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the Denver Department of Human Services after the deaths of two childrenhas received city contracts totaling at least $3 million over six years.



 
 
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Old October 11th 07, 09:18 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default the Denver Department of Human Services after the deaths of two childrenhas received city contracts totaling at least $3 million over six years.

Human Services reviewers have financial ties
By Arthur Kane.
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 10/11/2007 12:52:41 AM MDT

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7142400


One of the two nonprofit organizations conducting an external review of
the Denver Department of Human Services after the deaths of two children
has received city contracts totaling at least $3 million over six years.

The other agency provided the department with a grant of up to $200,000
this year and is using Denver as one of 15 sites where it will study how
its child-protection proposals work.

DDHS manager Roxane White announced last month that the Kempe Center,
which received the contracts, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which
provided the grant, would conduct a review of her department's policies
at the same time as the Colorado Department of Human Services. The
review is a response to the deaths this year of two children - Chandler
Grafner and Neveah Gallegos - whom human-services workers had the
opportunity to remove from homes where abuse was suspected.

State Rep. Debbie Stafford, an Aurora Republican who has focused on
children's issues, questioned whether a nonprofit that receives money
from the department can impartially investigate that agency.

"That's a conflict of interest," said Stafford, who will propose a bill
this session creating an independent ombudsman for children. "It would
certainly raise eyebrows that it is a valid and objective assessment."

The assessment by the organizations will review hotline calls, files,
interview staff and look at neglect filings to determine whether DDHS
has proper practices and policies in place to protect children.

Small portion of budget

Kempe spokeswoman Lindsey Zimmerman said the nonprofit could be
independent, despite the contracts it receives from the government, and
that Denver would not have chosen it if there were questions about the
organization's impartiality.

White said Kempe's contracts are not a big enough part of Kempe's budget
to taint the review. "Kempe has a national and international reputation
and will do this in an independent way," she said.

Zimmerman could not provide Kempe's budget, but its foundation spent $3
million last year, according to its 2006 tax forms.

Elsa Holguin, a member of the Denver Human Services advisory board, said
some agencies, such as the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, were
not asked to participate in the review because they receive too much of
their funding from the department. White said that was one factor, along
with the size, reputation and breadth of services, in asking Kempe and
Casey instead of others.

The Kempe contracts require the foundation to provide mental and medical
services to abused and neglected children.

The Casey Foundation provided money to DDHS this year as part of its
Family to Family initiative. The initiative works to provide
neighborhood-based, culturally sensitive care emphasizing less reliance
on hospitals, shelters and group homes. It also advocates improved
foster care for children who must be removed from home and screening
services to safely preserve families, according to the foundation's website.

Denver was chosen as one of Casey's anchor cities to gather data on the
success of Family to Family.

White said the Family to Family concept is neutral on whether to work
with the family on a voluntary basis or involve the juvenile court in
taking the children or court-ordering parents to change their ways.

But White's department has built upon Family to Family to find ways that
it can, when possible, safely provide services to families without
involving the courts by removing a child. She said there are not enough
foster homes or other places to raise children taken from their parents.

The debate over whether to involve the courts has been controversial in
Neveah Gallegos' case because the department decided to allow the child
to stay with her mother even after she was brought to a hospital with
apparent signs of being sexually assaulted. Her mother declined to
cooperate with police investigating her boyfriend in the assault, and no
charges were ever filed, court records say.

Many have DDHS ties

A Jefferson County juvenile court put Chandler Grafner in the home where
he died, placing him with an ex-boyfriend of his mother. Denver Human
Services workers were then notified of a complaint from Chandler's
school that he was missing from class but did not respond.

Retired Denver juvenile- court judge Dana Wakefield said he respects the
Casey center's work but said DDHS has gone too far in avoiding the
courts - especially in Neveah's case.

"You have a mom who won't protect the child, you have a boyfriend who is
a sex offender - a bell should go off in the head of the (DDHS employee)
that this is not a case where voluntary service is appropriate," he
said. "It could be an example where a new approach blinds them to the
facts."

Suzanne Barnard, Casey senior operations manager in the mountain west
region, said Casey is most interested in the safety of the child,
whether it is going to court or working with the family on a voluntary
basis.

She said its Family to Family study would not color its work in the
internal review.

White said it would be impossible to choose a major organization that
doesn't have financial or other ties to DDHS.

"We're not that big of a town," she said.

Mayor John Hickenlooper said he stands behind the job White is doing at
Human Services and believes the review will improve the child-protection
system.






CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
 




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