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Solhaven wants to reopen

4/8/2015

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It is with huge concern that the Danish group home Solhaven, which ran a WWASP like program for 20 years will reopen. They were forced to close due to a police investigation into possible abuse in the program. They were acquitted in a trial because based on the difference in the social status between the reputable citizens and the foster children who came from poor families. Social heritage matters – especially in Denmark.

At another group home a 15 year old girl was isolated in a cottage with a counselor. They had sex and the counselor received 60 days in jail. The evidence was a confession the girl had taped and sperm the girl had sampled from herself. The 60 days illustrate how the authorities look upon children from underprivileged children in foster care. 

At Solhaven the employees used force to control the teenagers. They accept that and the question in the trial was whether this use of force was illegal. The court found that it was an acceptable use of force. They also forced the teenagers to remain sitting on a wooden chair for many hours.

In relationship with the closure the local community lost 250 jobs. Basically there are not that many jobs to get in that area so the authorities who were given the task to supervise the facility had to balance the security and welfare of the children against the number of possible jobs in the local community.

Why did the case then get to the court when they so to say were protected by the local authorities? A number of policemen were issues a lot of gifts but fortunately for the children not every police officer were on the gift-list and it created jealousy at the police station. Some years ago the entire Danish police were undergoing a restructure which placed new officers in charge of the area. Officers not on the gift-list and not prepared to receive things in exchange for looking at another direction when problems with Solhaven occurred.

It started the case. It closed Solhaven. 250 people lost their jobs. Of course now where they were acquitted their lawyers have been harassing witnesses using the Diamond Ranch Academy method. They want to open again. The question is: Can they be monitored thorough so no foster children are put in harms way?

We don’t believe so. We will continue to watch them and alarm the authorities in Copenhagen so the local authorities in the community cannot protect the management.

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Charges brought forward in the case against the Danish group home Solhaven

3/25/2013

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The Danish police has charged 12 people with various acts of violence against the teenagers who had been sent to the facility named Solhaven in the Danish hamlet Farsoe by the authorities.

The teenagers were according to the charges exposed to violence and acts of humiliation by the employees.

The facility has fired the people charged with crimes. Officially due to the economy of the facility, but in reality to distance themselves from the charges the employees have been hit with.

Several of the charges are many years old and according to Danish laws acts of violence should have been reported to the authorities which are supposed to monitor such facilities. Numerous inspections have found nothing and because the area where the facility is located suffers from massive unemployment leaving it a major contributor to local jobs it is properly a question of putting support of local jobs over the interest of the children placed at the facility.

We will keep our readers updated on the situation.

Source:
12 tiltales for vold og tvang mod unge på døgninstitution (Politiken - article in Danish)


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Collapse of the Danish Efterskoler (Boarding schools)

8/12/2012

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With more than 9 schools closing this summer it seems that the Danish boarding schools known as “Efterskoler” roughly translated as continuation high schools will cease to be an alternative to the common student.

What went wrong for the boarding schools which had seen a 15 year row of steady increase in the number of students?

First and foremost they do not longer appeal to the general student population. They were quiet unique compared to foreign boarding schools. While many was specialized the general trend was that they were a place for emotional growth most like the therapeutic boarding schools in the United States but the difference was that the student population consisted almost 100 percent voluntary students.

Unlike the U.S. therapeutic boarding schools there was no escort firm transporting the students to the boarding schools in handcuffs. We were talking of motivated students seeking emotional growth.

Still the number of students dropped this year resulting in a huge number of schools closing. What was the reason for this dramatic turnaround?

The answer is simple. Like others the Danish students discovered that emotional growth has a price tag. You have to put a lot of effort into transforming yourself from the natural shy child mode into an adult person ready to address even larger groups of people. For many this transformation did cost them part of their personality and even some of the strength they should have relied upon later in life.

In a changing world opening you as a person does also mean that you expose yourself and become more vulnerable. Not every situation affords this. The 2010’s is not a decade allowing the students to take risks. They have to stay in business until they are almost 70 years of age before they are allowed to retire. Globalization means loss of jobs if you allow your talent or your knowledge to be shared. There are so many reasons to be a reserved and even be pre-intake about people you meet during life.

In an effort to address the trend of mainstream students choosing other alternatives some of the boarding schools made a huge mistake. They targeted minority groups.

The Danish youth culture is different than the one you see at the boarding schools. The finest tool of socializing is missing at the boarding schools. There is a ban on alcohol opposite the conditions the students can meet at every high school in Denmark where the Friday bar located on campus very fast becomes the center of communication among the students. Also in Danish firms sharing a beer or a glass of wine makes it out for 98 percent of human resource programs in the businesses. The association of Danish firms criticized the boarding schools for preparing the students for the business poorly. It was a message which hit the parents who finance the stay hard especially in a time where unemployment is high.

So while the strict environment with a ban on alcohol appealed to minority groups it didn’t appeal to families from the general population and not to the business sector.

Another mistake was the increased corporation with the Danish social services. The Danish parliament is working on real inspections of the children placed in group homes and foster families for the first time ever. This move has prompted a number of the group homes to re-categorize them as “Efterskoler” so they can avoid supervision and inspections because the boarding schools are only inspected for their academics – not by how they treat the students.

This move to avoid control by the authorities has not been unnoticed by various human rights organizations which have started a number of blogs and webpages set up to warn parents of future boarding school students.

The increased awareness did cost the boarding schools.

Social networks do also have an impact. For many of the students the emotional growth they experienced did only work while they were at the boarding school. Once they returned home without the support of their peers, they found themselves alone, isolated and in a position where they couldn’t return to the persons they were before they left the homes for the boarding schools.

Now the students can look groups of former students up and find out if the schools provided them with quality education or it was just empty air as result of the peer group dynamics only found at the schools. Schools like Holmstrup which cheated the students for a trip to Cuba couldn’t hide their failure for future students and had to close.

Last but not least some of the exercises used to put pressure on the students turned out to be outright dangerous and even life-threatening for the students. Some of the schools hired former soldiers suffering from various traumatic experiences while they were stationed abroad to direct these exercises. In the media several rescue missions where students had to be rescued was reported. For the students denial of participation in the exercises could be expulsion so the pressure was certainly on.

So there are a number of reasons for the sudden wave of schools closing for the last time. The question is whether the schools can regain their former strength.

The answer is no unless the Internet will be closed. Future students have access to all kind of information. They know in advance what they can expect and the product the boarding schools offer is not what the market – the families  - want.

Sources (In Danish)
Efterskoler truet af færre elever (TV2 Nord)


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Denmark - a foster care system broken down

7/18/2011

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We just got word that the police in South Zealand have decided to charge a foster care family who was living in the town of Mern of neglect and abuse. It is the final nail in a sick foster care system functioning totally outside any political control.

Last month it was revealed that a residential treatment facility named Herkules sent some of the children in their care to a subcontractor in Sweden where they received a special kind of wilderness therapy including being placed in alleged minefields and being forced to watch a false escape attempt where young actors pretended to have their fingers cut off and fed to dogs.

According to testimonies from now young adults who have been living a various foster care families and group homes all over Denmark the cases mentioned above are not single incidents. All too often the social workers back in their original town see a placement as "out of sight, out of mind". There are not good enough plans for the return to society. The children hardly receive education making them able to function as adult.

Reports are that every 14 day a kind of sexual attack will take place among the children. The people hired to work in the group homes are not educated to talk with the children about the abuse they suffer and it increases the possibility that the victims will become abuser over time.

Without proper supervision the foster care families and group homes have not only become warehouses where the children will be kept for an undisclosed period of their lives but also a place where the children will be hurt and scared for life.

The State of Denmark has around 14.000 children in their care. It is by far the highest number among the Nordic countries. It is with the cost of 13 billion DKK also the most expensive system among the Nordic countries. A recent report did show that there is no proof that a residential solution will work regardless of how it is put together.

What is worse is that there is no system supervising how the individual foster care family or group home is chosen. It increases the possibility for a high level of corruption. While Denmark doesn't make use of private paid educational consultants which is a line of work general known for their use of payment in return for referrals to certain boarding schools and residential treatment facilities, there are social workers who decides which group home will get the task without anyone getting an insight in what kind of circumstances which became the deciding factor when choosing a certain partner for the job.

We must urge the politicians in Denmark to demand a reconstruction of the entire system. In the case of the foster care family in Mern there had been complaints for almost an entire decade. It is not acceptable.

Danes! Demand justice for your children

Press-release from Domestic prisoners of conscience

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Up to 64 percent may be misplaced in the Danish Foster care system

6/4/2011

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A new report reveals that there are errors in 64 percent of the cases where Danish children are put into the foster care system. 

64 percent!

Where are the protests from the Danish citizens? It is their tax money which is put to use in a bad way. We are talking of a worn down foster care system where children are exposed of sexual orientated issues by other children every 14 day on average according to recent studies.

The answer is that the Foster system is victimized by trade unions and lobbyist organizations.

When the politicians ordered new treatment measures introduced and they resulted in fewer placements outside the families a massive wave of protests came. First and foremost the workers in the child protective services accused the politicians accused the politicians of neglecting the children just because they wanted to lower the entire budget. This unfounded claim was backed by the organization of group homes and therapeutic boarding schools in Denmark (LOS). Of course they are angry. It did cost them income and some of the group homes are already closed.

This campaign together with a case about a family in Broenderslev who allegedly neglected their children caused the politicians in our parliament over in Copenhagen to create tougher laws. These people who are normally out of touch with the normal population reduced the possibility of public access to case files, so people who are charged with child neglect have less possibility to learn about the case against them and the background of the so-called professional staff who is handling their case.

In the case of the family from Broenderslev no fewer than 3 towns had their child protection services to inspect the family. Two recommended that the children should stay with their parents, the last one in Broenderslev had the case-files on their desks for month not opening them hoping that the family would move on eventually. Still it was the town which had done most which ended up with the bill.

A forth town was also involved. The town of Ringsted had the girl living at one of their group homes and the girl wanted to go to her father and her stepmother. In the law it is required that the child protection services inspect the home before they can send a child home and they did - very thoroughly according to their testimonies.

So no less than 4 different departments oversaw this family and their slightest moves. Still they were able to make a case out of it and now it is damaging all families who are investigated. All parents are regarded as criminals despite the fact that everyone testified the opposite.

In the town of Frederikssund a girl was dragged to a group home because she survived cancer and her parents wanted to make her transition from the hospital to her old life slow and she was behind in school and somewhat truant because she was in the hospital hooked up to various equipment.

Please support families in the Danish foster care system by passing this message on.


Sources (Mostly in Danish):
Undersøgelse viser fejl i sagsbehandling ved anbringelser af børn (Ankestyrelsen)
Seksuelle overgreb på børn og unge på døgninstitution (Servicestyrelsen)

Trial underway in gruesome family abuse case (CphNews)
16-årig tvangsfjernet for "skadelig omsorg" (Sjaellandske Nyheder)
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