Karen Jimenez, Erika Arrieta, Valery Gomez, Alexis Ross, and Yazmin Reyes
Brief Overview:
Help4Kids is the distributor of the One Step Closer and One Step Closer Pro bracelet which we hope will minimize/completely eliminate the abuse children receive in the foster care system when they are placed into a home. We hope that by holding foster parents accountable through the bracelets it will decrease the abuse a child experiences throughout their foster care journey.
Help4Kids Presentation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VBHS3Cjsunxg5DITcL194YLRtcvjzax8/view?usp=sharing
https://aross977.wixsite.com/help4kids
11 comments:
What is foster care? When a child has been neglected in some type of way, social services can take the children out of the home and place them into a group home with a certified caregiver known as a foster parent.Why do kids get placed into foster care? Children get placed into foster care because their parent is “unfit” or there was some sign of neglect. An estimated 89,000 children were placed in foster care without finding any abuse or neglect.
The largest percentage of reasons why children get placed into foster care is because of substance abuse, approximately 571,000 kids. What is neglect according to Child Abuse and Neglect in Federal Law? “Child neglect is a form of child abuse, and is a deficit in meeting a child's basic needs, including the failure to provide adequate health care, supervision, clothing, nutrition, and housing .” (Wikipedia/Google) The issues with foster care placements is that the kids get placed in a home and then there is a 25 percent chance they will not get abused or mistreated. The kids also lose this thing called “attachment” where they find a person they trust at a young age, which is very important for young kids to have, and because they get sent to one foster home after the other. Before kids get put into the foster care system, about 75 percent of kids are sexually abused, and more than 11 percent mistreated. In America 0.73 percent or 530,000 of kids have been abused in some way. Sadly the kids think this type of treatment is normal so they never speak up about any type of abuse. The information of foster care systems is very narrow because of this. There are many consequences of foster care, including lack in education, they lack childhood experiences, attachment, they are scared to be close to people, and they are more likely to drink and do drugs.
Here is the solution to bring safety to the kids and to try and prevent abuse and neglect. The One Step Closer bracelet. It depends on your heart rate. The One Step closer is for babies and the One Step Closer Pro is for the older children. It has a heart rate monitor to keep up with the heart rate of the kids. It will also come with a microphone so that the social worker can hear all conversation, and if something seems wrong it will let the social worker know. The microphone will prevent confusion if there is suspicion. The social worker will also have an app on their phone for the One Step Closer bracelets and video accessibility. There is also a tracing device on the bracelet. The Pro will run from $50-$55 and the regular one for babies will run from $30-$35, and the set is $100-$115. They can come customized so that the children can enjoy them. This group hopes that this will somehow prevent babies and children from being abused in the foster care systems.
I really enjoyed watching Help 4 Kids present their project. I am familiar with a few people that are in the foster care system and I know a few adults that take children in out of the system and I never would have imagined some of the statistics associated with foster care. I was so shocked about the number of cases that involve some sort of abuse. Also, I could not believe the top reasons children are sent into the foster care system. It is hard to believe some of the drastic lives some young children have to endure at such a young age. Looking at those studies really made me reflect on how grateful I am to have my parents and family. Similarly, those studies make me want to join a movement to help change some of the lives of some of those innocent children stuck in that system.
Therefore, you can imagine how excited I was to hear about their solution to the problem. A watch that can monitor young children in the system seems like a great idea. I can only imagine the level of stress a child’s body goes through when they are abused, so a watch that can monitor them in real life time could totally help their issue. Similarly, the watch has many features that were very impressive. The panic button is great because it gives the child a for sure way that they have help on the way. Next, the microphone in the watch is great idea, simply because you don’t want to have false alarms when monitoring the children.
Although, I know this is a prototype I have some concerns. My first concern was the watch itself. It could simply be too much for a child to want to wear because it identifies them as a foster child. A good idea would be to scale it down to like a bracelet or just allow this system to be able to download into to watches that people already wear, such as Apple Watches. My next concern is that it can be taken off so easily. Because child predators are sometimes aware of things like that and while the watch could scare them away, they may also know all they have to do is take the watch off and get rid of it. Overall, this was a great project and hopefully something like this is already being created.
This presentation really opened my eyes to the travesties of the human race. It takes a messed up person to abuse a foster child. I was completely shocked by some of the statistics such as: As many as 75 percent of all children in foster care, upon leaving the system, will have experienced sexual abuse. Additionally, according to child welfare workers, 11 percent of all such cases of mistreatment involve sexual abuse. After reading these statistics, it really made me want to act and solve this terrible problem.
I feel as if the group did a great job with their solution. A tracking monitor similar to a fitbit was what I had in mind before they revealed the product to our audience. The "One Step Closer" bracelet is presented in a sleek, sophisticated design. The product looked great and seemed like it would help. However, I am unsure of how marketable the product is. I think the thought of a 24/7 monitoring device would significantly reduce the foster parents interest in fostering a child. Additionally, this could be considered a serious infringement upon personal privacy. Finally, I am unsure of how scale-able the product is. In the presentation it seemed like the social worker was given a lot of responsibilities. In implementation, the company might want to consider more automation software. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the presentation and the product. We need to be thinking of some ideas that can change the world like this. Well done.
The foster care system is so broken, yet no one seems to really care. I remember reading a book someone who got insight into the system. The book was assigned to me in my 112 English Comp class in my Freshman year of college. Sadly, I do not remember the title of the book, but I do remember all of the disturbing stories that the book told
The book showed how even parents who actually took good care of their children, got their kids taken away. Sometimes case workers confuse poverty with neglect. The line is blurred between poverty and neglect, so this leads to many poor kids getting pulled out of their families and placed into even worse situations. The kids may even be placed into houses where they will be abused, and that is where the product from the project comes into play
The “One Step Closer” bracelete is a great product that is capable of stopping neglect and violence towards the kids in the system. The product might lower the number kids that are mistreated while they are in the foster care system, but why not try to fix all of this at the core? I believe that the best thing to do would be to reinvent the entire foster care system as a whole. It is better to fix it at the core than just trying to prevent one segment of it. Yeah, the bracelet might stop the abuse, but will it prevent kids torn away from their completely safe and capable families? The product only breaks down one wire in the birdcage.
One thing that can be done to help everyone is hire more case workers. Hiring more case workers will allow them to get more personal and delve deeper into every case that they are assigned. This will lead to less kids being taken out of their capable homes and forced into terrible living situations since there will be more time spent on every case. The decision will no longer be rushed because the worker will not have to worry about all of the other cases. But maybe the system cannot afford to hire and pay all of the workers.
We honestly just need to completely renovate the system. We need to find a way to find better foster parents, find the kids who are truly being neglected and abused, and find a way to have case workers spend more time on their cases.
Your presentation opened many eyes that the foster care system is corrupt. The idea developed would save children from evil of abuse. You said in your presentation that 75% of children in foster care are sexually abused. I looked up that statistic because I was blown away by the fact. It was from another blog relating to the source you had in your project. Though it is not your fault, the statistic doesn't correlate with the main source. Though I did find other statistics in the same source that somewhat backs up that statistic, so even though it might not be 75%, I do believe overall abuse is increased in these foster homes due by the fact the over watch system can't oversee all the children coming in and out of these homes. The system you implement is a great way to keep track of children and to protect children from abuse. Though I don't think it's a realistic solution at this point, though you all are on the right path. Children are not the biggest fan of having a watch on. Especially while they sleep which is when most children are sexual abused. It would almost like punishment to have children forced to wear the watch all day and night, even though it is protecting them. Yes, you can tell them that you're trying to protect them, but you have some of these kids are young, and can’t grasp the idea about the watch and its objective. Though the idea of such technology put into the watch sounds great, I don’t think it’s the best solution. I believe if it was developed in a way that’s not noticeable to a child, it would work. Lastly, kids are kids, they are going to play and such. They are going to trigger the alert system several times throughout the day either by increase heart rate/respiration or accidentally pushing the "danger" button. It would be hard to keep tabs on several kids with several alarms going off all throughout the day and night. Overall the idea is good, you all are absolutely right about the foster system, it is broken, I believe that with some fixes to the product it would be a great system. Children should not have to live through a system that is this broken, and for some to be continually abused after leaving an abusive home beforehand. Hopefully the system will change and become more efficient to over watching children in these homes, and also implementing this system to add more security for these kids.
This presentation was very good. I enjoyed hearing about a solution to a very prevalent issue. This is an issue that has been completely swept under the rug. I’m glad that it has been brought to light with these outrageous, statistics. It was very saddening to hear about the unethical foster care system that has been maintained. I had previously heard about the uncanny situations that had been taking place such as neglect, rape, and mistreatment. I had seen the story represented in movies. However, I didn’t realize how normalized it was in the foster care system. Children are placed in foster care to attain a better life from trustworthy individuals. Children are entirely too precious and innocent to have to endure such harsh behavior. Teens shouldn’t have to deal with this either and should be treated with respect and valued as people. It’s ridiculous that 75% of people in foster care are sexually assaulted. It is also saddening that many won’t come forward and stand against what happened to them. That is because the assault had been continuously done so the victims feel that is normal. Social workers wouldn’t be able to help if they don’t know the core issues. I’ve seen movies that depicted the foster parents as upstanding people only in front of the social worker. This is why I love the solution of the One Step Closer bracelets. With the One Step Closer bracelets, social workers would be able to monitor the children’s heart rate. That’s because heart rate increases because the body reacts to anxiety and high stress levels. Social workers would be able have access to their children daily, which is what is needed. The only thing that makes the bracelet risky is that children are prone to remove items like that daily. However, if they understood the importance of it they may value it.
I will agree that Help4Kids is a good moral problem to try and create a solution for, but I think there are a lot of flaws surrounding the whole idea of having children wear bracelets to be under constant monitoring. I mean first off, I think trusting children to not pick at the watch or take it off is a stretch when it comes to long term wear. If the kids find it uncomfortable they will take it off, especially young children. Young children will not truly understand the necessity behind wearing the bracelet and if they feel the urge to take it off they will. Then the question is, do you punish the parent for the children taking them off? Because an incentive for the foster parent to make them wear the watch would be to avoid punishment (of whatever sorts), and you can’t punish them for doing something outside of their sight. Plus, asking for constant monitoring by the foster parent would also be very extreme. I feel like the bracelet is an invasion of privacy and might decrease the amount of people who want to be foster parents. Not only is there that, there’s also this sense of segregation like Dr. J brought up. I doubt that there will be a mass movement of killing off foster kids, but there easily could be an avoidance by kids who are not foster. If there is an avoidance this could lead to bullying and feelings of superiority towards kids in the foster system. The bullying will nurture insecurities in foster kids and then would they really be better off with the bracelet? Now, moving past the issues caused toward the child, what about all the pressure set on the social worker who is assigned to monitor the rate of the child’s heart beat and the task of constantly listening in to see if the child is safe? It seems like a lot to ask of a social worker. I mean I know they get paid like crap and most people who go into social work do it for the sake of helping and that’s not what i’m targeting. See, the target of my issues resides in the inability for a social worker to keep up with the child. Plus, they aren’t just assigned one child, so how do they tackle dozens of children at once? Maybe in the future, as the product progresses to acceptance by the foster care system, there can be a facility that is assigned to specifically monitor the children and then inform the social worker when they believe that somethings up. Just some food for thought.
A desired and needed factor of American life, perhaps even globally speaking, foster care is a topic that needs to be re-discussed, and I believe your presentation does an excellent job at outlining not only the problem, but also a potential answer. The staggering amount of neglect that foster children face is certainly absurd, and I find myself battling with whether or not the foster system should exist at all if the conditions children are being put in are, in the end, no better than their original homes. Of course, this project brought me hope that there is something to be done.
To monitor would-be foster children is no doubt a useful and benevolent idea, to protect an age group that is incapable of defending itself. However, I worry that what little privacy foster children do have in their lives may be taken away by this product. Now, I am not suggesting that their privacy takes more precedence than their security, but I wonder how many of these children would agree with that statement, and how many more would think the armband truly capable of defending them in a dangerous situation. The suggested measure is quite similar to “Life-Alert”, in the regard that it necessitates user-interaction to ensure the emergency services are able to respond. The delay feature and constant minoring by a social-worker has me further unconvinced of such a likelihood as a person being assigned 24/7 to look at a child’s vitals and to gauge fluctuations to determine their immediate danger, let alone having multiple microphones pouring out audio. If the issue remains that it is a problem of being under-staffed or over-worked social workers, would this system not just compound those issues? Nevertheless, it is an admirable task, and the potential remains for this product to instead be connected to emergency services. Because at the very least, if a child understands what danger is, and they had the ability to call for help, they could be rescued from immediate danger.
Perhaps by integrating this product into a larger effort aimed at reforming the foster-care system, you could make marked improvements to the lives of many foster children. I now find myself concerned with this social topic, and think you did a good job in conveying the importance of monitoring these high-risk demographics.
Help for Kids is an amazing solution for child abuse in the foster care system. I was appalled at the numbers showing how many kids were physically and sexually abused in the system. I personally know friends and family in the system but they never go into debt on how bad it is. Even though you can tell it has taken a toll on their life. The bracelet is a good solution but I honestly do not know if it is realistic or not. Because kids heart beats fluctuate all the time and what if they are playing? Even if it does work how would you address the abuse problem? Will you send the foster kids parent to jail? What will happen to the foster children when that happens? Where will they go? This is just questions that will need to be addressed.
This project is a very nice idea. The thought that this device, the bracelets, could save a child from the pain and suffering of abuse is wonderful. I had no idea that abuse in the foster system was such an issue, and to think that there is no better place for these children to stay is horrible. This device will hopefully give the children the opportunity to no live in fear. On the downside of this device I believe that the foster parents could use the bracelet to make it seem like the child is the unruly and bad one. Even if the device is able to record the foster parents abusing a child, who says that anything will even be done, whose job is it to monitor these things and make sure that the foster parent is fired and or put into jail?
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