The 2010 Prevent Child Abuse America national conference theme and upcoming call for proposals.

We wanted to let you know that we not only have a theme for the 2010 Prevent Child Abuse America national conference - Changing the Way We Think about Prevention: Making Children Our Priority - but we will be posting our call for proposals on the conference website on July 28th. Please take a look and please consider submitting something as well.

House Party Weekend. Learn More. Get Involved. October 23-25, 2009.

The Board and Staff of Prevent Child Abuse America invite you to join us in creating a signature event that is fresh, fun, stylish, and productive in raising both awareness and funds. During the weekend of October 23-25, 2009, supporters across the nation will gather in homes, restaurants, clubs, campuses, and churches to have fun and take action for children. Please visit the House Party Weekend site for more information, please contact us to learn more and please plan to join us as a host or guest.

Check it out - Prevent Child Abuse America has a new brochure.

We wanted to let you know that we have a new brochure that you can download off of our website. We hope you will take a look, use it as needed and let us know what you think.

Prevent Child Abuse America sends a letter to the members of Michigan's Legislature because of threats to funding for early childhood programming.

Earlier this week, the staff at Prevent Child Abuse Michigan asked us to bolster their efforts to fight budget cuts to early childhood programming in the state by sending a letter to the Legislature there arguing for the importance of protecting programs like these. We have posted that letter below.

Dear Members of Michigan’s Legislature,

The economic viability of Michigan is in part dependent upon the availability of a skilled workforce which is productive and contributes to Michigan’s competitiveness in a global economy. Supporting services that assist the workforce to perform productively is good for business, good for our economy and simply good public policy. Continued funding for early childhood programming helps accomplish this goal.

Citizens across Michigan and across the country overwhelmingly oppose cuts in funding to early childhood programs. And with good reason, because when we invest in child development, we are investing in community and economic development, as flourishing children become the foundation of a thriving society.

Unfortunately, children are sometimes exposed to extreme and sustained stress like child abuse and neglect, which can be devastating to a child's development. This toxic stress damages the developing brain and adversely affects an individual’s learning and behavior, as well as increases susceptibility to physical and mental illness. As a nation, we spend an estimated $104 billion a year on services that are required as a result of child maltreatment, such as foster care, criminal justice and special education.

We can invest in children now, however, so we don’t have pay later, and we can be the stewards of a stronger Michigan today and on into the future. We implore you to continue Michigan’s investment in early childhood programming.

Sincerely,

James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO
Prevent Child Abuse America

Check it out - Prevent Child Abuse America, The NonProfit Times and social media.

We have been oddly focused on social media here at Changing The Way We Think About Prevention recently. That said, we are going to continue focusing on social media at least for one more post and let you know about an article that highlights our social media work which just came out in The NonProfit Times. Many thanks to Mark Hrywna for writing this piece and for reaching out to Evan Kalish as well who is the co-administrator of the Society Against Child Abuse's Facebook Causes page who we also cannot thank enough for his ongoing support.

Healthy Families America is now on Facebook. Please check it out and please join them.

It's true, Healthy Families America now has a Facebook fan page and Causes page. Please take a look and please join them won't you. Thanks.

Update: HFA is now on Twitter as well, please follow them.

10 Ways to Engage With Prevent Child Abuse America through Social Media.

We understand the continued importance of social media when striving to present our message to a variety of constituents. In an effort to increase awareness, we are currently using a variety of social media outlets to compliment the ongoing evolution of our website. To help you navigate these various outlets we have a compiled a list of 10 Ways to Engage with Prevent Child Abuse America through social media.

1. Become a fan of our Facebook page.

2. Join our Facebook Cause.

3. Send a pinwheel Superpoke! on Facebook.

(1) Search for Superpoke! via the search tool in the upper right corner of your Facebook page; (2) Click on the "Causes" tab; (3) Click on our pinwheel-themed poke; (4) Choose who you want to send it to from your address book at the bottom of the page; (5) Hit send. As the sender, you will receive a confirmation page with further information on the organization, ways to poke others and links to our Pinwheels for Prevention website.

4. Sign-up for our newsletter. There is a spot at the top of our website that says "Interested in our newsletter."

5. Sign-up for our by visiting our website and clicking on Advocacy on the left side of our homepage.

6. Visit our blog, which you have, thanks, but please also consider setting-up (a) an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed of the blog through a blog reader like those at Google or Bloglines or (b) an e-mail feed such as those through Feed My Inbox so whenever the blog is updated you will receive the blog entry in an e-mail.

7. Follow us on Twitter.

8. Visit out YouTube channel.

9. Add a signature line to your e-mails about Prevent Child Abuse America or Pinwheels for Prevention.

For example: Learn more. Lend Your Voice. Volunteer. Donate. Join us in creating a national movement around healthy child development and the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Visit us at www.preventchildabuse.org.

10. Join the movement at Pinwheels for Prevention.