Share your story
What happens to what you send, who reads it, and what KARA will never publish.
If a child is in danger now
Stop here and call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline on 1-800-422-4453, or 911 if it is immediate. They are staffed around the clock and can tell you how reporting works in your state. If you are in crisis yourself, call or text 988.
KARA is an advocacy organisation. It cannot take a report, reach a caseworker, or intervene, and mail here is not read at three in the morning. The help pages set out who can do what.
With that said: the reason this site exists is that what happens to children in care mostly happens out of sight, and the accounts that reach the public are the exception. If you have one, KARA wants to hear it.
What happens to what you send
A person reads it. Nothing is published automatically, and nothing is published without asking you first, in writing, about that specific piece.
- Your name is yours. Say whether you want to be named, use a first name only, or stay anonymous. Anonymous is the default if you do not say.
- Children are not named. KARA does not name a child who was not already named in the public record, and does not publish photographs of children. That holds even if you send them.
- You can withdraw. At any point, before or after publication, without giving a reason, and KARA acts within seven days. That is the same rule that governs everything else here: the editorial policy.
Before you write
Two things worth weighing, because they are easier to think about now than to undo later.
Your account is yours to tell. The parts of it that belong to somebody else, a sibling, a parent, a child who is now an adult, are not, and they may read it. Write the part that is yours.
If a case is open, or a court has said something about what can be discussed, publication can affect it. KARA cannot advise you on that and would rather you asked someone who can, first.
How to send it
Email info@invisiblechildren.org. There is no form on this page on purpose: a form invites you to type something painful into a box and press a button, and this deserves to be a letter to a person who will write back.
Say what you want to happen with it. If you are not sure yet, say that too, and it will not be published while you decide.
If you would rather post it: KARA, 910 First Street So #4091, Hopkins, MN 55343.
Other ways this shows up
Not every account has to become a published piece. Some become part of what KARA takes to legislators, without names. Some change a toolkit, because they describe something the toolkit got wrong. Both count.