Today -- January 28, 2020 -- we presented an update on OTOK progress to a group of colleagues, collaborators, and top researchers at K-State in a gathering called Expressions of Strength.
For the second year, we are honored to be included in Arts & Sciences Book of K-State Expressions of Strength. Dean Chakrabarti takes this outstanding collection to Washington DC and visits/informs/educates legislators about our research and outcomes from these projects. The Dean asked me personally, what message do you want me to take with me?
I emphasized three things:
Youth are not little adults and need specialized care and services;
Kids in rural areas are often forgotten and neglected, placed out of the home simply to get services otherwise unavailable;
Kansas is moving in a positive direction by (a) drawing attention to the problem; (b) including local communities; and (c) removing juvenile services from corrections and placing it within a large umbrella of human services.
