Kids Helping Kids: A Cincinnati Beacon/Real Talk Live Ongoing Investigation
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
2-11-2006
Yesterday, Derrick Blassingame and I drove out to the Kids Helping Kids facility in Milford, Ohio to talk with the protesters and to see what we could learn about the allegations of abuse. What we found were a group of people concerned about the well-being of young people, and a very strange complex hidden from public view filled with workers behaving suspiciously.
We have decided that this issue is important, and that we should do our part to keep the story alive. We’re talking about children here, and I think that trumps political affiliation, or “news of the day.” We have a lot of material: this week we will look over our tapes, and we will broadcast some on Real Talk Live next Friday. Then the rest will be archived online here at The Beacon.
For now, however, I want to share some observations about the facility itself, and an audio file of William Earnshaw from ISAC Corporation talking about their work to force KHK to adhere to certain licensing guidelines.
Firstly, I’d like to emphasize the strange placement and design of the facility itself. The place is surrounded by businesses like tool shops, car repair centers, and a public storage facility. There is no signage to indicate the KHK location—just a lonely driveway winding behind the public storage facility.
But here is the strange thing: if you follow this driveway until you finally get to see the building, you will notice that the architecture is designed to merge with the public storage. The design of the industrial warehouse siding matches almost perfectly with KHK’s neighbor. From the street, you would never guess at the facility’s identity. You would think it more storage.
Why such secrecy?
When we walked into the lobby of KHK, no one was willing to comment on the the protesters. When we started to read a large sign on the lobby’s wall entitled “2004 Contributors,” we were told to leave their private property immediately.
One component of the KHK treatment is to separate children from their parents indefinitely. (Hopefully, in the upcoming weeks, some survivors will write their experiences so we can post that information first-hand. I will also try to digitize our radio interview with a survivor and post it soon.) Those newly enrolled are evaluated, screamed at, and physically abused by untrained teeenagers who are also part of the “rehabilitation.”
Then, in evenings, these kids are forced to go live at a “host home,” which means staying with complete strangers—with no contact to the outside world.
According to William Earnshaw, these “host homes” are foster homes—and they should be licensed as such.
Listen to Earnshaw discuss his organizations recent work to force KHK to comply with licensing guidelines, and KHK’s refusal to comply so far: Click Here.