How to Help Abused and Neglected Children
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” -Albert Einstein
A dear friend e-mailed me this article about Adrian Conway, a three-year-old boy who died following abuse by his mother. My friend wanted to have a dialog about “how we deal with this.” That’s a loaded question with no easy answers. What I do know is that Child Protective Services’ typical pendulum swing between removal of all at-risk children from their families to family preservation at any cost doesn’t work. The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform blog has written extensively about this issue and articulate the systemic challenges very well. Go here if you want to see what they have to say.
There are many things we can do to effect change for abused children and their struggling families on a personal level. Here’s my short list of suggested starting points:
- Get informed: Find out what has already been attempted. What worked and what didn’t? To begin with just find articles online and read blogs.
- Get involved: Why not start your own blog? Blogs are about having conversations that aren’t necessarily happening in the “real world”. Join an online forum. Or become a mentor, or a foster parent.
- Benchmark outside the box: Benchmarking is one of my favorite activities. I regularly scan the internet to find child welfare organizations engaged in promising practices. What’s even more fun is looking at organizations outside the child welfare world to see if they’re doing anything interesting that might be applied within the child welfare system.
In one of my next posts I’ll tell you about one of my recent “benchmarking outside the box” ideas to help teens who are aging out of the foster care system. Stay tuned and join the conversation by adding your suggestions in the comment section below.
