May 2, 2025
IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE – AND IT NEVER SHOULD Every child should be safe from harm, but there is a special obligation to kids who are in the child welfare system because they were abused or neglected. It’s hard to forget the case, more than a decade ago,...
Apr 11, 2025
Philadelphia’s Child Welfare System Is Failing Children — It Must Be Reformed Now (April 11, 2025) Children First is heartbroken for the children and families failed by Philadelphia’s child welfare system, as revealed in this week’s Philadelphia Inquirer series on the...
Mar 21, 2025
BUILDING SAFER COMMUNITIES & BRIGHTER FUTURES Do children as young as ten years old end up shackled and in prison? In PA, yes, they do. Imagine seeing a 10-year-old lying on a bare floor in shackles. State Rep. Rick Krajewski from Philadelphia did. At a...
Jan 17, 2025
PHILLY COURTS DOUBLES DOWN ON LOCKING KIDS UP Just when we thought it was safe(r) to be a kid in Philadelphia, we learn that Philly locks up young people at a rate about four times the national average; more than New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. In our...
Jan 10, 2025
Children First Condemns Use of Youth Seclusion at the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center January 10, 2025 Children First is deeply disturbed by the findings in a recent Philadelphia Office of the Youth Ombudsperson (OYO) report on the use of seclusion at...
Jan 3, 2025
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE There is good news already this year for Philadelphia children and teens – fewer of them will be locked up and more of them are taking advantage of programs that brighten their futures. It hasn’t always been this way. When Mayor Parker...
