By Sara Quam
A national speaker will bring to light some of Rock County's own issues at 7 p.m. in the elementary school commons.
Robin Karr-Morse's speech is for parents, future parents, government leaders and anyone in the community who works with children or is interested in their development.
Karr-Morse's presentation is based on her 30 years of experience in the child welfare and public education systems, as a family therapist and in designing statewide family programs.
Those who picked up tickets before the June 18 deadline will be treated to a meal, qualify for door prizes and have access to free child care.
Anyone with or without tickets can attend the presentation. And for those unable to attend, Karr-Morse shared some of her message with the Star Herald.
A future with hope
Troubling national news about young killers or violent children may leave Rock County residents shocked but not necessarily alarmed about their own youth.
But Rock County certainly isn't immune to those problems as it spends almost $200,000 a year on out-of-home placements. The county has to pay for treatment or housing of children as a result of either abusive or neglectful parents or by illegal or harmful actions on the child's
part.
The cost issue is just part of Karr-Morse's message. She said, "We're paying double what it would cost for preventative measures. There's a big gap in children's social policy at the front end of life."
Karr-Morse uses a metaphor to describe what communities are doing to help troubled children: A woman is walking near a river and hears cries for help. She races to the water to find a child struggling to survive the currents and pulls the child out to safety. But there are more cries for help and soon the entire community is fishing children out of the water rather than going upstream to stop them from falling in.
"We've built bigger ambulances, with brighter lights, bigger doors and more capacity," she said. "But no one is stopping them from needing the ambulance."
Karr-Morse said that one in 20 children born today will spend some time in the criminal justice system. Incarceration costs per person are about $35,000 per year per individual. A home visiting program would cost about $2,500 per year per child.
The problem, Karr-Morse said, is that "we're hitting them when they get in kindergarten and first grade and overlooking the most crucial time of development."
That most crucial time of development is the first nine months and the following 24 months after birth. She uses scientific evidence as well as case studies and personal research to back up her theories.
Until the last decade the only information scientists could gather about the brain were from autopsy and animal studies. Now with the advent of specialized scans, brains are studied more than ever.
Karr-Morse said that many people have instinctively known that the earliest months of life form the foundation for trust, empathy, conscience and lifelong learning and brain development. Now science has backed up that hunch with facts.
Humans are born with brains weighing about 25 percent of what they will at full weight. By age 2, the brain has grown to be 90 percent of its capacity weight. Karr-Morse compared that to some primates whose brains are 60 percent of their weight at birth.
"The brain, unlike the liver or kidney or any other organ. is literally designed to require input from outside the body," Karr-Morse said. "It's a dynamic organ."
Karr-Morse wants social policies to change - to include programs like home visits for first-time parents. She acknowledges that government programs aren't the entire solution. She also cautions that new programs shouldn't be set aside for welfare recipients because families of all income levels are lacking skills. Making new efforts communitywide will prevent any stigma from being attached to programs.
During her long career in fields related to children, Karr-Morse has seen a cycle of abuse, neglect or ineptitude follow some families.
But even after seeing a seemingly endless struggle, Karr-Morse said, "There's so much hope if we can put the money where it's important."
She speaks in two to three cities a week and still has a private family therapy practice in Oregon. She is a mother, stepmother, adoptive mother, former foster parent and grandmother. She is also co-author of "Ghosts From the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence."
She became known to Rock County after speaking at the 1999 Association of Minnesota Counties convention in which County Commissioners heard her speak and gave her outstanding reviews.