Child Welfare
Two nice tales of donations to beleaguered child welfare systems: Contra Costa Times of California reports on a vote to use a $10,000 anonymous gift to support a foster care fund in Contra Costa County, and Kayla Bawroski of the Baltimore Sun reports on five Bel Air children who sold lemonade to raise money for local foster children.
Caseworkers are overloaded, not enough employees are bilingual, the number of foster homes has declined and the service used to hire new employees is “outdated and rigid,” a Napa County grand jury concluded after an investigation of the county’s child welfare services.
Pennsylvania researchers continue to worry that Pennsylvania’s declining child abuse numbers do not tell an accurate story, says the editorial board of the Patriot-News.
Education/Jobs
Wal-Mart is making headlines for its hefty donations to big-city summer youth programs. In June, Jonathan O’Connell of the Washington Post reported on a $665,000 for school nutrition and jobs in the city, and yesterday Grace Rush of NY1.com reported on the company’s $4 million donation to the city’s job program.
Asked whether it bothered him that the donation might be a publicity stunt in lieu of its first Big Apple store, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the company a “good corporate citizen,” reports AM New York.
Juvenile Justice
It’s well past time for Obama to name a leader for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, writes the editorial board of the L.A. Times.
Former Florida juvenile judge Irene Sullivan, writing in the Hawaii Reporter, extols the programmatic and fiscal virtues of alternatives to juvenile detention.
