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Cocktail Reception Next Week for Reauthorization of Children’s Services Council of Broward County

June 12th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy

Talenfeld ReauthorizationDozens of Florida’s child advocates will gather to support Reauthorization of Children’s Services Council of Broward County. The cocktail reception will be held at Hawk’s Landing Club (500 Hawk’s Landing Circle, Plantation, 33324) on Thursday, June 19.

Hosts include Julie and Howard Talenfeld, Ellen Bogdanoff, Ron Book, Anita Byer, Mike Colodny, Gary Elzweig, Joel Fass, Nikki Fried, Jim Gale, Alan Cohn, Dr. Fred Lippman, Bruce Lyons, Ronnie Oller, Eugene Pettis, Hon. Nan Rich, Bill Rubin, Troy Sorel, and Jesse Diner and Adele Stone.

The Children’s Services Councils in Broward and Palm Beach counties will hold a referendum in November, asking voters whether taxpayers should fund agencies. The councils collect money every year from property taxes and award the money to a number of nonprofits that work with disadvantaged children.

To attend this event, RSVP required. Email Events@CitizensforBrowardsChildren.com. Learn more at www.CitizensforBrowardsChildren.com

Child Deaths Grow: Sheriff Says Child Known to Florida DCF Strangled; Mother, Boyfriend Charged with Abuse

June 11th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Attorney and lawyer advocates for Florida foster care children and at-risk youth are following the story of a boy strangled in Central Florida. The Florida Department of Children and Families reportedly had visited at least three times over the past few years the family of a boy whom the Orange County Sheriff office says was strangled this week. His mother and her boyfriend have been arrested and charged with abuse. This brings closer to 500 the number of deaths of children who were known to be at risk by DCF.

In this sad case, 2-year-old Justin Polk was found unresponsive at an Orlando-area motel. Investigators attributed his death to blunt force trauma and strangulation. His mother, Merissa Anderson, and her boyfriend, Jonathan Charapata, were arrested on child abuse charges.

In documents released later by Florida Department of Children and Families, it was revealed DCF had investigated the family three times in the last two years, according to News13.

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Florida Child Advocate Receives 2014 Best of Fort Lauderdale Award

June 5th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, News & Events

Florida Child Advocate has been selected for the 2014 Best of Fort Lauderdale Award in the Child Guidance category. Florida Child Advocate is a leading statewide advocacy and information website created to help families with at-risk children and to raise Floridians’ knowledge and awareness of foster children, special needs kids and other vulnerable citizens.

FCA Award ZGQ-NJEEach year, the Fort Lauderdale Award Program identifies companies and organizations that its believes have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category.

The 2014 Fort Lauderdale Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Fort Lauderdale Award Program and data provided by third parties.

These are local companies and organizations that enhance the positive image of small business and community outreach through service to their customers and the community at large. Such exceptional companies and organizations help make the Fort Lauderdale, South Florida and the entire Sunshine State area a great place to live, work and play.

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Florida Foster Child Abuse Attorneys Shocked as Herald Reports That DCF Hid More Child Deaths

June 1st, 2014   No Comments   Uncategorized

When Florida child attorneys and foster child advocates read with horror “Innocents Lost,” the Miami Herald’s reports of almost 500 Florida foster children and at-risk kids who died while under the watch or awareness of the Department of Children and Families, outrage focused on how kids known to the agency could have died.

Now, the outrage is growing anew. According to today’s Miami Herald, “Documents obtained after Innocents Lost was published show that starting at least as early as last November, as the Herald was grilling DCF on its problems in preventing the deaths of children under its watch, one branch of the agency deliberately kept as many as 30 deaths off the books — ensuring they would not be included in the published tally.”

If true, the reports show an inexplicable pattern of non-transparency and a deliberate effort to hide from the public an ongoing epidemic of children’s deaths. Read the entire story here.

Critical Florida Children’s Advocacy Bill Awaits Governor Scott Signature

May 23rd, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Dependency, Legislative & Regulatory Issues

For as long as any Florida child advocate or children’s rights attorney can recall, Florida case law has said children have no constitutional right to an attorney in dependency court. That has meant kids’ futures would be decided with no attorney advocating for their needs, lives or futures.

In what some believe is a watershed moment for at-risk and vulnerable children statewide, the Florida Legislature this year passed House Bill 561. The measure requires the appointment of and payment for an attorney ad litem for Florida’s at-risk children facing court or dependency court proceedings. Read a Daily Business Review article.

Written in part by Howard Talenfeld, a leading Florida child advocacy attorney and shareholder with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, Abate and Webb, P.A., the measure awaits the signature of Gov. Rick Scott. With widespread, bipartisan support – and the backing of advocates statewide – it is hoped this measure will be signed and children will received the professional advocacy they so desperately need.

New Child Death ‘Czar’ Named to Florida Department of Children and Families

May 15th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Following through on his promise to address hundreds of the death of hundreds of children under the watch of the Florida Department of Children and Families, new DCF Interim Secretary Mike Carroll named the agency’s first statewide fatality prevention specialist. Lisa Rivera, a 17-year veteran with the agency who started as a child abuse investigator, is now the the agency’s top child death administrator.

The news comes in Carroll’s second week on the job – and amid calls for changes to how the agency addresses and tracks at-risk children. Read the entire story in Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier child advocacy organization.

Florida Child Advocates Help Legislature Pass Historic Law for At-Risk Kids

May 5th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Guardian ad Litem & Representation, Legislative & Regulatory Issues

Florida’s Children First with the assistance of many child advocates was able to help pass historic legislation that created sweeping changes in children’s rights issues, including the right for disabled children to have an attorney in their dependency cases. Read a recap of the legislation here.

Florida LegislatureThanks to Carol Marbin Miller with the Miami Herald for shining the light on such tragedies like the death of Tamiya Audain, the 12-year-old autistic girl whose mom died and agencies never got her Medicaid Waiver benefits or found a safe home for her to live in.

Thanks to Senator Bill Galvano (Bradenton), Representative Erik Fresen (Miami), and Senator Rob Bradley (Orange Park), Department of Children and Families Secretary Esther Jacobo, Florida Bar President Eugene Pettis and Statewide Guardian Ad Litem Director Alan Abramowitz for making this legislation a top priority.

Florida Legislature Passes Historic Law to Provide Attorneys for Dependent Children with Special Needs; Vital Measure Wins Bipartisan Support, Heads to Gov. Scott for Signing

May 1st, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Foster Care, Funding, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

With bipartisan support spearheaded by Senator Bill Galvano (Bradenton) and Representative Erik Fresen (Miami), the Florida Legislature today passed a measure that will provide attorneys to protect dependent children with special needs who are in the legal custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF). The companion House and Senate bills (SB 972 and HB 561) would fund attorneys to represent these at-risk children, many of whom linger in foster care longer than their peers, often for an average of up to five years. The budget up for approval amounts to $4.5 million.

FCA Attorney Press Conference“Since 2002, The Florida Bar Commission On The Legal Needs of Children recognized the critical necessity to appoint attorneys for vulnerable, abused and neglected children in the custody of the state,” said Howard Talenfeld, President of Florida’s Children First, the statewide organization that has fought for this legislation since the report was issued.

Recently, the Miami Herald conducted a special investigation regarding 477 children in Florida who have died from abuse and neglect, including many children with special needs. One such child, Tamiya Audain, a 12-year-old Broward girl who had autism and a rare medical disease, starved to death in September 2013 as a result of neglect in the home of a relative with whom she was placed after her mother died.

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Miami Herald: Governor’s Office Moves to Weaken Provisions in Child Safety Bill

April 25th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

A last-minute amendment to SB 1666 submitted by the Department of Children and Families and the governor’s office Friday was withdrawn and the Senate passed the bill unanimously to applause, the Miami Herald reported. SB 1666 is the Senate’s overhaul of the child welfare laws.

“Sponsored by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, the 135-page amendment so late in the process was significant enough to prompt Sen. Andy Gardiner to call for a time out to give members time to absorb what the proposal would do,” the Herald reported.

“The ‘strike-all’ amendment would make several significant changes aimed at tamping down some of the provisions and oversight over the department, according to a document obtained by the Herald/Times. The summary of the amendment says many of the reforms would cost too much money.”

Read the entire Herald story here.

Miami Herald: Judge Rebukes DCF Over Kids Placement in Home Where Boy Died

April 24th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

When child welfare authorities tried to keep three children in the home their cousin recently had died of apparent abuse, a Miami judge lashed out at administrators. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Rosa Figarola labeled the Department of Children and Families’ handling of the case “troubling,” and refused DCF’s request Tuesday.

Figarola “instead ordered the children into foster care,” the Miami Herald reported. “The next day, Figarola shot off a blistering email to agency administrators, accusing them of seeking to leave three small chidlren in harm’s way.”

The case stems from the death of 3-year-old Gerardo Perez, who was unresponsive at Homestead Hospital with bruises and bite marks on his body. His teeth were severely rotten teeth. He died on Monday. Child welfare authorities first sought to remove the other children. Then they asked a judge to leave the children, ages 3, 2 and 1, with their father, who pledge to keep the dead boy’s mother and his sister out of the house.

“The handling of this case illustrates that the same systematic failures that have plagued the Department and given rise to the devastation we recently observed are still being executed,” Figarola wrote. Read the entire story here.

Florida Youth SHINE in Action at the Capitol for Children’s Week

April 23rd, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Aging Out, Florida Youth Shine

During Children’s Week, over 35 Florida Youth Shine advocates flooded the Capitol steps to speak to dozens of legislators, staff and public officials bringing awareness to the issues affecting the child welfare system and to advocate for children in and transitioning out of the foster care system.

youth shine

In Their Own Words…

“Through Florida Youth Shine I have been able to increase my self-esteem and further my goals in life by developing relationships. In FYS, I have been able to create long lasting relationships and establish a family.”
Chelsea Bramblett, 19, Pensacola Chapter Member

“Being a part of this was an amazing experience. I loved the fact that we are able to make a difference. I really admire what we are doing and it means a lot for me to do something that really makes a difference.”
Christian Aguilar, 18, Miami Chapter Member

“FYS helps change the foster care system by bringing awareness to the people who have no idea of what it means to be ‘in the System.'”
Caprice Blizzard, Pensacola Chamber Mentor

“The things I’ve learned and the people I’ve met will forever be apart of who I am and who I’ve become.”
Jose Logrono, 23, Orlando Chapter Member

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Children’s Services Council – A Critical Safety Net for Our Kids

April 11th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Legislative & Regulatory Issues

How much is it worth to help and protect at-risk children? How important is it to ensure our kids have services essential to their health, education and well being? Broward voters will be asked those questions in November – with implications felt for years to come.

A referendum will ask county residents whether to reaffirm the Children’s Services Council of Broward County. The organization provides early learning and reading programs, after school programs, developmental health, preventive and other children’s support services. It keeps families together and their children out of foster care, delinquency programs and prison. The Council is funded by an annual homeowner tax assessment.

How much does this cost? By one calculation, it’s about $60 for a $125,000 home in Broward County, or about $60 million countywide, spent by various organizations dedicated to protecting our kids.

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