Prevent Child Abuse New York's Blog

This Father's Day Be a Dad

National Fatherhood Initiative has launched a new campaign, Be a Dad, to inspire dads to be involved in their children's lives.

The campaign includes many practical tips that can help fathers be the dads their kids need them to be. Tips include: Respect Your Child's Mother, Spend Time with Your Children, Earn the Right to be Heard, and Disciline with Love.

This terrific PSA is also part of the campaign.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Enjoy your special day with your kids.

October is Parent Involvement Month

Today's youth are tomorrow's leaders. Their success, in and out of the class room, is the foundation of a prosperous future for all of us.

October is Parental Involvement Month, a time to highlight various ways parents can work with their children's school to accomplish a shared goal—helping children learn and be successful.

Studies have continually shown that students from families of all different backgrounds and incomes who have involved parents are more likely to: earn higher grades and test scores and enroll in higher level programs; be promoted; pass their classes and earn academic credits; attend school regularly; have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school; and graduate and go on to post secondary education.

Quite simply, research shows that students learn more, have higher grades, and have better school attendance when parents are involved.

Tips for becoming more involve in your child’s education:

• Look for school activities or events that you could be involved in.
• Attend Parent teacher meetings at your child’s school
• Eat dinner together as a family.
• Help your child with homework.
• Take your child on regular trips to the library.
• Have a family game night. Have your child keep score.
• Have a family reading night. One person can read aloud, or everyone can read silently.
• Talk with your children about their day. What was the best part?

PSA on parental involvement from our friends at Prevent Child Abuse New Jersey.

Artists United for Human Rights

PCANY is proud to take part in Artists United for Human Rights, a music and art festival in Buffalo on October 4th. The mission of Artists United For Human Rights is to educate locally, nationally and globally about human rights, focusing on the prevention of child abuse, violence and trafficking. The event takes place aboard the USS Little Rock at The Naval & Military Park at the Erie Basin Marina and is being held in support of Prevent Child Abuse New York and Maiti Nepal. For more information, contact Susan Marie at 716-783-7067 or Susan.Marie.1971@gmail.com.

Going Big: Harlem Children's Zone on This American Life

Hats off to This American Life for shining a spotlight on the solutions to the many problems that plague our nation's impoverished families. Going Big, this week's episode, profiles Geoffrey Canada, a pioneer in the fields of child and family support and poverty prevention. His organization, Harlem Children's Zone, boasts tremendous outcomes for the families and community it serves, including:

• l00% of students in the Harlem Gems pre-K program were found to be school-ready for the sixth year in a row.
• 81% of Baby College parents improved the frequency of reading to their children.
• $4.8 million returned to 2,935 Harlem residents as a result of HCZ's free tax-preparation service
• 10,883 number of youth served by HCZ in 2008.

Listen to the This American Life podcast.

Below is a five-minute video of moms talking about the challenges of raising children in Harlem and the difference HCZ is making in their lives.

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go: A Documentary of the Mulberry Bush School

As part of its POV series PBS aired Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, a British documentary about the Mulberry Bush School in Oxfordshire, England. The school provides therapeutic care, treatment and education to severely emotionally troubled children aged five to twelve. The school is the last stop for children who are unmanageable in their homes and mainstream school settings.

From the documentary's description:

As compassionately documented by acclaimed British filmmaker Kim Longinotto in classic vérité style in Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, the staff at Mulberry eschews instruments of restraint, punitive measures or drugs as a means of helping these kids. Instead, staff members offer patience, determination and a human embrace. It is a program that requires immense fortitude and steadiness in the face of incipient chaos, and one where success seems always to hang in the balance —nonetheless, it achieves some remarkable turnarounds.

The film premiered on PBS stations in late July, but you can still watch the film on PBS' web site, which also includes an opinion piece from Prevent Child Abuse America's Ben Tanzer.

What's Changed for Children?

Improve quality and access to children's health care, increase funding to pre-K, changes in the foster care system, increase rights and support for kinship care givers, peace on the streets—these are just a few of the answers to the questions posed in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 100Days/100Voices campaign. To mark the first 100 days of the Obama Administration, the campaign invited concerned citizens speak up and say—in 100 words or less, or with a video clip lasting no more than two minutes—After 100 days of the Obama Administration, are kids and families better off? Why or why not? What should be next on the agenda?

Below is a video of Baltimore student talking about what has changed for kids and families in Obama's first 100 days and what changes he'd like to see next. Are you ready to be heard? Tell your story here.

What Do Think About Angela Shelton?

Angela Shelton's keynote at the 2009 Child Abuse Prevention Conference was inspiring, energizing and very, very funny. Angela has a real gift for connecting with people. Don't just take my word for it—see what the audience had to say about Angela.

Nine Million Children Need a "Bailout"

This from the Children's Defense Fund:

At a time when the federal government is considering spending billions bailing out big business, but refuses to help struggling families, it's clear that we need to reassess our priorities as a nation. Nearly nine million children in America do not have health coverage and millions more are underinsured. The election in November provides an extraordinary opportunity to bring attention to this critical issue. We must seize this occasion to ensure that every candidate running for a seat in the U.S. Congress understands that providing coverage for all children is something the American people want, that our children and nation can't wait, and that each candidate's commitment to health coverage for all children is a condition of your vote.

Learn more about Children's Defense Fund's Election 2008 Health Coverage for All Children Campaign

Child Abuse in America

Most of us know that child abuse is a problem in America. A big and complicated problem, made even more so by the fact that many people don't understand how child abuse is prevented. Or that it even can be. This lack of understanding, according to the creator of this video, ultimately results in a lack of funding for prevention programs.

We have certainly experienced this in our efforts to secure funding for pre-natal and infancy home visiting programs. Healthy Families New York, for example, has made a significant difference in getting thousands of at-risk children and families off to a good start. Yet, it is available to only a fraction of the families who need it.

So what can you do? Let your elected officials and policy makers know that children MUST come first. Their future and ours depend on it.

This video was created by Michelle Rondi, a senior at Smithtown High School. She will be attending Saint Joseph's College in the fall and pursuing a degree in social work.

Light Saber

The Advertising Council, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families Office of Family Assistance and the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse have launched a new series of public service advertisements (PSAs) designed to show dads the critical role they play in their children’s lives.

Below is a video from the campaign.