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Kidjacked | Jacked Up
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Families struggling to keep their children out of foster care are stymied by two major problems: homelessness and low public assistance grants, according to two New York City studies. Maine CPS News Archive
Maine News Coverage
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Cuts to Maine Social Services Fund Worry Lawmakers - ABC News
by Glenn Adams
Lawmakers expressed horror over proposed cuts in the state program that helps some of the most desperate Maine residents on Monday as they began reviewing potential social service cuts recommended by Gov. John Baldacci's administration.
The Department of Health and Human Services is among the hardest-hit, with proposed cutbacks in numerous programs such as state supplements to federal Supplemental Security Income, child welfare services and reimbursements for critical access hospitals, which are the first point of access for many of Maine's rural residents.
ABC News
January 11, 2010
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Medicinal Marijuana Panel Meets For First Time
AUGUSTA, Maine -- A newly appointed panel tasked with determining how, when and where medical marijuana will be distributed in Maine met Tuesday for the first time.
In November, Gov. John Baldacci ordered the creation of the task force after voters approved a new law to allow licensed dispensaries at nonprofit groups that will provide medical marijuana to qualified patients.
WMTW Portland
December 1, 2009
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Child Welfare Advocates from Across Maine Endorse Marriage Equality
The American Psychological Association, after carefully reviewing years of research on parenting and child outcomes, concludes that "(t)here is no scientific evidence that parenting effectiveness is related to parental sexual orientation."
"... We know that marriage equality is public policy that will improve the well being of Maine kids because it is supported by scientific evidence. If we accept marriage as a social good for children, in that it gives them emotional and financial security and confidence in the strength of their family bond, how can we possibly deny this protection to the children of gay parents," said Ms. Goldberg.
Vote YES to support families!
September 24, 2009
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Maine Agency Urges Support of Federal Child Welfare Bill
A Maine agency is calling attention to a bi-partisan bill before the US Senate that would create a high-level government office and refocus US programs, policies and funding on a singular goal: a permanent family for every child.
The Families For Orphans Act (Senate Bill 1458 and House Bill 3070), sponsored by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and James Inhofe (R-OK) along with Representatives Diana Watson (D-CA) and John Boozman (R-AR), addresses the needs of millions of children living outside of permanent parental care throughout the world.
Maine Business
July 27, 2009
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'Life's reality': Writer, advocate, foster care leader finds the positive in life
by My Tien Huynh
Dustin Strout has no family. He has resided in a mental institution, two group homes, five foster homes, several friends' homes and numerous homeless shelters for nearly 20 years, but nowhere within those places did his family reside.
"I didn't want toys; I wanted family love." Strout remembers crying over not having a biological mother. "I wanted the person who gave birth to me to be there," he said. By the time Strout was 9, he had entered and left four more foster homes. "They just didn't know how to deal with me because I had so much confusion and so much anger."
Sun Journal
July 6, 2009
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Squeaky Wheel Adventures
by Joy Hollowell
In just a few weeks, foster and adopted kids from around Maine will have the opportunity to go camping, and go green, all at the same time.
Squeaky Wheel Adventures will take off later this month, for the first of five multi-day trips. The campers are all in foster care or some type of other out of home care such as kinship care or that have been adopted.
WABI TV News 5
June 10, 2009
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Killer gets life
by Diana Graettinger
MACHIAS, Maine -- A 27-year-old local man, Richard Widdecombe Jr., accused of double murder was sentenced Friday in Washington County Superior Court to life in prison. Widdecombe was placed into 17 different foster homes during his young life.
Davidson described the years of abuse that Widdecombe suffered first at the hands of his 14-year-old mother and mentally handicapped father, who was 18 years older than his wife. And the abuse he suffered at the hands of some of his foster parents and eventually the state Department of Health and Human Services, the attorney said. Davidson described the abuse as emotional, physical and sexual.
Bangor Daily News
February 27, 2009
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Expert: Law favors foster care over family
by Matthew Stone
AUGUSTA -- Across the United States, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members stepping in to take care of a relative's child face legal hurdles in securing child custody.
While the number of grandfamilies, as they are known, has grown nationally in recent years, laws in most states continue to favor the foster care system, one expert told an audience of dozens of grandparent caregivers and social service providers Friday at a conference at the University of Maine at Augusta.
Maine Today
September 26, 2008
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Foster care industry fights to undo child welfare reform
by Richard Wexler
Six years ago, Maine learned that there was an exception to the state's tradition of caring well for its must vulnerable citizens.
The death of Logan Marr, a little girl needlessly taken from her birth mother only to be killed by her foster mother, revealed a dreadful child welfare system, dominated by a take-the-child-and-run mentality.
Kennebec Journal (ME)
March 11, 2007
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Summit hears wrong answers to child welfare problems
by Richard Wexler
Consider a study of infants born with cocaine in their systems. One group was placed in foster care, the other with birth mothers able to care for them.
After six months, the babies were tested using all the usual measures of infant development: rolling over, sitting up, reaching out. Consistently, the infants placed with their birth mothers did better. For the foster children, being taken from their mothers was more toxic than the cocaine.
Journal Star
October 28, 2006
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