Miscellaneous
Tonight's special guest is Mike Tikkanen from Hopkins, Minnesota, a returning NAASCA family member, founder and President of KARA (Kids at Risk Action), a non-profit action tank that supports the people, policies, and programs that improve the lives of at-risk children. Tonight Mike would like to catch us up with a couple new projects. First of all, he's talking ACES and childhood trauma to law enforcement students and police officers – colleges and cops - teaching them about trauma. Secondly, KARA is providing app based & telemed mental health services for at risk youth, powerful new tools for people suffering from the impact of trauma. In addition Mike report he's still working on his PSA program. Mike is unapologetically and passionately committed to improving the lives of at risk children. We recommend his book: 'Invisible Children: Pre-Teen Mothers, Adolescent Felons, and What We Can Do About It'. It's an uncomfortably close look at the American cycle of abuse and its cost. Mike explains, "The need for civic involvement of young future community leaders is the solution to America’s 'At Risk Youth' problem. Without today’s college students understanding and support, schools will continue to fail, streets to be unsafe, and jails to fill." Mike has been the keynote speaker at business, community, and religious organizations. Since 1996, he’s volunteered in the Guardian Ad-Litem program as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and has worked with many 'Invisible Children' who are part of the County Child Protection System.