Yesterday the jurors in Minneapolis held former police officer Derek Chauvin accountable for the brutal murder of George Floyd. The nine-minute video of that crime was shot by a 17-year old child. Children see and know much more than we think they do. George Floyd’s death taught them that the world is not always a […]
I was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. When I was three months old, my mother died. My sister and I went to live with our father in Hartford, Connecticut. We spent the next ten years there. Hartford is a difficult place for a child to grow up. It’s a rough city with failing infrastructure, high […]
In just three months, Children’s Rights made amazing progress for kids—including securing key reforms to give children a better chance at a stable home, improving access to health and mental health services, and ending the cruel use of restraints and solitary confinement in a boy’s group home in Iowa.
Christen Douglas, a member of the Children’s Rights National Advisory Council, is a partner at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery, where her practice is focused on trust and estates. She also advises clients on philanthropic planning and private charitable foundations. Christen has joined the CR Legacy Society by designating CR as a beneficiary […]
When I see the never-ending news reports about the inhumane conditions children in migrant detention centers are being forced to live in, I am reminded of my own experiences growing up in foster care facilities. This article got it exactly right. What’s happening to children at the border is a travesty. But it’s also happening […]
Originally posted on The Hill, on March 25, 2021 In one of his first acts as president, Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to not renew its contracts with private prisons. The president’s decision was hailed by civil liberties organizations, who saw it as a blow against a notoriously abusive system that often dehumanizes the incarcerated. […]
I remember knowing that something was very wrong. I was 9 and my sister probably 11. We were waiting outside of school in Brownsville, Texas for my mom to pick us up. This was a rare treat instead of taking the bus. The bus came and went and we kept waiting. When the police came […]
Sometimes things just click. Call it Kismet, call it karma, call it dumb luck. For me it happened in 2017, when I first met Children’s Rights. At the time, I had been working in Health Policy at Missouri Foundation for Health for 15 years. Our mission is to eliminate the underlying causes of health inequities, transform systems, […]
Food and helping young people are my twin passions. I am the chef and owner of Milk & Butter Catering, LLC in Houston, Texas. Yeah, Houston. Living through the aftermath of the 2021 winter storm has been a heck of a roller coaster! I went 6 days without power and water in freezing temperatures. And the end […]
At any given time, there are approximately 42,823 children housed in institutions and other group facilities. The trends of abuse, lack of mental health support, and racial inequality within child welfare institutions have harmed children and families for too long – and our history clearly shows that you cannot fix a fundamentally bad practice. It […]
