Join Rich Gehrman for this week's podcast featuring a special interview with Kisha Shanks, the new Executive Director of Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota. Kisha Shanks is an accomplished maternal and child health consultant, speaker, and author. With over 14 years of experience in maternal and child health, she has been a dedicated advocate of child-centered programming and policy. For 13 years, she successfully owned and operated a home-visiting program for pregnant and birthing families in Milwaukee, focused on improving birth outcomes and increasing parental capacity by prioritizing m ..read more

Listen to our podcast for a conversation with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) expert Peter Hossler about the current state of recovery programs and the planned Minnesota state task force on prenatal substance use. ====== Our work for vulnerable children is made possible through support from listeners like you. Thank you. Please help support our work for vulnerable children at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.safepassageforchildren.org/donate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Rich Gehrman is the founder and Executive Director of Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota. He is the 2021 winner of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Minnesota’s ..read more

This Global Rights for Women study of the Minneapolis Police Department found that officers seldom pursued perpetrators of domestic violence once they left the scene, and the Department makes far fewer reports and arrests than is typical nationally. Our study of child fatalities similarly showed that failed responses to domestic violence contributed to 28% of children’s deaths. Join Rich Gehrman for a full discussion and analysis in this week's podcast. ========== Our work for vulnerable children is made possible through support from listeners like you. Thank you. Please help support our work ..read more

A new state task force on prenatal Substance Use Disorder (SUD) will likely consider whether to end mandated reporting of SUD to child protection, both prenatally and at birth. Medical associations’ policy positions uniformly state that mandated reporting of prenatal SUD inhibits women from seeking medical care.  While the research isn’t as clear-cut as they say, creative outreach efforts to engage high-risk women in prenatal care is probably the best current option for protecting children. Join Rich Gehrman for a full discussion and analysis in this week's podcast. ========== Our work fo ..read more

We have been reviewing research on prenatal Substance Abuse Disorder (SUD) because of this legislation proposing a task force on the issue. The American College of Gynecologists and similar organizations have issued statements  opposing mandated reporting of SUD, which they believe deters women from getting prenatal care.  This (open access) article on alcohol addiction supports that view. However the organizations’ statements don’t address some nuances of the issue, and none mention the potential health consequences of SUD for children, particularly from alcohol use.  Join ..read more

Listen to our interview with Pulitzer Prize nominee Chris Serres, who talks about investigative journalism and his story of Derric Fulks. ========== Our work for vulnerable children is made possible through support from listeners like you. Thank you. Please help support our work for vulnerable children at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.safepassageforchildren.org/donate⁠⁠⁠⁠ Rich Gehrman is the founder and Executive Director of Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota. He is the 2021 winner of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Minnesota’s 2021 "Mark Proctor Hero for Children Award." Safe Passage for Children of M ..read more

The Washington Court of Appeals just confirmed a $98.5 million wrongful death settlement against the state human services agency regarding the gruesome murder of five and seven-year-old brothers. In Minnesota, the 2021 Supreme Court Jepsen v. Pope County decision made it easier for surviving relatives to sue counties for negligence in children’s deaths. Yet there have been only two settlements in Minnesota– Kendrea Johnson ($1.5 million) and Arianna Hunziker ($1.3 million). These comparatively smaller amounts still exceeded a Minnesota $500,000 tort cap (liability limit) because they were coup ..read more

New research indicates that, once poverty is controlled for, Black families enter child protection and foster care at lower rates than whites. This complements other studies showing that poverty, which disproportionately impacts BIPOC families, is the biggest driver of racial disparities in child welfare. Part of the message is that an all-star team of thirteen noted child welfare researchers published this paper jointly. They’re trying to make it hard to ignore. Join Rich Gehrman for a full discussion and analysis in this week's podcast. ========== Our work for vulnerable children is made pos ..read more

There is widespread agreement that the first 1,000 days of life are critical for brain development related to language skills, bonding with others, and regulating one’s own behavior.  Also well-known is that trauma causes infants’ and toddlers’ brains to go into “fight-or-flight” mode, during which time they stop acquiring these building blocks for later stages of development. No one wants to remove children from their families unnecessarily.  Yet, as 4 month-old Aaliyah Goodwin’s story illustrates, parents are currently getting many chances, sometimes for years, to address their neg ..read more

Los Angeles County and a team of scholars are collaborating on a “Risk Stratification Model” – an example of ‘predictive analytics’, which uses complex algorithms to prioritize risk in child maltreatment reports. Algorithms are often viewed skeptically by Progressives and leaders of BIPOC communities as potential contributors to “heightened surveillance”, meaning practices that disproportionately screen families of color into child protection. The LA County project addresses this concern. Join Rich Gehrman for a full discussion and analysis in this week's podcast. ========== Our work for vulne ..read more