Those who thought former State Senator Bill Diamond of Windham would spend his retirement in a rocking chair are mistaken. Diamond, who completed his 10th term in the Maine Senate last month and was term-limited, has enjoyed an exemplary career in public service and has turned his sights now to protecting children in the state.
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| Former State Senator Bill Diamond of Windham, has created the 'Walk a Miles in Their Shoes' nonprofit foundation to help prevent child homicide in Maine. FILE PHOTO |
According to Diamond, the new foundation will help prevent of child homicides and the abuse of children who are under the supervision or direct care of the State of Maine or who are or have been associated with the state’s Child Protective System.
“Children associated with state care have been dying at record levels, in fact, as recently as 2021 a record number of children died, many were victims of child homicides,” Diamond said. “The chilling question is: How many more children must die before we make meaningful changes?”
Diamond said he was first made aware of the issues affecting child homicide in Maine and the state’s child protection system in 2001.
“The problem has continued to persist over the past 22 years under four different gubernatorial administrations, Independent, Republican, and Democrat,” he said. “The problems are not partisan based. They are the concern of all of us. This is the most important thing I’ve ever been able to do, nothing comes close.”
To learn more about the issue, Diamond said he’s attended many child-homicide trials and sentencings over the past years and each time he does, he’s made aware of the gruesome and sad details of an abused child dying needlessly.
“Each time the fact is reinforced that we have the capabilities to fix our broken child protection system, all we need is the will to do it,” he said. “Hence the reason for creating this foundation.”
From 1989 to 1997, Diamond served as Maine’s Secretary of State and during his tenure was credited with improving efficiencies within the Department of State. Before he was Maine Secretary of State, he served three terms in the Maine House of Representatives, and has extensive experience as a small-business owner in Windham for more than 40 years, and as a teacher, principal, and superintendent of schools in the Windham and Raymond school systems, where he worked for 20 years.
To create and launch this new initiative, Diamond has committed $25,000 of his own money to provide the support necessary to get the foundation functioning without delay.
He’s also assembled a distinguished advisory board for the foundation including former Maine Gov. John Baldacci; former Maine Assistant Attorney General Lou Ann Clifford; former Maine Attorney General Mike Carpenter; Dr. Amanda Brownell, a pediatric physician and Medical Director of the Spurwink Center for Safe and Healthy Families; former State Senator and State Representative Joyce Maker; and the former Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and a national advisor on child safety, Michael Petit.
“It’s time we committed ourselves as citizens, government agencies, legislators, and media to ending these needless child deaths. Too many children keep dying and nothing seems to change,” Diamond said.
One of the purposes of the foundation will be to bring people from a variety of interests and backgrounds together to develop meaningful strategies for positive changes to protect our children who are the innocent victims of a broken system, he said.
“We will organize public forums, seek information and solutions from frontline partners such as caseworkers, foster parents, childcare providers, educators, law enforcement, and adoption parents and families,” Diamond said. “It’s the intent of this foundation to work with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Child and Family Services in a joint effort to improve the state’s child safety policies and practices. Together we can make a difference.” <
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