04/03/2024
Attention family
I know it's been a long time since I really updated you on the happenings behind the scenes with Crowd Proud but that is exactly my intention today. First I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the team, and my partner Tyler Reedy.
Tyler joining the team has changed everything for this organization. The skills that he brought to the table have surpassed my expectations .
With both feet, he jumped right into our fight. Never second-guessing his decision to join us Tyler continues to fight for families who are voiceless, who are afraid, and those who are being irreversibly broken.
Speaking of skills Tyler is a very skilled writer and because of his ability to lay all the cards on the table with his words we have made some significant progress. The passionate conversations that Tyler and I have on behalf of our families lead to his writing. He has a very unique ability to understand us. And he's done an amazing job with telling our story on paper. We are truly blessed to have him and want him to know how much we love him.
My plan with this organization was to create a family who alone has no power but together we're stronger than the mightiest. I do believe at this point we are definitely working towards that goal. I've never been more proud of the position we are in than I am today and I just want to see us continue to grow as a family united that will not be divided.
I decided today I would share with all of you some of Tyler's work with us in the last few months. These are all Snippets from recent letters that were sent to different agencies pertaining to the clients that we work for. I hope you enjoy the context of these letters because they are an example of what we do everyday fighting for families to stay United and for the rights of all of us.
Excerpt 1
Is this the time for CYS to learn from its mistake and return these children to their mother and their home before one more holiday or special occasion is spent apart? Or is CYS once again doomed to fail because it always does what is wrong under the disguise of what its victims are coerced to believe is right?
Excerpt 2
If CYS lacks the capacity and know-how to correct this wrong and continues to habitually violate X’s rights, Crowd Proud and its partners will help you learn from your failed history and make sure you don’t repeat it.
Excerpt 3
When families are abused psychologically and/or physically by a school, an agency, an organization, an individual, or any other person or entity in a position of power over adults and more so over children, due diligence, planning, and accountability must be at the forefront of every action and decision. Some potentially irreversible damage is happening to X’x family. The people inflicting the damage are not living the consequences, but those same people can revisit their actions, stop any additional damage, and help us facilitate the healing for this family.
Excerpt 4
An error, be it an intentional error, was made when X’s children were taken from them and from their home nearly six months ago. During those six months, X has been at your beckon call, she has completed Parenting, she has participated willingly in every drug and alcohol evaluation, she has changed her work schedule to accommodate your demands; yet she continues to be without her children. More importantly, her children are without their mother. Your demands have been followed, but you refuse to release the hostages. This is known to most people as something we call a crime.
Excerpt 5
Winston Churchill famously rephrased a Spanish philosopher’s words and said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Today in 2023, we must not allow those in position of so-called power who fail to learn from history to use that power repeatedly to foster and perpetuate a doomed life for individuals, parents, children, and/or families.
Excerpt 6
The reputation of Children & Youth Services is historically at odds with its original, intended, and published purpose— "assure that children are protected, live free from abuse and neglect, and are given the opportunity to grow and develop to their fullest potential.”
Excerpt 7
X’s children, who have managed to survive the habitual failures and shortcomings of the system, are in a place now where they are starting the recovery process so they can grow, develop, and thrive. However, people in positions of power once again appear to be recycling and reusing the processes and practices that protect the abuser and abandon the abused.
Excerpt 8
The evidence overwhelmingly appears to indicate that Children & Youth Services of Luzerne County and its agents over the past several years have actively engaged in psychologically gaslighting our client. “Gaslighting” didn’t become a defined term until the late 1930s, but the concept of sowing self-doubt or attempting to alter a person’s reality is the abuser’s age-old strategy. The very agency tasked with protecting others, especially minors, from abuse has in this situation become the abuser.
Excerpt 9
The parent is not the party responsible for equitable access to a free and appropriate public education. Some of X’s children are repeatedly pulled from classes to be interviewed by a caseworker. Not only does this create an embarrassing and shameful situation for the child, but it pulls them away from learning experiences. This also removes the child’s right to learning in a safe, secure, equitable, and appropriate learning environment. Your agency is entering schools and placing adult problems in the hands of children.
Excerpt 10
As we peel-back the layers of Children & Youth involvement and perhaps even invasion in X’s everyday life and the everyday lives of her children, we our finding overwhelming evidence that your agency intentionally created, falsified, and nurtured an ongoing situation that would place and has placed X and her children at the mercy and the whim of the agency and the system while simultaneously forcing X to question her own thoughts, rights, morals, ideals, freedoms, and abilities.
Excerpt 11
There is no question that the preliminary allegation and continued allegations against Ms. XX, combined with the lack of communication and enforcement of a non-existent policy, is just one more example that shapes and perpetuates the perception that Children & Youth Services of Luzerne County actively targets a specific demographic for the purpose of taking away their children. If no person or organization shares with you how you and your agency are perceived, you are never given the opportunity to change that perception.
Crowd Proud has learned and grown from working with Ms. XX. Ms. XX has learned and grown from working with Crowd Proud. Our hope and desire is that Children & Youth Services has learned a little something from this case and will become a better agent of support and empathy.
