"I've never seen it this bad."

A special submission from Laura D. Wolf 

Our work has always been hard, but right now the situations facing children are harder than ever.  Not long ago, my colleague Emily, who’s got more than 20 years’ experience working with children and families in traumatic circumstances, messaged me:  

“Laura, I have never seen it this bad.” And I knew right away I needed to share this information and ask for help.  

As she told me in her text, the day prior we had received a case involving domestic violence in which the father held a knife to a toddler’s throat and told the mother he’d kill the kids if she left him. At the same time, Emily said to me, “Right now, I am holding a list of five kids who’ve attempted suicide.”  

We need your help.  

Responding to crisis with thoughtful action  

Times like these require our action. To ensure the best possible advocacy for children in such tough situations, we have: 

• Lowered caseloads for our professional staff to offer more support to volunteers; 
• Deepened our response to child safety situations through streamlined reporting of critical incidents and enhanced comprehensive planning in high-risk cases 
• Dedicated resources to extra visits to residential treatment centers and other group settings where the youth we serve may be more vulnerable 
• Increased direct financial assistance and family support staffing to help relative placements stabilize for children’s well-being 
• Continued quarterly training for staff and volunteers on trauma-informed advocacy 
• Enhanced our data reporting to include more case and advocacy metrics than ever before so that we know how far we must go to protect all children’s futures 

The missing piece 

The situations facing the children we serve aren’t likely to change any time soon. And the seriousness of their cases takes a toll on the people serving them.  

Maintaining the responses outlined above and taking additional actions necessary to advocate for children’s safety, well-being and opportunities to thrive requires the support of our community – the children we serve are part of this community, after all.   

Your donation can help to lighten the load for the child who has witnessed domestic violence, the child who has been abused by a relative, and the child who’s attempted suicide.