Rethink Resources

I found three great examples of community efforts organizing for change. A group protested potential cuts in city funding for a crucial harm reduction tool - “crack kits.” The kits are designed to reduce HIV and hepatitis transmission, especially from burns that result with stems that heat up too fast.

Another group is calling out an international agency for ignoring the role of drug use in HIV infection rates and disparaging harm reduction efforts like syringe exchange that have been proven to reduce HIV transmission. And a group of foster care youth in Iowa are working with law students to change a policy to ensure siblings in foster care can visit each other regularly if they are placed in separate homes.

On the sex trade front, here in Milwaukee, news media have tripped up on one of the many websites devoted to men who buy sex rating those who sell sex.

And the inquest in Winnipeg on Tracia Owens’ death continues. She was a 14 year old Aborginal youth who became involved in the sex trade and took her own life. Agency workers responsible for her foster care placements didn’t know and didn’t realize that she was at high risk of being involved in the sex trade (even though Canada has measures to try and determine that) although she was placed in over 65 different placements.

Just so everyone knows - yes, being placed in over 65 different foster care placements before you turn 15 years old puts you at risk for being in the sex trade.

links for this week:

Foster Children, Students Work to Pass Sibling Visitation Law (Iowa) Wednesday, February 28, 2007 Law school students and faculty at Drake University are trying to improve children’s rights in Iowa by trying out a novel idea — asking foster children themselves what laws need to be changed to better protect them, and then enlisting those foster children to lobby lawmakers to pass that legislation.

Men Log on to “Rate” Prostitutes (Milwaukee) Wednesday, February 28, 2007 The Web site heaven-or-hell.com allows men in the Milwaukee area to rate prostitutes. The site has almost 4,000 members who grade prostitutes in southeastern Wisconsin on their looks, attitude and sexual performance.

UN drug watchdog ignores HIV, rights groups say (United Nations) Tuesday, February 27, 2007 The U.N. drug control watchdog is hindering efforts to fight the global AIDS pandemic and the agency should be independently reviewed, human rights groups and a former U.N. AIDS envoy said on Tuesday.

No sign troubled girl was ‘high risk’: inquest (Winnipeg) Thursday, February 22, 2007 Tracia Owen was not considered a “high risk” child when she was moved to her final placement at a Winnipeg care facility, according to testimony heard Wednesday at the inquest into the 14-year-old’s suicide.

Protesters urge city not to cut crack-kit funds (Ottawa) Monday, February 19, 2007 “Crack kits save lives” was the simple chorus of about 25 protesters who paced in front of City Hall with bristol board signs, noisemakers and a megaphone Monday afternoon.