It is difficult to read about suffering children, whether victims of poverty, abuse, neglect or fire. Our sympathies naturally flow to those who are most defenseless. And yet, that suffering is widespread in this region: More than 30,000 young people are in foster care. Thousands more lost homes, schools or communities in the recent fires.
Importantly, not all suffering demands the same response. The child who is poor may lack resources but be enveloped in love. For this young person, family support — a monthly stipend, food stamps, health insurance — may be all that is needed to overcome the adversity of the moment. For the child who is abused or neglected, on the other hand, safety may demand more. And for the child who has lost a home or school to fire, rebuilding structures may be as important as supporting families.
Those are among the heart-wrenching conclusions of the work presented in this issue of Blueprint.
But heart-wrenching is not the same as despairing. These same articles suggest solutions, or at least steps toward solutions. The governments charged with caring for children — state and local — sometimes flail in response to problems, but they are innovating. Witness the work of Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, himself a product of the foster care system. He has secured passage of eight bills to expand and reconsider services for foster children and their families. Consider the blue ribbon commission that is helping to guide Los Angeles County back from fire.
Research helps shape this undertaking.
It also should, and does, highlight the mismanagement of resources intended to help children. Take, for instance, the account in this issue by Blueprint contributor Jon Regardie, who chronicles the efforts of researcher Lindsey Kunisaki to follow the money promised to children for arts programs. Kunisaki’s report cites wide disparities in how school districts take advantage of that money. The report’s recommendations may help bring the arts to children deprived of that learning.
Other researchers in related fields offer still more ways to protect and enrich children. Elizabeth Barnert has helped win passage of laws to guide police through the thicket of issues facing children who have been sexually exploited. Shannon Thyne is exploring the relationship between early childhood trauma and later damage to health.
And Reece Fong has translated his lifelong devotion to service into evidence-based conclusions that remind us of some human basics: Helping others brings children a sense of satisfaction and purpose. In this epoch of greed, self-interest and self-absorption, much of it radiating from the highest levels of American society, Fong’s findings suggest a better way of life.
These projects and their conclusions will not save all children, certainly not overnight. But they suggest a package of ideas: Support children in poverty, help rebuild their homes and schools, nurture their creativity and intellects, encourage their compassion, deliver them safely into adulthood. The world can be unforgiving — some in Washington have elevated spite and grievance into virtues — but the children we raise today will determine whether the world of tomorrow might be more merciful.
This work and those who perform it call attention to the struggles of the moment. They also supply hope for the future.
