It’s Child Abuse Prevention Month
Today starts a very important time for us – National Child Abuse Prevention Month. We spend all of April emphasizing how everyone can help prevent child abuse.
This year’s theme: Investing in Prevention. Because we are putting more resources than ever into abuse prevention.
Thanks to the voters who passed our Children’s Services Levy, we are able to invest in prevention programs that work. One example: the Kinship Navigator Pilot program with Beech Acres, which provides case management to our kinship families. Kinship providers are grandparents, aunts, uncles, coaches – people we all know who have stepped up to care for kids.
This is how kinship support can be prevention. We placed a teenager with mental health issues with his grandmother as a safety plan provider. He required several weekly therapy appointments. Grandma’s lack of a reliable vehicle left her paying for Uber rides to get him to counseling. We helped her get her car repaired. Removing this hardship helped her grandson get to his appointments. He is now in her custody and doing well. Prevention works!
Research shows that the most effective way to prevent child abuse and neglect is to strengthen families and communities so parents can provide nurturing environments for their kids. Access to quality child care, health care and affordable housing in safe neighborhoods reduces parental stress and helps families thrive. Many of the programs we offer provide a safety net for families, making sure they get help when they need it.
Watch our social media channels for more on our increased focus on prevention and how prevention works.