Field Center

I was astounded to hear that America spends 30 billion dollars annually on trying to protect the rights of children and something happens like the death of Danielle Kelly. The fact that they say that this starvation was going on for months and months without anyone noticing is tragic. It is quite evident that local and state employees in that state clearly dropped the ball and should also be charged with neglect in this case. Case workers cannot be everywhere all the time but they must pay close attention to specific cases and make sure these types of abuses do not go unnoticed. I cannot believe that health officials also missed the opportunity to help this child. These agencies must be able to effectively communicate and work together to make sure atrocities such as this does not go unnoticed. I feel that the Field center is an effective organization used to promote the safety of America’s children. They are helping to form laws, rules and regulations as a team that would help to investigate these cases and move forward onto the aiding the healing process. They have taken the stance of prevention. They want to be able to work within the system to prevent atrocious child abuses before they happen and not just step in to treat the problem and repercussions. They are working together to reduce the number of children that are going into foster care and help to change the entire system and their approaches to child welfare. They have established a child advocacy center for children so that they are not faced with the uncomfortable and often traumatic experience of reliving their assault by multiple interviews. They have established a way to train judges on the critical issues related to child abuse cases so that they are able to make informed decisions about cases. They have established a medical clinic for abuse victims. They are currently developing hand held computer systems that would aid child workers in real time responses to abuse cases to save lives. They are in consultation with many states to make an impact on the systemic changes that need to take place in those locations that would aid abused children while training the next generation of child welfare leaders. It is through this type of multi-state collaboration that we will be able to implement successful changes within the child welfare programs to make sure everyone is up to date and on the same page about what works and what doesn’t. I have not been affected personally in my life by child abuse but when I did take a juvenile probation class I learned that a lot of kids in the juvenile probation system are themselves victims of child abuse. Often times we see that this type of behavior is passed along generation to generation. A victim of child abuse may grow up to abuse their own children if the right interventions are not in place to end the cycle. There needs to be an effort in place to provide the right training and man-power to recognize abuses early on. There also needs to a collaborative effort by clinicians, social workers, teachers and other people who have contact with children to have the proper training to be able to spot incidences of child abuse and neglect.