Please
visit:
KIDTALK’s
Martin Luther King Page!
Sponsored,
in part, by Best Buy!
KIDTALK
is a free, confidential telephone “warmline”
for kids who are home alone, either regularly or only occasionally. It is
designed to support the family when kids are lonely, afraid, or have a problem
for which an adult’s help is needed.
KIDTALK
volunteers help kids determine what
their parents would want them to do in a given set of circumstances. They work
to promote self-esteem in the kids who call, and they impart safety information
to callers.
KIDTALK
is housed and administered by
Camp Fire USA Lone Star
Council. It was founded in 1986 by a coalition of 40 agencies and
organizations that were concerned about latchkey children.
KIDTALK
is funded by
foundations, corporations and individuals with some overhead covered by United
Way.
Any child in the Dallas dialing area can call
KIDTALK. The
service is primarily for elementary school children who are home alone.
Trained volunteers provide information so kids can help
themselves. Volunteers make referrals when necessary and listen to children
express feelings of loneliness, boredom or fear as well as share kids’
accomplishments and joys. Volunteers have resource manuals and a problem and
referral index to help them handle the calls.
KIDTALK
calls are answered Monday through Friday, 3
p.m. to 6
p.m. during the school year and noon to 6 p.m. in the summer.
In today’s society, kids are left alone after school
because their parents work, extended family or neighbor support is less
available, and there are too few child care slots for the school-aged child.
There are more than 200,000 elementary kids in Dallas County. With 60% of the
mothers of these kids working outside of the home, it is estimated that at least 100,000 kids go home alone after school.
Research findings about kids in urban areas who are home
alone indicate that many may experience fear, loneliness and boredom in greater
degrees than kids who are regularly supervised by adults. A Lou Harris poll
reported that 51% of the teachers ranked “children who are left alone
after school” as the number one cause of student difficulties, ahead of
poverty and living in a single-parent home.
In its first year of operation,
KIDTALK
received more than
25,000 calls, making it the busiest telephone line of its kind in the United
States.
KIDTALK
has received national recognition with two presidential awards
from the Child Safety Partnership and the President’s Citation Program for
Private Sector Initiatives.
KIDTALK
was highlighted in Somebody Cares: Model
School-Age Programs for Latchkey Children in Texas – 1988.
KIDTALK
also
received the 1988 “Program of the Year” award from the Texas
Collaboration for Youth.
Kids are encouraged to write to
us as well as call. Mail can be sent to:
KIDTALK
4411 Skillman
Dallas, Texas 75206
OR
Email: admin@campfireusadallas.org
Camp
Fire USA Lone Star Council says “Thank You” to the 2001 KidTalk
Responders!
(214) 823-5555
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