Patrick McCarthy

Lisa Hamilton has been named the next CEO of the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), one of the nation’s most active grant makers on both child welfare and juvenile justice issues.

Stressful times push people to the limits. For many young people, stress comes from tuition bills, roommates who are late on rent, and job interviews that might have gone better with the right degree or certificate in hand.

In the first of three presidential debates, Donald Trump reminded viewers about the unfortunate comments Hillary Clinton made in 1996 about a rising tide of violent youth. Clinton’s comment, made at an event in New Hampshire: “America is now home to thickening ranks of juvenile ‘super-predators’ – radically impulsive, brutally remorseless youngsters, including ever more pre-teenage boys, who murder, assault, rape, rob, burglarize, deal deadly drugs, join gun-toting gangs and create serious communal disorders.

She didn’t provide the kind of neatly-wrapped, unequivocal stuff of memes. But Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason, facing unemployment in a few months, essentially threw Justice Department support behind the movement to eliminate large juvenile justice facilities in the United States.

by Patrick McCarthy and Gary Stangler Over the past two decades, we’ve learned a lot about how best to help families and children when they come into contact with the child welfare system — and we’ve learned what doesn’t work.

On June 24th, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its Kids Count Data Book, which tracks national and state data on key indicators of children’s well being. Over the past 24 years Kid’s Count and its revelations about the economic well being of families, education, health and the communities where children live have been followed by a mushrooming of media attention.