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Shay Bilchik's Opening Remarks
2003 National Conference Children 2003, Imagine an America
3/5/2003
Thank you, Ray, for that generous introduction. Let me officially welcome you all to Children 2003, Imagine an America.
Imagine an America where every child is healthy, safe, and thriving, and where all children develop to their full potential.
These ringing words, which you saw on the cover of your conference program and will be seeing and hearing around you throughout the week, are, as you know, the opening words of Making Children a National Priority: A Framework for Community Action. They are an invitation to consider what might be, and what ought to be, instead of what is. Many young people do succeed, and many excellent programs engage communities in nurturing their potential - but we are not yet reaching far enough -- perhaps because our imaginings have not been sufficiently bold, and inclusive, until now.
We find ourselves at an historical moment when our nation and its citizens are strongly focused on safety and protection.
Fear, if we give in to it, tends to draw us into ourselves and make us think small.
At the same time, the Child Welfare League of America, through our Framework for Community Action, is challenging us all to think generously and expansively …. to ground ourselves in hope instead of fear …. to imagine, and then to realize an America where all children are safe, healthy, and thriving.
We cannot wish away the negatives. In the course of this hard winter, some among us have gone beyond cocooning to bunkering, giving into an impulse to think small and to avoid risks. Yet, during tough times we need each other more, not less. We need more collaboration, not more competition. We need more reaching out, not more pulling in. We need more creativity, not more hanging on to old ways that may no longer work.
We need to acknowledge the reality of the fear and concern that have motivated many official decisions since September of 2001, as well as the harsh economic climate that seems to narrow all our horizons. But at the same time - now more than ever -- we need to let our hopes and our imaginations soar. We have to take care of our children. We have to make America's children a national priority. Are you with me?!
So how are we doing, as a nation, at caring for our children? In the world at large, according to statistics from the Children's Defense Fund, the United States is:
- 1st in military technology,
- 1st in Gross National Product, and
- 1st in health technology
- but 22nd in preventing infant mortality and
- last - I could say dead last - in protecting children against gun violence.
The sad fact is that we failed to raise the quality of life for many American families during the fat years of the '90s, and now that the years are lean, too many families are still falling behind.
- 12 million children in America live in poverty.
- In 2002, requests for emergency food and shelter assistance rose 20% over the previous year.
And we know that when families are stressed by anxiety about meeting their basic needs, the incidence of child neglect and abuse increases.
- The number of children reported for abuse and neglect hovered right below 3 million in 2000, and we are hearing from many states that when the statistics are finally available, we will likely see climbing numbers for the past two years.
- And every day in America three children died of abuse or neglect in the year 2000 - a total of 1,236. Please, visualize that number: it is forty classrooms, with 30 children in each, who are murdered as a result of child abuse in one year.
Now we all know that responsibility for our children's safety and well-being resides with many people, beginning with parents and kin, and reaching outward to friends and neighbors, to professionals such as teachers, child care providers, police officers, social workers, and foster parents, and up to the highest government officials. We're interested, though, in fixing the problems, not in fixing the blame.
That's what we're here at this conference to do. It's an opportunity, throughout these three days, to learn from your peers, in child welfare and other systems, about all the ways we can work harder, and smarter, and more collaboratively, to secure better outcomes for kids. It's an opportunity to celebrate good people in other sectors, like the corporate and foundation world, who help us to do our work. We'll be recognizing Prudential Financial and five other corporations Thursday evening, and the Freddie Mac Foundation on Friday. And it's an opportunity, especially tomorrow, to tell our representatives on Capital Hill that we cannot continue to do the work we do, and see the outcomes we want to see, without stronger - perhaps more creative - but also stronger, federal support.
We are doing everything we can, as one organization with a growing network of partnerships, to provide the knowledge child welfare professionals need to apply evidence-based, reliable solutions. But to realize our vision for the children of this nation, will take more than professionals. Imagine what our schools and neighborhoods and cities would look like - imagine what this great nation could accomplish, if the well-being of ALL children was truly a national priority. Imagine what could happen if parents, kin, professionals, citizens, and governments worked together to support and strengthen ALL children and families!
The Framework is CWLA's invitation to imagine that America and make it real. Through the Framework for Community Action, CWLA organizes our program, policy, advocacy, membership, training, and consultation resources to work in partnership with parents, communities, and professionals to realize the vision.
The core of the Framework, the foundation on which it rests, is a statement of the five universal needs of children. They are:
- "The Basics": At the most fundamental level, children need proper nutrition, economic security, adequate shelter and clothing, education, and primary and preventive health and mental health care. And those needs also include -
- Relationships: Children need close, nurturing relationships with parents, kin, and other caregivers; caring relationships with community members, including neighbors, coaches, teachers, and faith community leaders and members; and good relationships with siblings and peers. They need -
- Opportunities: Yes, children and youth need opportunities to develop their talents and skills, to contribute to their families and communities, and to make positive connections to their cultures, traditions, and spiritual resources. And our children need -
- Safety: Children need to be kept safe from abuse and neglect by their caregivers, as well as from witnessing or being victimized by family, school, or community violence. Children also need to be safe from discrimination, media violence, internet victimization, environmental toxins, and accidental injury. And fifth, children need healing.
- Healing: When we are unable to protect children, we must do all that we can to ease the impact of the harm they have suffered. Helping children and youth to heal involves ensuring their immediate and ongoing safety, supplying immediate and continuing emotional support, assessing the need for and providing medical, mental health, and other needed services, and, in some case, making amends through restorative justice practices.
Every child and every youth has these same needs, whether they live on a farm, in the inner city or in a suburban tract home………in a mansion, in a ghetto, in a foster home, a group home, or a juvenile detention facility. Yet, we, as a nation, do not meet these needs for hundreds of thousands of children and youth, especially poor children, children of color, and, too often, children in our 'systems'. If you think about it, all of the workshops at this conference address meeting children's needs.
People who care about children can collaborate across systems. We can work smarter, and sometimes we can rearrange the funding streams to make systems work better for families and kids, in ways that respect their dignity and draw on their inherent strengths. But when you see what we are able to accomplish, it only makes you marvel at what we could do if we weren't trying to build bricks without straw.
Imagine an America in which successful, tested programs are systematically and methodically taken to scale, instead of being allowed to wither because the grant ran out or the charismatic leader moved into retirement. Imagine!!!
We know it can happen, because it is already happening in pockets of excellence around the U.S. But this is such an enormous country, that many children, young people, and families still struggle alone. Imagine a time when a child's well-being does not depend on an accident of geography. Imagine that America!!!
Albert Einstein said that 'imagination is more important than knowledge.' I believe we need both. CWLA's Framework team has collected many examples of successful community collaboration for its first Community Implementation Guide. Our Research to Practice team collects examples of promising practices in specific programmatic areas, so we can lift them up as models for replication or adaptation nationwide. We are convinced that for every challenge, somewhere in this vast, resourceful, and caring nation, an effective solution is in place.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the wealthiest and most powerful nation the world has ever known. Its citizens are a vast reservoir of talent and imagination and good will. The United States of America can afford to meet the needs of all America's children. People in communities across the country can meet these needs for all of their children.
It won't happen all at once, and it won't happen quickly. We must think comprehensively and inclusively across systems. We must begin in each community with a candid assessment of our children's well-being - both strengths and shortcomings; a vision for their future that is shared by all the necessary community stakeholders; a thoughtful, realistic plan built on what we know works; and the resources, talents, energy, commitment, and hard work of many people to make that vision a reality.
On a small scale, it is happening already. Let me tell you about one of the real-life programs that we have identified in the Framework and its Community Implementation Guide:
At least 8 million U.S. children-that would be approximately 12% of all children-and as many as 11 million, a number I heard more recently -- lack health and mental health insurance coverage. This means that their families rely on hospital emergency rooms, and receive little or no primary or preventive care. 1
Colorado has taken a unique, cross-disciplinary approach to addressing children's mental health needs. An early intervention pilot supported by the Colorado General Assembly puts early childhood mental health specialists on site at child care and Head Start sites. Results from the pilot sites showed fewer childhood expulsions (Imagine being expelled from preschool! Sadly, it happens all the time.) and better capacity to manage challenging behavior on the part of teachers and assistants.
Other good examples are out there, across America, and CWLA staff members are hard at work researching them and documenting them. I am grateful to those of you who sent in program ideas for the Community Implementation Guide. We expect this upcoming volume, available in June, to be the first of a series. It will offer practical tools and resources that communities can use to support families and children.
We anticipate that communities will use the Framework to guide assessment and to anchor planning for both new and existing community change efforts, as at least one community already has, and that each successful implementation will seed others.
Workshop E-5, on Friday morning will focus on the upcoming Framework Community Implementation Guide. Workshop F-5, also on Friday morning, will address how a group of rural Oklahoma counties used the five universal needs as a framework in their planning efforts.
Let me pause, before I go any further, to honor a person who is no longer with us. Rosie Oreskovich was the very dedicated and effective Assistant Secretary of the Children's Administration in Washington State. Under her leadership, DSHS devised and implemented a transformative Kids Come First Agenda. Since the news of her passing arrived late last week, those who loved her have been celebrating her legacy. Rosie accomplished more than most people do in longer lifetimes. But I know that if she were here now she would tell you about the work that remains undone, and she would challenge us all to carry it forward. Rosie always put children and families first. Her loss is a blow to us all - but also an opportunity for re-commitment.
Ladies and gentlemen, we each have choices to make. We can choose to feel victimized and to become immobilized by our worries. But, 'worry is a misuse of the imagination'. OR, we can choose to act with courage, to move out of our comfort zones and experiment with new thinking and new actions.
Children are not quite 26% of our U.S. population, but they are 100% of our future. Investing in helping ALL children grow in to caring and competent adults is investing in our future. Please tell those people on Capital Hill and back at home: Investments in children always grow. Tell everyone you know.
To fail to invest in our children - or worse yet, to dis-invest, or to accept the status-quo - would be to break faith with our future, with our best hopes for the improvement of the human condition. I imagine something far better, and I know you do too.
Notes
- CPS Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement.
http://www.ferret.bls.census.gov/macro/032002/health/h08_000.htm
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