
New
Mexico
Foster children in New Mexico will be moving into adoptive
homes more quickly as a result of Children's Rights' lawsuit,
Joseph A. v. Hartz. All parties in that case recently
entered into a new court-ordered settlement agreement to solve
a problem that has plagued New Mexico's child welfare system
for decades: finding permanent families for children whose
goal is adoption. The innovative agreement calls for the Children,
Youth and Families Department (CYFD) to hire two expert consultants
to create Adoption Resource Teams. These teams will meet with
caseworkers on every case in which a child's goal is adoption,
to create an Individualized Adoption Plan that identifies
each child's specific barriers to adoption and set forth steps
to break through those barriers. CYFD will be bound to carry
out these steps, and the teams will meet every 60 days until
the children have permanent homes.
Kansas
City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is now complying with two-thirds of
the requirements set by a consent decree from a Children's
Rights lawsuit to improve the performance of its child welfare
system. The system is keeping children in foster care safe
from further abuse and neglect, moving them out of foster
care as soon as possible and providing proper planning and
services while they are in foster care. Children's Rights
is working with state and county officials, the court monitor,
and local and national experts to solve problems and reach
agreement on how to further improve the lives of children
in foster care.
Children's Rights has served as the national watchdog of child
welfare systems for over three decades. It has achieved lasting
and beneficial changes in these systems in numerous states
and localities around the country. Children's Rights works
to protect children from abuse and neglect, ensures that children
who enter child welfare systems are safe, and demands that
children receive the support they need to grow up into healthy
and productive adults.
*Geoffrey
Knox is senior communications consultant for Children's Rights.
Editor's Note: Children's
Rights is an excellent organization with many proactive programs
in New York and other states. To access Children's Rights
recently redesigned website, you can click here www.childrensrights.org
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Kiwanis
By
Reverend Dallas B. Decker*
Kiwanis
International is a truly international service club whose
intent is to serve children, in the local community and worldwide.
We also serve others in our communities, the elderly, the
hungry the homeless, and others who are disadvantaged.
Our
major worldwide thrust is to eliminate iodine deficiency disease.
This a terrible disease causing major developmental disorders
in children including goiter, mental retardation and physical
problems. It can be cured or eliminated simply by adding iodine
to the local salt supply. For a few cents a year per child,
this scourge can be eliminated. The problem is that areas
of iodine deficiency must be identified, people must be convinced
of the need for iodine, and appropriate equipment and supplies
must be provided. Once the changes are made, these machines
must be maintained and kept supplied, so our work is cut out
for us. It is estimated that only two more years is needed
to win the battle. And here at home we will always have those
who need our help.
Kiwanis in New York has Camp Kiwanis, near Utica, where hundreds
of disadvantaged children can experience sleep-away camp every
year. We also have the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Unit at North
Shore Hospital, Manhasset, and two others, at Albany and Buffalo.
Several fund raisers are held for these great projects each
year.
We
raise money in the community by various means, and use it
as much as possible within our own community. We participate
in various service projects such as Special Olympics, the
Diabetes Walk and other runs and walks, pancake breakfasts,
food collection, child identification projects, reading projects
and others too numerous to mention. We have active service
clubs for elementary school children, middle school, Key Clubs
for High School and Circle K for those in College.
We meet together, usually for a meal, generally about twice
a month. We plan what we will be doing, how we will fund what
we do and assign volunteers to do what is needed. We also
enjoy each other's company, and find that our giving back
to the community feels good too.
I
am currently president of my club in Seaford, NY, and my wife
Cinnie is also an active member. All sorts of information
about Kiwanis can be found on-line at www.kiwanis.org,
or you can contact me through POY and I'll put you in touch
with a club in your area. If you are interested in helping
the children of the world to grow up to be happy healthy and
productive citizens, Kiwanis is a fun way to help.
*Rev.
Decker is a member of the Perspectives On Youth Advisory Board.
To read Rev. Decker's biography, you can click
here.
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Perspectives
on Innovative Interdisciplinary Legislative Efforts
Beyond
Megan's Law
By New York State Assemblyman Andrew Raia*
The
advent of Sex Offender Registries represented a sea of change
in the way we shield children from sexual predators. In theory,
"Megan's Law" meant that residents of a community
would know when a convicted sex offender was moving into their
neighborhood, and would be able to protect their kids accordingly.
In practice, though it has largely been successful, several
loopholes have arisen to indicate that the law could go further.
The New York State Assembly Task Force on Sex Crimes against
Children and Women, of which I am a member, is taking a proactive
approach to finding out what more could be done.
Over the past few months, the Task Force has traveled across
New York State to gather testimony from experts in the fields
of sexual assault investigation and prosecution, as well as
victims' rights advocates. We heard, firsthand, that Megan's
Law needs to be more inclusive, and that it needs to be easier
for law enforcement agencies to track registered offenders.
We also learned that our laws need to keep pace with technological
advancements. For example, more and more sexual predators
are finding the anonymity and relative lawlessness of the
Internet to be an ideal venue for stalking their young prey.
They lurk in online chat rooms and other virtual dark corners
looking for children with whom to strike up illicit "friendships."
Shockingly, this new kind of enticement is not against the
law in New York State. My colleagues and I have proposed to
rectify the situation with legislation that would create the
new crime of "computer luring," a felony punishable
by up to seven years in prison.
We must also address the problem of recidivism. Sex offenders
are extremely likely to strike again, if given the chance.
Another Task Force proposal would establish "continued
confinement" for the most dangerous offenders. Under
this concept, judges could remand high-risk sexual predators
to secure mental institutions after prison if they still pose
a threat. Keeping those most likely to strike again off the
streets is the best way to prevent them from doing so. The
U.S. Supreme Court has found this practice to be Constitutional,
and it has been effective in other states.
Other proposals include measures that would prevent convicted
pedophiles from living within 1,000 feet of a school or working
closely with children; make it easier for schools to spread
Megan's Law information; and address plea bargain and bail
issues.
The
Sex Offender Registry is a good first step, but awareness
only goes so far. Measures based on our Task Force findings
will go beyond Megan's Law to further ensure the safety of
New York's children. They will be part of a sweeping legislative
package due to be introduced early in 2004.
*Assemblyman
Andrew Raia represents the 9th Assembly District in New York
State. He is also a member of the Perspectives On Youth Advisory
Board. To read Assemblyman Raia's biography, you can click
here.
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Perspectives
on Innovative Ways to Help Professionals Who Help Youth to
Help Themselves:
A
Process of Healing Emotional Hurts
By John Bell*
YouthBuild USA Director of the Training & Learning
Center
As
youth workers, our goal is to run a successful program in
which young people are respected, their ideas are taken seriously,
they are part of the decision-making of the program, they
feel cared about by staff and they are learning real and important
skills. If we achieve this goal, then, whether we like it
or not, the young people will lay in our laps a lot of the
pain they are carrying around from racism, poverty and personal
family background. It doesn't matter what our official job
title is. Most of us will wear the counselor's hat at times.
We
will serve the young people better if we prepare ourselves
a little for the "counselor's role." Most of our
programs are not "therapeutic communities." Most
of us are not professional counselors. While many of our programs
have skilled and appropriate professionals to refer specific
young people to when counseling is needed, there is a lot
we can do to promote the healing of past hurts within the
limits of the program.
What
follows is an exploration of some basic ideas about human
nature and the healing process. Much of the theory is derived
from my own experience and from
Re-evaluation Counseling, a well-developed peer counseling
approach.
Basic
Human Nature
When I ask people the question, "Do you think people
are good or bad?" the answers run the gamut:
•
"Bad, but you can teach people to be good"
•
"Neither good nor bad, but the potential for both"
•
"Basically good, but conditions can force people to
act bad"
None
of us know for sure. We are all using a model of what people
are like, right? My model assumes that by nature, human
beings are:
•
Inherently
Valuable
•
Enormously
Intelligent
•
Deeply
Caring
•
Immensely
Powerful
•
Infinitely
Creative
•
Naturally Cooperative
•
Innately
Joyful
Source
of the Trouble: We Get Hurt
Now I can hear some of you thinking, "This guy is from
another planet, if he thinks people are like this! This guy
is whacked out! He hasn't been around my block!" Right?
Well, if people's nature really is like I think it is, then
you have to ask the question, "How come people do not
look and act like that? What happens to make people look and
act different from that?"
If
we made a list of what happens to people, it would include
the following and much more. We get hurt by rejection,
not being loved, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, racism,
sexism, adultism, oppression, physical injuries and illnesses,
drug and alcohol abuse, stereotypes, poverty, negative environments,
low expectations from others, limiting belief systems, etc.
Results
of Being Hurt
When people are under stress or are in a state of emotional
upset, you can usually observe that they are not functioning
up to their normal capacity. You can hear indications of this
in the things people commonly say:
•
"After my mother died, I walked around in a fog for
weeks"
•
"I was so nervous about the test that I forgot everything"
•
"I was so mad I couldn't see straight"
So
the first, immediate result of hurt is that our thinking power
temporarily diminishes. And if we get hurt over and over
again in a similar way, that area of our intelligence gets
permanently interfered with and shuts down.
The
second result of being hurt is that we begin to feel bad about
ourselves. Most of us are not being loved, respected or
cared about while we are being hurt. So the message we get
is that something is wrong with us-we are not good enough,
smart enough, capable enough, deserving enough, etc. We are
left with bad feelings about ourselves in the area of repeated
hurt.
Patterns
Develop
To deal with the effects of being hurt, we develop ways of
coping and surviving that I call "patterns." Many
of these are rigid, repetitive ways of thinking, acting and
feeling that once helped us get through a difficult time but
are now obsolete and don't fit the present, but still hang
on. There are three kinds of patterns that are useful to know
about. They will show up in your youth program and each can
be dealt with differently: occasional, chronic and patterns
due to societal treatment.
Occasional
Patterns
The first type of patterns is what can be called "occasional."
These are behaviors or reactions we have only when certain
sets of conditions are present. For example, have you ever
had "stage fright?" What happens to you?
In normal conversation, we don't sweat, get nervous, forget
our words or go blank. Therefore we know we had some negative,
hurtful experience in a group situation to cause these non-normal
reactions. If you ask someone, a young person in the program,
for example, who admitted getting scared speaking in front
of groups to describe the first time they felt this way, almost
always it will be rooted in a specific experience when they
were younger. Other kinds of occasional patterns are phobias
like fears of dogs or heights.
Nowadays,
we are more aware of many of our occasional patterns. We think
of them as our little "hang-ups." Mostly, we don't
think of them as too serious. But they do tie down a portion
of our emotional energy and our effectiveness. I once knew
a woman who was a tenant organizer. It turned out that she
could never go to the top floor of any building. This not
only seemed irrational but it made her a less effective organizer,
since she had to leave out the people on the top floor. On
a hunch, one day I asked her, "What ever happened to
you on the top floor of a building?" She said, "That's
it! I was raped on the top floor!" She did some counseling
work about that incident, and eventually, her fear of the
top floor disappeared.
Chronic
Patterns
The second kind of pattern people develop are "chronic."
These behaviors and feelings are continual, always present,
ongoing. These are heavier patterns that are the result of
often-repeated hurtful experiences. People often identify
with their chronic patterns, saying, "That's just who
I am." You can recognize a person in the grip of chronic
pattern because that person is almost always that way,
no matter whether the circumstances warrant it. For example,
do you know anyone who is:
•
Chronically shy?
•
Always critical? Predictably tears down any good idea or
initiative.
•
Always depressed?
•
Always complaining?
•
Always needing to be the center of attention?
A
very useful insight connected to the assumption people are
basically good but they get hurt is that whatever pattern
or non-resourceful state a person is showing you, they are
showing you how they got hurt. If someone is constantly
critical, you can be sure that he or she was roundly and constantly
criticized as a young person. If someone is chronically shy,
you can bet they got a heavy dose of rejection or neglect,
that somehow they did not get welcomed out. If someone is
continually and irritatingly hogging center stage in any group,
you can know that he or she did not get some kind of real
attention they needed when they were small and they are desperately
grasping for it now, without lasting success, in most cases.
This
insight gives you big clues about how to help or handle such
patterned behavior. For example, a person caught up in a critical
pattern needs huge amounts of appreciation-the direct opposite
of the pattern. Unfortunately, because of being so critical,
this person rarely gets appreciated, and in fact often gets
criticism coming back. (What goes around comes around.) If
you can take the edge off by appreciating the criticizer,
you might be able to help him or her change that pattern.
Patterns
Due to Societal Treatment
The third type of pattern comes from having been systematically
mistreated or disrespected because you are part of a particular
group in society. People play the role of either "victim"
or "oppressor." Remember, according to my assumptions,
neither role is our real human nature. We get conditioned
into accepting these roles. And most of us flip back and forth
between the two. For example, men who were the victims of
abusive beatings as boys, often grow up to beat women and
children. White people, oppressed as children, working class
or female, often turn those feelings of being disrespected
towards people of color, in our society. An African American
mother, under the emotional pain of being oppressed as an
African American, as a woman as a young person previously,
can end up becoming oppressive to her own children.
Many
of the ways we feel bad about ourselves come from having been
raised in certain groups. These patterns show up everywhere.
People who have been so mistreated that they cannot think
outside of the victim role often feel terrible about themselves,
unworthy, powerless, deserving of mistreatment. They commonly
feel negatively about others in their same group. This is
"internalized oppression."
For
other people, it is too painful to experience the feelings
of being a victim of abuse or oppression, so at the first
chance, they "flip" to the other end of the relationship.
It is more comfortable to be doing the beating than receiving
the beating. But, again, what you can know is that people
who are acting abusively or oppressively toward others have
been abused or oppressed themselves. This flipping from one
end of an oppressive relationship to the other is a dynamic
that helps hold the "isms" in place.
How
Healing Happens
The
main points of this model so far are:
•
Human nature is assumed to be inherently valuable, creative,
loving, powerful
•
We get hurt in hundreds of ways
•
The hurts have these two main results: we feel bad and our
thinking shuts down
•
We develop three kinds of habits or patterns of coping that
once helped us survive but now actually interfere with our
lives
•
As a result of this process, we have moved far away from
knowing our true natures
The
good news is that not only do we get hurt, we have a built
in way of healing. People have many different ways of healing
emotional pain: time, faith, talking to someone, praying,
facing the problem, taking positive action and attitude, etc.
But most of these different methods have a common thread:
the emotional release of pain by crying, feeling fear, getting
angry or laughing. This seems to be the salve that heals the
wounds.
Healing
is natural and built-in and comes with the release of the
pain that holds patterns in place. Release means:
•
Crying about grief and loss
•
Shaking, shivering about fear
•
Feeling anger about frustration, injustice
•
Laughing about light fears, embarrassments
Much
healing happens naturally. You can see it most clearly in
infants and young children. When a toddler falls and hurts
his knee, gets lost in the supermarket, is frustrated trying
to tie his shoe or gets scolded, what is usually the first
thing he does? Cry. You don't have to teach him to cry. It's
a natural response. It's his way of getting someone to pay
attention to the fact that he is hurting. And if he can get
someone to pay attention to him long enough and welcome his
crying, then the child releases the emotional part of the
pain, gets it out of his system, and returns to being his
regular self, not sulking, not holding the pain in, not shut
down in any way.
But
what usually happens? Some parent, teacher, older sibling
or other older person interferes with this process. Most people
are uncomfortable with crying and believe that the child will
feel better if the child stops crying. People use various
methods to shut down the tears:
•
"There, there, everything is alright. No need for crying"
(Invalidating the hurt)
•
"Here's your pacifier (or ice cream cone or lollipop)"
(Shoving something in his mouth)
•
"Look at the pretty bird" (distracting him)
•
"Shut up or I'll really give you something to cry about"
(adding fear and threat to an already painful experience)
One
way or the other, the young person gets the repeated message
that it is not good to cry. So what happens when the hurt
can't be expressed in the natural way? The child has to store
it, eat it, sit on it, repress it, keep it inside. This happened
to most of us. We had our built-in capacity to heal our hurts
interfered with. As a result, as we grow, so grows our load
of unreleased pain.
When
was the last time you:
•
Cried or felt like crying?
•
Shivered in fear of felt a cold sweat?
•
Were angry?
•
Laughed in embarrassment?
If
we were to share our experiences, it would be quite touching.
Sometimes the memory is still fresh and tears or other feelings
might come with the retelling. Most of us are walking around
carrying a trainload of past grief, fear and anger.
How
to Create Safety
So if we have a built-in way of healing our hurts and if we
know that the release of feelings will unlock more of our
real human nature, then the question becomes how do we create
conditions and places where this level of healing can happen?
What
makes you feel comfortable enough to share personal things?
Most people include most of the following conditions which
help create safety:
•
Feeling respected and cared about
•
Being really listened to
•
Eye contact
•
Body language communicates interest
•
Undivided attention
•
No judgment coming from listener
•
Compassion and understanding
•
Feeling liked and appreciated
•
Being assured of confidentiality
The
"quality of attention" makes all the difference.
Most of the young people we work with are conditioned to look
like they don't care. Looking bored and apathetic. But what
is the truth? We all care deeply about what is happening to
us, to those around us, to our world. We're all watchful.
But most of us have been hurt when we showed our caring, so
we learned to hide it, to put on a fake front. When asked
about this, the young people agree. I then say, "In the
support groups (or rap session) I want you to practice looking
like you do care!" When they protest, saying,
"Oh, man, that's phony," I say, "But you just
told me that when you look like you don't care, that's
not true. So that's phony, too! I'm asking you to try on the
other mask that looks like you do care." And I've got
them!
In
the program or staff meetings for that matter, the more we
ask people to practice giving each other quality attention,
the better the communication, respect and sense of safety
will be. In one-on-one counseling sessions, support groups
or rap sessions, to the extent we can deepen the safety deliberately,
the more often people will actually release their feelings
and thereby hasten the healing.
A
word of caution: this healing process is natural and happens
at a different pace for each person. It should never be forced
or rushed. There are real reasons why people don't trust,
don't open up, don't show their feelings. There has been very
little opportunity or safety in the world for most of us to
do our own healing. There has been even less safe for most
of the young people in our programs.
Results
of Releasing Painful Feelings
There are short term and long term benefits to releasing our
feelings. How do you usually feel after you have a good cry?
We feel better, like a burden has been lifted. It doesn't
necessarily make the problem or source of the hurt go away,
but it clears the mind to better be able to handle the situation.
Crying hard over the death of a loved one doesn't change the
fact that he or she is gone, but it gives us more mental space
to deal with the relatives, the arrangements, the necessities
of reality. So the short term result is that we feel better
and think more clearly.
The
long range effect of repeatedly talking, crying, shaking,
getting angry and laughing about a specific troublesome theme
in one's life, is that one's patterns melt and eventually
disappear.
Release Plus New Actions
One crucial piece in the healing process, in addition to releasing
the painful feelings, is to decide to act or think differently.
For example, if a person has struggled with a chronic "shy"
pattern, then to fully recover, he or she would not only talk
about the early experiences of being neglected rejected, ignored
or whatever led to the development of "shyness"
as a coping mechanism, but would also decide to act differently
than his or her shy pattern would normally do. It might mean
deciding to walk into a group with the attitude and posture
that expected people to like him or her and reach out "forcing"
oneself to be friendly and outgoing-exactly the opposite of
being a "wall flower." What happens when you take
a new direction like this? One is that it sets things up to
bring different results. The person gets different feedback
or treatment. Another is that it usually brings up the painful
feelings the shy habit was designed to keep down. It will
be excruciating at first, but well worth the effort.
Return
to Our Real Nature
In summary, we have a description of our basically good human
nature that gets obscured by hurt and mistreatment, which
make us feel bad and think less clearly and develop coping
patterns over time. We also have the built-in ability to heal
from all past hurts by telling other warm attentive listeners
about our experiences and releasing the painful feelings.
We can learn how to deliberately create deeper safety that
allows people to let their feelings out. Doing that repeatedly
helps us feel and function better and eventually eliminates
our rigid patterns. Releasing feelings and trying on new,
pattern-breaking directions and actions eventually will bring
us back to knowing and feeling our real natures.
*John
Bell is the current Director of the Training & Learning
Center for YouthBuild USA, and former Director of Leadership
Development. He is also a Member of Perspectives On Youth's
Advisory Board. To Read his biography, you can click
here.
Editor's note: John
Bell is the driving force behind YouthBuild USA's recently
launched Academy for transformation, which provides the tools,
concepts, insights, and skills needed to accelerate youth
transformation. The Academy offers a variety of learning and
training resources including customized and multi-day workshops,
e-learning opportunities, fellows programs, issue specific
forums and think tanks, training institutes, publication and
training materials, and consulting services. To learn more
about the Academy for Transformation and other YouthBuild
programs, you can click here: www.youthbuild.org.
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Perspectives
on Being Innovative
with the Arts:
Going
Through Stages: Bringing The World of Theater To Children
By David Lefkowitz*
Editor's
Note: Theater is often thought of in its most formal
sense. But theater is so much more. It can be whimsical and
irreverent or contemplative and stirring. It can be a passive
observation or a hands-on community project. When children
are exposed to theater, whether by watching a performance
or participating in a school play, their world is intrinsically
broadened and sometimes a lifelong passion is created.
When
those who work with youth are able to incorporate elements
of theater into their interactions with children, they are
adding to their arsenal of trained and formal skills a universal
mode of communication. Depending upon circumstances, it could
be gauging children's reactions to a reading of a part of
a play; or it could be encouraging children to write about
and act out their feelings; or it could be organizing a group
field trip to a community performance.
POY
is grateful to David Lefkowitz—a long time friend
of my husband and mine, and my former editor many years ago
of the now defunct "This Week ON STAGE" which was
a springboard for David's current work as editor of www.totaltheater.com
and
co-publisher of Performing Arts Insider Magazine—for
using his expertise to write an article about the wonders
of theater for children.
Though
theatergoers know Wendy Wasserstein for her hit comedies like
"Isn't It Romantic?" and "The Heidi Chronicles,"
parents are more likely to know her popular children's book,
"Pamela's First Musical." In it, little Eloise and
her Auntie Mame(!) have a whirlwind afternoon in New York,
capped by the matinee of a Broadway musical extravaganza.
Wasserstein's picturesque book, with drawings by noted set
designer Andrew Jackness, tries to convey the excitement and
uniqueness of live theater, especially as seen through youthful
eyes.
Most of us can remember our early theater experiences, be
it for a big family night out, or a school visit to a children's
or community playhouse. Either way, the experience of live
drama can be extremely valuable for a child old enough not
only to behave but to appreciate the art and content of the
production. For children under ten, the very act of attending
a show is a learning experience, a way of acclimating them
to social functions and of showing them how a something educational
(gasp!) can actually be a fun, even thrilling, use of their
time.
For older kids, theater can become part of their cultural
landscape, from the music they listen to, to the ideas and
characters they'll cite in scholastic papers, to the encouragement
of their own creative instincts and talents. It's also a way
of proving to them that television, video games and the internet
do not have a lock on entertainment and the range of human
experience.
How old should a child be before you bring him or her to the
theater? Alas, there's no set rule; it really depends on the
maturity and behavior of the individual youth. If a local
library or community center has theater workshops and storytelling
programs, specifically for pre-schoolers, that can serve as
a smooth entree into this special world. That said, five or
six tends to be the age where children can begin sitting through
commercial productions, albeit ones geared for family audiences.
There are also theater companies that specifically tour schools,
such as InsideBroadway, which presents well-known musicals
such as "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Smokey Joe's Cafe,"
abridged and adapted for younger audiences.
Barbara Pasternack, artistic director of TheaterWorks USA,
which has been producing and touring shows for young audiences
since 1961, suggests a parent should, "Look at your child
and get a sense of where they are. A well-behaved child can
sit through anything, but you have to decide what you want
them to see, and if they might be upset, confused or bored.
We put age-appropriateness in our brochures, but that's just
a guideline, and the range tends to be different in various
sections of the country."
There are also ways to prepare a youngster for a trip to the
theater, be it the first or fifteenth visit. Of course, there's
the crucial reminder that if you talk or make noise during
a performance, not only can the audience hear you but the
actors might overhear as well and be distracted. Pasternack
also advises that if the production is based on a well-known
book (as most children's shows tend to be), read the book
together, discuss the characters, and ask questions about
how those those figures and situations might be portrayed
in a live-performance context. Be warned that your homework
continues after the curtain comes down, because a child may
be aggravated by differences between the book and the show.
"Remember," cautions Pasternack, "picture books
for young kids don't have a huge amount of content, so an
hourlong show is naturally going to have to expand and change
things."
TheaterWorks USA started small, growing out of a production
of "Young Abe Lincoln" that began touring after
its brief run on Broadway. The founders sensed a need for
dramas and musicals that reached young audiences without patronizing
them, and the company slowly developed a roster of works about
historical subjects, as well as adaptations of popular books
and classics. Currently, TheaterWorks USA tours 13-14 shows
a season, across nearly every state in the union. Alumni have
included director Jerry Zaks, composer Jason Robert Brown
and "Amadeus" Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham.
After 19 years on the job, Pasternack can generally tell a
good children's production from a bad one—and so can
a child. "Bad children's theater talks down to children,"
she says. "It assumes that in order to entertain, it
has to be fast and silly, with no substance. Or it creates
a phony world without any conflict or problems. Yes, it's
true that if you say the word 'underwear' or fall down, 1300
children will go out of their minds. But good theater also
challenges its audience and is constructed the same way as
pieces are for an adult audience." As an example, Pasternack
points to TheaterWorks USA's adaptation of "Sarah, Plain
and Tall," which the authors are now further developing
for a commercial run. "The show is about a family that's
damaged because the mother has died. The girl is angry, and
the father is shut down. But then a mail-order bride arrives
and changes them. So that show took a simple book that children
love and added more emotional elements, while still keeping
the child's perspective. Plus it had a young protagonist,
so audiences that age could relate. It was funny and tremendously
moving. At the end, audiences were walking out weeping, both
adults and children. I saw one child patting her mommy on
the shoulder going, `there, there.'"
Bringing older kids to the theater presents its own set of
problems, since unlike $10 movies, it's virtually impossible
for most parents to pre-screen $100 Broadway productions just
to see whether it's appropriate to bring the fam. Careful
reading of reviews and articles about the various productions
on and off-Broadway is a great place to start (God bless Google!),
as are websites devoted to the shows themselves. It doesn't
take Sherlock Holmes to realize that "Beauty and the
Beast," although 150 minutes long, contains little to
offend the youngest viewer, whereas "Rent" may have
strong appeal to a young teenager but features language and
topics perhaps too iffy for the 13-15 crowd.
No
rating system currently exists for Broadway that would serve
as the equivalent to the MPAA's "voluntary" codes
for movies. Still, if I had to group—in a VERY unscientific
way—long-running shows for age-apt groups, I'd say: 5+:
"Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King";
9+: "42nd Street," "Phantom of the Opera,"
"Wonderful Town." 12+ (here's where you really have
to do your homework): "Aida," "Anna in the
Tropics," "Golda's Balcony," "Gypsy,"
"Hairspray," "Little Shop of Horrors,"
"Mamma Mia!," "Movin' Out," "Rent,"
"Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Wicked,"
"Urinetown," "Fiddler on the Roof." 15+:
"Avenue Q," "The Boy From Oz," "Cabaret,"
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "Chicago," "I
Am My Own Wife," "The Producers," "Taboo."
And what if your young'un sees one or more of these shows
and gets bitten by the theater bug? Once you stop sighing
that you've lost a potential doctor or lawyer to the siren
call of showbiz, by all means encourage this nascent urge.
Of course, the odds against a full-time acting career are
stacked against even the most talented people, but don't discount
the dozens of other jobs in the arts, creative and technical,
administrative and business-oriented. Show me a theater in
America and I'll show you a place that needs a good grant-writer
and fundraiser.
But getting back to the creative side, as with music or tennis
lessons, giving kids instruction in theater or dance, or letting
them try out for school and local theater troupes, need not
be connected to a career down the line. Janine Nina Trevens,
artistic director of New York's TADA! Youth Theater, admits
that most of the children and teens who take their classes
in Creative Dramatics and Skill-Building, and who appear in
the company's musicals, won't go on to acting careers, but
that's not ultimate aim. "It's what they gain from the
experience," she says. "They learn teamwork, collaboration,
commitment, responsibility, social skills, meeting goals and
personal growth. They discover what they can accomplish, and
by working with kids who come from different backgrounds all
over the city, they learn that people are different, yet we're
all the same.
"The shows we do," continues Trevens, "talk
about acceptance and also being an individual. What freedoms
and rights you have, and how you go about being yourself and
liking yourself. For example, our current show, `The History
Mystery,' is about different people's stories, and how we
all contribute to making the world what the world is. Even
as a kid you need to be involved."
Children can also be encouraged to write plays. With movies
and TV so prevalent, they might be surprised (and pleased)
to realize that writing can consist of conversational dialogue
and not just essays they have to churn out for school. There's
even an organization devoted to staging plays by writers under
18, co-founded by Stephen Sondheim, no less, based on an idea
that had succeeded in London. Young Playwrights Inc.'s annual
playwriting contest now receives nearly 15,000 submissions,
of which eight are generally given full productions that utilize
professional directors and actors. In his introduction on
YPI's website, Sondheim proudly notes that a high percentage
of contest winners over the years continue penning plays to
this day.
So whether you're bringing Pamela to her first musical or
helping act out her first play or applauding her first tentative
steps in a Thanksgiving pageant, you're giving her a gift
that will keep replenishing itself for the rest of her life.
She may not be the next Wasserstein or Sondheim, but she'll
be the first Pamela, and a better one for having discovered
theater.
Notes:
For those interested in learning more about the
organizations mentioned in this article:
InsideBroadway: www.insidebroadway.org;
212-245-0710
TADA!: www.tadatheater.com;
212-252-1619
TheaterWorks USA: www.theaterworksusa.org;
212-647-1100
Young Playwrights: www.youngplaywrights.org;
212-594-5440.
*David
Lefkowitz founded and runs the website TotalTheater (www.totaltheater.com)
and co-publishes Performing Arts Insider magazine. A member
of the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle, his theater criticism
has appeared in Time Out-NY, BackStage and New York Theater
News. His play, "Kandide," won the Lee Korf Award
and was produced in Los Angeles; his book of plays, "Marriage,
Babies and the End of the World," was published by IED
Press in St. Petersburg. He is a former Editor-In-Chief of
Playbill On-Line and currently hosts the weekly radio and
streaming-audio internet program "Dave's Gone By"
on Long Island, NY's WGBB AM-1240 (www.hometown.aol.com/davesgoneby).
David has a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film & TV and a
Masters Of Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing, both from New York
University.
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