The Screening of documentaries about some of the terrible fates that falls upon
millions of children,
is a very important element of this Film Festival.
We wanted to do more last festival, but this is the launch of an
annual subject area of the Festival, at least until no children have to run to the
streets,
live homeless, come near the dark
specter of suicide, wander and
wonder in their states of autism,
suffer the direct abuse of the abusers,
murders, pedophiles, or mad heartless persons that would
cause them harm...we
will have this a part of the festival until the millions that are in the foster
homes, jails, detention centers, state
hospitals, and locked in backwards are being cared for...the
Paso Digital Festival
will be dedicated to helping the film makers that venture into the
dark stories
showing The State and
Fate of Children and Youth in the USA and the World.
We also pay tribute to the film
makers that dare to bleed their heart's out in the process of making
a film about something that is
so sad and heartbreaking, and conditions so dark, that as a film maker,
one must have a calling
or passion to cover subjects so dark. However, so important,
because it is
these filmmakers that
will help educate the culture, the government, or anyone that can
help, if
only they knew.
SINGING HANDS OF PASO ROBLES, CALIFORNIA
they performed We Are The World and Hands Across
America for Mr. Ken Kragen,
and Children of the Night for Dr. Lois Lee and
Kathleen Quinlan...twas not a dry eye
in the room...and these kids were a very important
element of the special day...and gave
us all the hope we needed to tackle THE STATE AND
FATE OF CHILDREN
Festival Producer Benford
Standley and Ken Kragen
"It is harder to do the ordinary
than the impossible."
Children of the Night is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt
organization founded in 1979. We're dedicated to assisting
children between the ages
of 11 and 17 who are forced to prostitute on the streets for
food to eat
and
a place to sleep. Since 1979 we have rescued girls and boys from
prostitution and the domination of vicious pimps. And we provide
all programs with the support of private donations.
We
are making a difference in the lives of hundreds of children
each
year. Our commitment to rescuing these children from the ravages
of prostitution is shared with a small but committed group of
detectives,
FBI
agents, and prosecutors in Los Angeles, Hollywood, Santa Ana,
Anaheim, San Diego, other areas of California, Las Vegas,
Portland, Billings, Montana; Seattle, Washington; Miami, New
York, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Phoenix, Hawaii and Washington D.C.
— all stops on the child prostitution circuit. And our numbers
keep growing as more and more dedicated individuals become
concerned about the welfare of these desperate children.
The National Runaway Switchboard (NRS) serves as the
federally designated national communication system for
runaway and homeless youth. Recognized as the oldest
hotline of its kind in the world, NRS, with the support of
more than 150 volunteers, handles an average of 100,000
calls annually—more than 3 million calls since it's inception.
NRS provides crisis intervention, referrals to local resources,
and education and prevention services to youth, families and
community members throughout the country 24 hours a day,
365 days a year.
They were not able to attend, but please
support their work...
and we will work to have them at the next
Forum in 2010...
Founded in 1959 by Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, Childhelp®
is a leading national non-profit organization dedicated
to helping victims of child abuse and neglect. Childhelp’s
approach focuses on prevention, intervention and treatment.
Childhelp® National Child Abuse Hotline, 1-800-4-A-CHILD,
operates 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the
United States, Canada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and
Guam. Childhelp’s programs and services also include residential
treatment services (villages); children’s advocacy centers;
therapeutic foster care; group homes; child abuse prevention,
education and training; and the National Day of Hope®, part of
National Child Abuse Prevention Month every April. Several of
Childhelp’s programs were firsts, and continue to be studied by
professionals worldwide as "models that work."
To a hero of mine, a man that I met and feel that
is a
brother in arms in the war to help children and youth,
Mr. John Walsh...we love you, and may the
memory of Adam live forever and.
Ashley, Lance, Desiree, Benford and
Robby Standley
The Paso Digital Film Festival is Dedicated to my
4 kids, 3 grandkids, and our Nation's Youth
Here you can see WHY
I READ THE
NEWS TODAY...OH BOY!!!
New Findings Reinforce the Urgency of Autism as a Major Public Health
Crisis, Requiring Intensified Action from the Public and Private Sectors
NEW YORK, NY (October 5, 2009) Autism Speaks, the nation's largest
autism science and advocacy organization, today responded to a new study
published in
the American Academy of Pediatrics' journal Pediatrics that
found a parent-
reported autism prevalence rate of one in every 91
American children, including
one in 58 boys. The most recent ASD
prevalence estimate reported by Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) in
2007 was approximately one in 150 (including one
in 94 boys), making
autism the most prevalent childhood developmental disorder. Autism
Speaks said the new findings reinforced the fact that autism is an
urgent
and growing public health crisis that affects most individuals
across their lifespan
and demands a commensurate level of action from
both the public and private sectors.
One of every 50 American children experiences homelessness, according to
a new report that says
most states have inadequate plans to address the
worsening and often-overlooked problem.
the best ranking. Texas is at the bottom.
"These kids are the innocent victims, yet it seems somehow
or other they
get left out," said the center's president, Dr. Ellen Bassuk. "Why are
they America's outcasts?"
The report analyzes data from 2005-2006. It estimates that 1.5 million
children experienced home-
lessness at least once that year, and says the
problem is surely worse now because of the foreclosures
and job losses
of the deepening recession.
"If we could freeze-frame it now, it would be bad enough," said
Democratic Sen. Robert Casey of
Pennsylvania, who wrote a
foreword to
the report. "By end of this year, it will be that much worse."
1.1 million
incarcerated persons are parents to an estimated 2.3 million children.
(U.S. Bureau of Justice stats)
160,000 kids and teens a day stay home from school because of
bullying.
Demi Lovato PSA - National Bullying Prevention Week and
TeensAgainstBullying.org
According to the AFCARS Report (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting ystem Report),
there were 513,000 in the foster care system on September 30, 2005 in the United
States. The could possibly be one million now..
Homicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among
youth aged 10–24
years in the United
States.
Violence is also a major cause of nonfatal injuries
among youth.
No state is immune
to the
devastating impact of youth violence.
STATS RUN FROM 1.5 MILLION TO 3 MILLION CHILDREN AND
In another recent survey in Massachusetts, almost 1 in 5 female
high-school students said they had experienced physical and/or sexual
violence in a dating relationship
It is a Chicago public school full of energy and spirit. It has about
800 girls, and 115 of them have something in common – something you
might find disturbing. THEY
ARE PREGNANT.
(CBS/AP) A day after laying Shaniya
Davis to rest, the 5-year-old girl's aunt blasted the justice system for
providing her alleged rapist and murderer with a better quality of life
than many Americans have. "We have a lot of people … [who
have] lost their jobs, who don't have health care, even children that
are in homes don't get three square meals a day. But this man sits with
guards protecting him, he's receiving free medical, free meals," Carey
Lockhart-Davis said on CBS' "The Early Show" Monday.
Mario McNeill has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree
rape of a child. Authorities say Davis was strangled to death.
The 29-year-old McNeill was charged previously with kidnapping, with
authorities saying he took Davis from her Fayetteville home. Her body
was found Monday in thick underbrush off a rural North Carolina road
after searchers spent nearly a week looking for her.
The girl's mother, Antoinette Davis, is charged with trafficking her
daughter and child abuse involving prostitution.
The figures are devastating. At any one time on the Internet it is
estimated there are around three quarters of a million predators
searching for sites featuring child pornography. The UN Special
Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography, Najat Maalla M’jid in a report to the latest session of the
Human Rights Council says, “there is more and more child pornography on
the Internet, becoming what is today a very profitable business, with a
worldwide market value estimated at billions of dollars.”
According To Coalition For The Homeless,
More Than 16,000 Children Were In Shelters By End Of September
Mary Brosnahan, longtime executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless
used the city's own data, and says homelessness has been
increasing each of the
last five years, and currently is at an all-time high. At the end of September,
10,494 homeless families lived in shelters,
including 16,615 homeless children.
"What does that mean for those children, and their future? That they will spend
a substantial amount of their childhood …
in a homeless shelter?" asked Bill de Blasio, the chairman of the City Council General Welfare Committee.
Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is widespread in U.S. cities
and constitutes "America's dirty little secret,"
said survivor Theresa Flores during NBC's The Today Show this morning. She will
be featured on the MSNBC special,
"Sex Slaves: The Teen Trade,"
One in every 6 boys will
be sexually molested by 16 years of age, and 93% know their attackers.
Reporting from
Washington - More than a month after the FBI announced it had rescued 52
children from "sexual slavery"
in a nationwide
crackdown on child prostitution, none of the victims is receiving the help
experts say is necessary to overcome
such trauma and rejoin
society. Experts underscore that sex-trafficking victims struggle to find
the care they need once they
escape from an industry
that may involve at least 100,000 children in the U.S.
Lois Lee, founder
of a 24-bed Los Angeles shelter called Children of the Night, sees the problems
firsthand." When America's
child prostitutes are
identified by the FBI or police, they are incarcerated for whatever reason
possible, whether it be an unrelated
crime or 'material
witness hold,' " she said. "Then they are dumped back in the dysfunctional
home, ill-equipped group home or
foster care, and [often]
disappear back into the underground of prostitution with no voice."
