Presenting Data that Builds Understanding and Action
Through KARA's next book and ongoing social media, our nonprofit is focused on growing public and institutional understanding of the quality of life and financial costs generational child abuse is having on communities in the United States. With greater understanding will come support for more and better solutions for solving this pervasive and growing problem.
Google Ads, SEO Help For Child Advocacy NonProfit
Grow KARA's messaging and problem solving for issues facing abused and neglected children and building a following of KARA's next book.
Book Project Manager
Kids At Risk Action is writing our next book. It is a comprehensive review of COVID impacting child abuse issues. We are seeking advanced students to help us sort through stories and data that will become a book targeted to both a general readership and professionals that need to know.
Digital Marketing Internship for At-Risk Youth Advocacy Group
We are looking to collaborate with students that are interested in applying their social media skills to help us improve our online presence at our not-for-profit, KARA. We are looking to achieve a net increase of 25% per month of a metric which comprises website visits, social media followers and engagement. We will work with the student to determine the best way to approach this metric. KARA has a number of assets which the students will be able to use in their efforts such as: - A monthly $10,000 Google Ads Grant - Facebook page followed by 825 people - Twitter page followed by 4,269 people - Instagram followed by 73 people - YouTube page with 13 videos - LinkedIn page followed by 374 people - Overall follower count of 5,541 This project has two milestones, the first being a strategic analysis which will then be followed by execution of the strategy. This is a unique opportunity to put into practice theory learned in class and apply it to a real world problem, at-risk youth. Strategy: We want students to help us develop a digital marketing strategy to grow and engage our followers as well as attract new ones. We’d like to know how we can maximize different channels and what will work best for us. The main questions we’d like students to help us answer are the following: How should we promote our non-profit? What social media channels should we utilize most based on our mission and goals? How can we maximize use of our Google Ads Grant? What messaging should we use and how should we post this content? Execution: We have outlined our digital assets above and with the help of the strategy you will put in place, we will discuss metrics to improve follow counts, engagement and organic growth.
Data collection about underage youth suicide and self harm in the U.S
We are writing a book about at risk youth in the U.S and are looking for academic level collaborators. KARA is a non-profit led by advocates with experience working with at risk youth, we know what is wrong, we know how to fix it and the book will let us demonstrate to a path to better answers. The book is a method of creating individual and institutional change. It will be used to speak to legislators, administrators and others working with youth, with the ultimate goal to change minds and change policy in the right direction. We want to positively interrupt generational child abuse which is costing 10x more money than we are currently spending on it. These are two of KARA’s primary areas of interest for at risk children; 1. Mental health conditions of and services for at risk youth 2. Data from health care and child protection systems According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2019 suicide was the second leading cause of death among children and adolescents ages 13 to 19 — and the leading cause of death among 13-year-olds. How many of them had been State Ward children? Hospitals see many instances of child self-harm but information about it is almost impossible to find. Post COVID, it appears that hospitals are suffering staff shortages and overloaded psych visits by children that have been locked in toxic homes without access to mandated reporters. Significant staff shortages in many areas of healthcare and an exodus of their deep knowledge talent. The stress is terrific and those that are able to retire are leaving the field – this is a growing concern. The following are some of the preliminary questions we have for data gathering for the book, but are open to others: 1. What is it like for children with mental health issues in rural America? In urban America? What are the numbers? 2. For each successful very young child suicide, at least 150 to 200 children fail. What populations did these children come from (foster care, LGBTQ, homeless, minority...)? 3. How many were or had been State Ward Children? There is almost no information about self-harm and failed suicides by children under 13. This information should be available through the healthcare system and State and County child protection services data. 4. What are underlying causes and long term effects of attempted suicide on very young children? 5. What happens to these 150 to 200 children as they age? The fiscal impact of underserving state ward children is exponentially more expensive than any amount of money we are currently spending, such as time in prison, jail, damage to society. 6. Is there meaningful tracking/information out of child protection systems about success or failure over time of the 1/3 of State Ward youth required to take psychotropic medications? 7. What other tracking information exists for State Ward Children (from early childhood, elementary and high school) such as reading at grade level, absenteeism, expulsions, behavior issues and involvement in the juvenile justice system? Looking backwards, most felons (90% recidivism at 9 years) came from dysfunctional families and foster care. KARA wants to know how psychotropic medications are being used on all children and specific breakdowns of certain populations such as homeless, LGBTQ, adopted/fostered, immigrants and children in child protection systems. 8. What can be discovered about the ending of mental health services in rural hospitals and group homes, and why are they closing or ending mental health services, and how many have closed or ended those services? 9. What happens to children when there are no services? Shortage of emergency psych beds and suicide aid. Child and youth group home closings and fines (for regulatory failures). Deliverables for this project will become part of a book and social media for KARA, an organization advocating for these at risk youth. Write ups, reports and discussions with the executive director during set milestone meetings throughout the project.
Book Editor
KARA is writing a comprehensive book about child abuse and trauma in America today . It's goal is to become a crossover book to provide awareness and understanding to the general public and also to serve as a resource to people in our institutions (education, healthcare, law enforcement, social work, courts etc,). KARA's team of volunteers & interns are gathering data, stories and multiple perspectives to make this a deep dive into childhood trauma and its impact on children and its consequent impact on communities. It will be a call to action for adopting best practices and discarding counterproductive models. Multiple editors will be engaged editing individual chapters. The book outline and progress will be provided upon request.
The COVID Pandemic Impact on Juvenile Crime & Data in the U.S.
Research and writing for this project will be used for KARA's social media as well as the publication of KARA's next book. American institutions of child protection and education are unable to provide the level of involvement and support for at risk youth they were providing pre COVID. Law enforcement has few tools beyond a punishment model that treats disturbed 12 & 14 year olds like criminals instead of damaged youth that need coping skills and mental health services. The challenge for our project is to find and present information that demonstrate trends due to COVID both the social and financial costs of a broken child protection system dumping foster children into juvenile justice and then a criminal justice system that is reaching a 9 year recidivism rate of 90%. The lack of institutional transparency, media attention and public awareness of the exponential growth in generational child abuse, school failure and resulting crime & prison growth are contributing a misinformed and confused public that has become unwilling to support people and programs to improve the lives of these children. There is a growing body of stories and data demonstrating real damage to American institutions and communities. University studies have been done and are being done that show these trends and costs. Media has sporadically done powerful reporting on stories and data that if presented in a more structured and cogent fashion could bring a level of awareness that could changes these trends. Without better understanding of the damage dysfunctional youth bring with them into adulthood, there is little hope for better schools, less crime and a return to more acceptable quality of life indices. It is KARA's mission to find and present this information on as broad a scale as possible.
Researching Child Abuse During Covid
Our team is looking for a group of students to do research on child abuse topic during Covid. The project should include: domestic violence child protection systems police response to domestic violence psychotropic medication of young children foster care and day care during Covid Students will not only research these topics but come up with recommendations on how to protect kids during these challenging times. We can discuss opportunities for students to interact with populations that we support.