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April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This month is the perfect opportunity to enlighten people about how many children are in foster care due to child abuse and neglect.
One of my favorite websites for information about child welfare is Child Welfare Information Gateway. They have resources for everyone and there are plenty of resources for child abuse awareness. There is a packet full of information, a poster to display and tip sheets to help educate people about child abuse and its effects on families.
The topics are:
• Bonding With Your Baby
• Dealing With Temper Tantrums
• Setting Rules With Teens
• Raising Your Grandchildren
Now these may seem like they have nothing to do with child abuse, but they most certainly do. These are issues that parents face every day and grandparents raising their grandchildren is not as unusual as it used to be. Many grandparents are now raising their grandchildren while parents serve in the military.
All of these tip sheets are available in printable versions in both English and Spanish.
You can distribute sheets to school personnel, your local PTA or PTO, members of your support group, social workers that you work with, adoption personnel, or virtually anyone else that you come in contact with.
It is important to get the message about child abuse out. There are too many kids in foster care and they have been abused or neglected. My friend Ruby has kids who suffer from Shaken Baby Syndrome. The kids that have been in my house have suffered from physical, emotional and sexual abuse as well as neglect. I have been physically, emotionally and sexually abused. I can tell you from many different levels what happens when a child is abused.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a study that indicates that approximately 91,000 children are abused or neglected every year, and that’s in children under one year old! Around 30,000 of those children were under a week old. This is unacceptable! It’s time that we get the word out and help stop this hideous trend.
Presidential and State Child Abuse Proclamations
Fabulous, timely and sadly necessary post. Thumbs up.