Since 1994
Three decades of KARA's work, 1994 to today.
Three decades of direct work with kids at risk: from David Strand and Mike Tikkanen's first CASA volunteer guardian ad litem cases to today.
1994
David Strand sworn in as a court-appointed Hennepin County CASA volunteer guardian ad litem. Active through 1997.
1996
Mike Tikkanen sworn in as a Hennepin County court-appointed CASA volunteer guardian ad litem. Active through 2012.
1998
Initial Invisible Children / KARA board formation meetings.
1999
The Invisible Children book project begins.
2000
invisiblechildren.org founded by active CASA volunteer guardians ad litem Mike Tikkanen and David Strand, together with Bob Olson, Larry Walker, and Joe McCarthy.
2001
Regular monthly board meetings begin. Programs and policies take shape.
2002
Public speaking launched on child protection and abuse to churches and community organizations.
2003
Presentation to the Women's Prison Warden Annual Conference, Bloomington, Minnesota.
2004
Introduction to Dr. David McCollum, a founding member of avahealth.org.
2005
Invisible Children published.
2006
Harmony Award from Bethel College for community efforts. First monthly printed newsletter.
2007
IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit certification received. Presentation at the United Nations Youth Assembly, New York.
2008
Brutal Truths and Best Practices public forum, Century College.
2009
KARA's first fundraising campaign.
2010
Mike becomes a founding board member of CASAMN.
2011
KARA presentation at Indiana Foster Care after Governor Mitch Daniels eliminated funding.
2012
Reno CASA Annual Conference presentation.
2013
Mike and David become founding board members of Friends of Children.
2015
Interviews for TPT film documentary partnership.
2016
Presentations to metro police chiefs and suburban Rotaries.
2017
One thousand blog and newspaper article milestone reached.
2018
250 public presentations reached.
2019
Design and launch of Invisible Children Campus Conversations at the St. Cloud State Law Enforcement and Social Work Annual Conference.
2021
First two FinLit peer group pilot programs launched, and online book draft initiated.
2022
Third FinLit peer group launched.
2022–2024
Multiple campus conversations held at various Minnesota colleges.
2023
Launch of the CASA free Google Ad Grant program.
2024
Wisconsin CASA Conference presentation. CASAMN signed on to the Google Ad Grant program.
2025
Program launched for an interactive AI-driven national child abuse and child protection information and solutions platform.
Source: KARA SIGNAL’s history record. For the full data platform, see kara-signal.netlify.app/about/history.