Trinity Mount Ministries

Showing posts with label community. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community. Show all posts

Sunday, August 25, 2019

It's the law: Protecting children from abuse falls on all of us

By STEPHEN D. HALL, Esq.


Q. I am worried about my neighbor’s children. We live in adjoining apartments. I have often heard my neighbor’s boyfriend yelling (sometimes very angrily) at her children, and the children start crying abruptly. I fear that he might be hitting them, especially because the children always seem to have lots of bruises, but I have no absolute proof. I’ve tried talking to the mother, but she doesn’t seem to want to listen. Since I don’t have proof, could they sue me for reporting him?
A. Protecting children from abuse and neglect falls squarely on all of us, and not just because of social norms or moral obligations. Idaho law has long required anyone having reason to believe that a child has been abused, abandoned or neglected to report it to law enforcement or to Child Protection. The report must be made within 24 hours. Failure to report is a misdemeanor.
When you make a report, your identity must be kept confidential. The law also gives you immunity from civil and criminal liability for reporting. To be eligible for that immunity you only need reason to believe that a child has been abused, abandoned or neglected, and you must make the report in good faith. Honest, reasonable concern for a child’s health and safety is certainly good faith.
To determine whether you have “reason to believe,” you need to know the legal definitions of the terms abused, neglected and abandoned.
“Abused” means that a child has been a victim of physical abuse or sexual conduct. Emotional abuse alone, such as yelling, is not “abuse” under this law. Physical abuse means conduct or omission resulting in skin bruising, bleeding, malnutrition, burns, fracture of any bone, soft tissue swelling, subdural hematoma, failure to thrive or death, where that condition is not justifiably explained. Sexual conduct includes rape, molestation, incest, prostitution, obscene or pornographic photographing and other sexual exploitation.
“Neglected” means most situations where a child is without proper parental care and control.
“Abandoned” means situations where a parent fails to maintain a normal parental relationship with a child, including reasonable support and regular personal contact, for an extended time.
You should carefully consider all that you have seen and all you have heard to determine whether, in your best judgment, you have reason to believe that the children have been physically abused. You do not need proof positive. You only need a reasonable belief, that is, a belief grounded in evidence rather than mere suspicion. In this case, the existence of persistent bruising on more than one child is particularly telling. You do not need to try to find out the explanation for the bruises. Law enforcement or Child Protection Services will do the required investigation.
Stephen D. Hall is an attorney practicing in Idaho Falls. This column is provided by the 7th District Bar Association as a public service. Submit questions to “It’s the Law,” PO Box 50130, Idaho Falls, ID 83405, or by email to rfarnam@holdenlegal.com. This column is for general information. Readers with specific legal questions should consult an attorney. A lawyer referral service is provided by calling the Idaho State Bar Association in Boise at 208-334-4500.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Community Outreach Spotlight Jamming Hoopsfest

Submitted by Major Paco Balderrama of the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Police Department.

In 2010, the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Police Department (OCPD) created Jamming Hoopsfest, a youth outreach event. Held every Thursday for 6 weeks during each summer, this effort involves a collaboration with numerous community partners and individual volunteers.
Outdoor tournament basketball serves as the center of community interaction. Youths of all ages from at-risk neighborhoods come together to participate, eat dinner, and hear a short positive message from a community leader. Police mentors who serve as coaches, referees, disk jockeys, and cooks reinforce the life lesson learned.
Each week, several youth participants receive recognition for their positive behavior and outstanding display of character. Winners get a pair of the latest sneakers.
Over the years, Jamming Hoopsfest has grown significantly and become an event that the community and OCPD look forward to every summer. About 250 youths participate each week. Officers who regularly volunteer enjoy getting to know the kids on a personal level and forming meaningful and long-lasting relationships. The program helps form a stronger partnership between OCPD and the community it serves.
For additional information, contact Major Balderrama atjuan.balderrama@okc.gov.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Ohio Community will never get over it: 4-Year-Old with Autism Wanders from Home and Drowns

BY ADAM CARLSON




The community of Sheffield Lake, Ohio, will never forget the moment the body of 4-year-old Sidney Heidrick was pulled from Lake Erie. 

"I don't think anyone is going to get over any of this anytime soon," Mayor Dennis Bring tells PEOPLE. 

Bring, a Sheffield Lake resident since 1958 who is in his fourth year as mayor, says he can't even remember the last time a tragedy like this struck his community, which is home to 9,000 people. 

It's a grief made more unimaginable by how unlikely it seemed, even minutes before Sidney's body was recovered. 

On Friday, the barefoot little boy, who had autism, walked away from his grandparents' house on the lake, Bring says. 

He was spotted around 4:30 p.m. by a passerby – but the man who called police must have hesitated between the sighting and dialing, Bring says. Officers responded to the scene within 30 seconds, according to Bring, but Sidney was already gone. 

By Friday evening, "people were coming from all over" to look for Sidney, scouring the woods and vacant properties, Bring says. Thousands eventually joined in, assisting the FBI, Coast Guard and a myriad of regional agencies in the search efforts. 

The search continued into the next day. Bring says he went home at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, and the town's police chief didn't head home until 4 a.m. 

"I fully expected I'd get a call that night," Bring says. He dreamed his phone rang with the news that the had found Sidney. But he awoke to discover the search was still ongoing. 

The community stayed hopeful, Bring says, telling one another Saturday afternoon to keep their fingers crossed, not knowing their search was minutes from ending. 

Sidney's body was found in Lake Erie around 3:30 p.m. He wasn't more than 60 feet from shore – not even a quarter of a mile from his grandparents' home. 

Sidney probably entered the water soon after he went missing, Lorain County Coroner Stephen Evans tells PEOPLE, and he died of an apparent drowning. 

Wandering is one of the greatest risks to children who have autism, officials with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tell PEOPLE, and nearly half of children with autism will wander

Being able to find these children is complicated further by the fact that they may hide from other people or head straight for water, says Robert Lowery, vice president of NCMEC's missing children division. 

Higher-functioning children have been known to travel several miles with the help of public transportation. 

Water poses a particular danger. From 2009 to 2011, 91 percent of the deaths of children 14 and younger with autism were due to accidental drowning after wandering, Lowery says, citing the National Autism Association

"It's a very frustrating issue," he says. It's the worst during "wandering season," which runs from early spring to fall, when the weather is warm. 

The ripples of grief from Sidney's death touched many. Bring and other officials were visibly emotional at a Saturday news conference soon after Sidney's body was found. 

One dispatcher was particularly overcome by the news. "I said [to her], 'Some things just happen and there's nothing you can do,' " Bring says. 

The police responded as quickly as they could, but it wasn't enough. 

Bring even broke the news to his 5-year-old granddaughter, who asked him if they had found the missing little boy. 

"It's one of those things that you can't believe," he says. 

Bring says he is grateful for the support of the thousands of searchers who volunteered their time. 

GoFundMe page set up for Sidney's family has raised more than $32,000 so far. 

It's during times like these that you learn "what kind of community you have," Bring says. 

To aid the search for missing children with autism, the NCMEC has developed protocols for first responders and law enforcement and will dispatch advanced teams around the country to support officials trying to locate a child, Lowery says. 

"I just feel terrible for those people," Bring says. "They'll never get over it."


 http://www.TrinityMount.Info

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Lassy Project - A Safer World For Our Children!

 
 
                               


The founder, John Guydon, created Lassy Project after being part of the 2012 search for a missing child in his neighborhood called Jessica Ridgeway. Unfortunately it was too late and she was found murdered. She was 10 years old.

As a father of two young girls himself, John wanted to create something to reduce the chances of this happening again.

When a child is abducted, if they’re not found within the first 3 hours there’s a 75% chance they’re never coming home. It takes the police 4 hours to issue an Amber Alert. This delay is too long! With the Lassy Project, a parent can notify their entire local community within seconds.

So far, Lassy Project has users in over 2400 zip codes. This is increasing every day as more and more parents sign up. 

The mother of murdered child Jessica Ridgeway has joined the Lassy Project team and we’re collaborating with Law Enforcement agencies to help them find lost children, faster.

It's a completely free service right now and the more parents that sign up, the safer our world will be for our children.

lassyproject.com

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Stop It Now! News - September / October 2011

Stop It Now E-News logo
Stop It Now! is the only child sexual abuse prevention program to offer specialized Help Service via telephone or e-mail. Questions from last month give us a chance to highlight more Prevention Tip Sheets.  

We hope these tools, along with information about new approaches to prevent child sexual abuse, will help your family and community take actions that create safety for children - and everyone.
 

Who We Help  
In August, our Help Services staff helped dozens of people from 24 US states, and several other countries. While each situation is unique, many people who contact us often face similar situations, concerns and opportunities around preventing the sexual abuse of a child. Here are some of the people we heard from most last month: 

  • Grandparents concerned about their families
  • Community members concerned about a known sex offender living in their community
  • Relatives concerned about sexualized behaviors in children and youth.   
Calls and emails from people like this keep us in touch with the real-life situations we all face; concerns, challenges and resources for action. We develop and update our prevention tools in response to people like you who contact our Help Services.

Take Action!  Download and share these Tip Sheets:  

Recognizing Signs Before Harm 


After our recent response to "Can you profile a predator?" a reader wrote to share her story and suggest the prevention picture is incomplete until we do more to increase self-awareness in adults, particularly men.

"Adults have to recognize their own internal warning signs. What if he had had the opportunity to recognize the thoughts that led to [him abusing] and get treatment BEFORE he offended? He would have done that...but the present social press is so incredibly negative that even admitting to these thoughts has dire consequences."
  
A pillar of our approach is the belief that helping adults and children who might sexually harm a child is a critical opportunity for prevention. We have shown that hopeful, practical responses to this challenge are not only possible, but can gain community support. Read more about one Stop It Now! campaign that targeted adults concerned about their own behavior. Enhancing the prevention opportunities for adults who want help for their own sexualized thoughts and behaviors toward children remains a core tenet of our work.

Take Action!  Read and share Twelve Questions About Your Behavior Only You Can Answer.    

Reshaping sex offender policy for prevention 

The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) recently released a policy paper called A Reasoned Approach: Reshaping sex offender policy to prevent child sexual abuse. We welcome this report and wholeheartedly support its three broad recommendations. The call for evidence based policy for both prevention and sex offender management is something Stop It Now! has championed for nearly 20 years. Read more. We will continue to use our programs to bring this growing knowledge base into prevention practice and policy.

Take Action! Read our response and the full report 


PRORehab says Stop It Now! through workplace giving
We recently received welcome news from PRORehab, one of the largest physical therapy/rehabilitation clinics in the St. Louis MO area. As part of their ongoing commitment to community, their company said Stop It Now! to child sexual abuse and did their part to make sure every child has a right to safety and well-being by supporting our work. PRORehab employees donated $1,151 to support our work and spoke out with a wonderful blog post. Thank you so much! 

Take Action! Contact us to learn how you can help support Stop It Now! through your workplace or as an individual.  Together we can prevent child sexual abuse. 

Stop It Now!® prevents the sexual abuse of children by mobilizing adults, families and communities to take actions that protect children before they are harmed.
Support us (#12223) in the Combined Federal Campaign
CFC

Network for Good


Thursday, September 1, 2011

STOP IT NOW! Keeping our children proteceted:

Keeping our children safe isn't just a family responsibility:

STOP IT NOW!
Keeping our children safe isn't just a family responsibility - but a community and social concern as well. Parents - know your neighbors, as well as your kids' teachers, coaches, mentors, etc...please do not assume that your children are safe in the presence of an adult.
Stop It Now! Child Sexual Abuse Prevention: 
Trinity Mount Ministries Website: 
@StopItNow @TrinityMount (Twitter)
myweb.ecomplanet.com
A Christian Ministry with a focus on the safe return of missing children worldwide. Offering resources to keep children safe. Administrator - Brett Fletcher.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

STOP IT NOW! Prevention Tip Sheets:

Share Prevention Tip Sheets in Your Community:

We encourage you to print and share these tip sheets in your family and community.  These are licensed under Creative Commons which allows you to reproduce them as long as you follow these Guidelines. Please contact us about permissions.
Nine Questions Parents Need to Ask When Selecting a Program for their Child
Choosing a school or program is one of the most complicated and emotional decisions you have to make as a parent.   The specific activities, the schedule, the costs, how it matches your child’s needs and interest-- all these things play a part in your decision. Whether or not the school has a child sexual abuse prevention policy needs to be a consideration.
Twelve Questions About Your Behavior Only You Can Answer

Do you need help?

If you are wondering about your own sexual thoughts and behaviors toward children, we encourage you to answer these questions honestly. They are designed to help you decide whether you may need help. Take a few minutes to ask yourself the following twelve questions.
Keeping Adults and Children Safe on the Internet
The Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate and function in our day-to-day lives exposing us all to an unimagined volume of ideas and possibilities. We are only beginning to understand the full impact that such expanded access to images and information is having on adults and children.
Sexual Safety in Sports: Talking about Coaches Who Show Inappropriate Interest in Kids
Too often, the news carries stories about a bus driver, teacher, or even coach who sexually abused a child, stories that leave us wringing our hands. And yet, how many of us know what to watch out for or how to talk to our child when the risk of sexual abuse is more complicated than the scary guy at the playground offering them candy to get in his car.
Talking to Children and Teens
Experience has taught us that actions by adults can be more effective than expecting kids to protect themselves from sexual abuse. Still, we know that children* also need accurate, age-appropriate information about child sexual abuse and confidence that adults they know will support them.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Keeping our children safe isn't just a family responsibility:

STOP IT NOW!
Keeping our children safe isn't just a family responsibility - but a community and social concern as well. Parents - know your neighbors, as well as your kids' teachers, coaches, mentors, etc...please do not assume that your children are safe in the presence of an adult.
Stop It Now! Child Sexual Abuse Prevention: 
Trinity Mount Ministries Website: 
@StopItNow @TrinityMount (Twitter)
myweb.ecomplanet.com
A Christian Ministry with a focus on the safe return of missing children worldwide. Offering resources to keep children safe. Administrator - Brett Fletcher.