Failing Florida’s Children, Foster Care & the Baker Act.

Please join us as we discuss options of improvement for the overall system and neglected children’s rights.

In the United States, 470,000 children become dependent on the Foster System each year. 42 % will not complete school and 90% will never earn a college degree. 75 % of 17 y-olds in foster care have changed schools over 5 times.

Yet the amount of taxpayer funds money invested in the system is staggeringly high.

Has privatizing the system really helped protect these vulnerable kids?

This conversation shine the light on what Florida foster kids goes through.

As case workers, guardian ad litem, caregivers and even foster parents, you all deserve to be part of this conversation.

Our first guest speaker: Mari Frankel, film director for the documentary Foster Shock.

A longterm Guardian Ad Litem, mother of three, Mari produced a powerful film portraying Florida’s foster child system as an inept failure when it comes to protecting the children in its care

Foster Shock is a stunning documentary that gives viewers a close-up look at Florida’s foster care system through the eyes of traumatized children who’ve depended on it, only to suffer more abuse, neglect and pain.

Our second guest speaker: Carmen Miller, Esquire, solo attorney.

Carmen is a private attorney practicing Family, Elder/Probate, and Baker Act law in the Tampa Bay area. Serving for over 8 years as Asst. Public Defender for 13th Judicial District, Hillsborough County, she became an expert on the Baker Act law.

Specific Leaning Objectives:

• Participants will understand what do foster kids go through when in the foster care system and how does it relate to the parents, guardians and caregivers.

• Participants will be able to identify the basic children’s rights impacted in foster care.

• Participants will be able to describe the laws regarding involuntary examinations and will be provided with action steps to protect foster children impacted by the Baker Act.

Host:

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida (CCHR) is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious mental health watchdog organization dedicated to the restoration of human rights in the the mental health industry.

Saturday, January 30th, 2021 at 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Submit your questions to: center@cchrflorida.org