Another Valuable Resource Available to Kinship Care Providers

From the Child Welfar League of America (www.cwla.org) : The ABA Center on Children and the Law is proud to make available this Kinship Care Legal Resource Center. Kinship care, commonly defined as the "full-time care, nurturing, and protection of children by relatives, members of their tribes or clans, or other adults who have a family relationship to a child," is a growing phenomenon across the United States. Today, more than six million children-approximately one in twelve-are growing up in households headed by grandparents (4.5 million children) or other relatives (1.5 million children). This new Resource Center is intended to serve as a toolkit for attorneys, judges, and other child-serving practitioners working with kinship families and having difficulty navigating the complex existing and emerging legal issues. Check out this valuable site with information on finacial, legal, subsidies and other issues concerning kinship care providers: www.abanet.org

Electronics & Kids: check WiredSafety.org

I have been researching the chapter for the Kinship Care book titled, "Raising Children in an Electronic World". What a trip! So you rescue these children from some devastating trauma involving the loss of their parents in their lives. You go through the gauntlet of legal issues, social services, medical care, fixing the house to accommodate one or two or more beloved children. Everyone is getting settled as best as possible, when you find another invader in your world sneaking through the wires in the form of the internet. This is not really bad. Just scary sometimes.
The internet, as you can see just by visiting this little diary, can connect us all to together. But there are predators (like you need another predator) who use this miraculous tool to get money, sex, or perverted kicks.
Children are very adept at the internet. They use it for information, for music and videos, for their own creative outlets, and for games.
Ah, games. Games for kids and adults are a 7 billion dollar business in this country serving 145 million U.S. gamers. There are games to play privately on the little battery powered PlayStation Box or games that connect to the internet for players all over the world. Yes, you read that correctly. Little Amy who loves a challenge on her PlayStation2 can play the game with several players who are signed on (kids and adults) from anywhere in the world. We live at amazing time. However, this renaissance also requires vigilance from virtual roadside bandits as well as the games themselves.
One really valuable internet site for those of us who care for children is: www.wiredsafety.org . Check it out. Parry Aftab, creator of WiredSafety.org answers questions on line.
We’ll have more on this in a later blog. I appreciate your comments.
As always, in peace,
Tita