Prevent Child Abuse America's 2009 Child Abuse Prevention Month Letter to the Editor.

Dear Editor:

Communities nationwide recognize that healthy childhood experiences are not just good for children, but good for their communities as well. Its simple really. The actions we take to promote healthy child are the very action we take to prevent child abuse and neglect, like parent-child interaction, reading and constructive play.

And healthy child development starts a chain of events that follow a child into adulthood. It leads to a more educated and productive workforce, which is good for community and economic development. At a time when we all care about the economy, it makes "cents" to spend more time learning how stable, nurturing relationships influence a child's developing brain and provide a foundation for all future development.

Unfortunately, children are sometimes exposed to intensive stress like child abuse and neglect. Too much stress is bad for anyone and can be devastating to child development. This is where prevention comes into play, however, and this is where Prevent Child Abuse America is focusing its efforts.

Our hope is to change the way our nation thinks about prevention, focusing on community activities and public policies that prioritize prevention right from the start to make sure child abuse and neglect never occur. This shift represents our efforts to ensure the healthy child development of children nationwide, while seeking to highlight the fact that we all play a role in raising children whether we are neighbors, teachers, police officers, librarians, mentors, coaches or family members.

Prevent Child Abuse America's new signature campaign, "Pinwheels for Prevention," is based on the belief that while the public understands that child abuse and neglect is a serious problem, it doesn't necessarily understand what it means to prevent child abuse and neglect before it occurs, or what the public cares about - the economy, rising health care costs, and animal abuse among things - are related to preventing child abuse and neglect.

Abuse and neglect often have lifelong consequences for a child, including a greater chance of delinquency, criminal involvement, drug addiction, chronic health problems, mental health issues and an overall drop-off in productivity of the individual as a functioning member of our communities.

Programs and strategies like home visiting, parent education, mutual self-help support, mental health services for new mothers, expanding the availability of affordable daycare programming and substance abuse treatment all play a role in the prevention of child abuse and neglect, and we all play a role in ensuring these programs exist in our communities.

As our nation recognizes April as Child Abuse Prevention Month, please take note of the nearly 500,000 pinwheels that have been distributed across the country as part of Pinwheels for Prevention. The pinwheels represent the changes that are occurring in the belief we know child abuse and neglect can be prevented.

Through its chapters in 47 states and Healthy Families America sites in over 400 communities, Prevent Child Abuse America works to provide healthy, stable, and stimulating experiences for children in communities across the country.

To make prevention a priority though, the public needs to ask themselves the following questions:

What are the things I can do to foster, good, healthy child development in my community?

Am I knowledgeable about the legislation that supports prevention on the local and federal levels?

How can I support prevention at the local and federal levels?

To learn more please visit Pinwheels for Prevention.

Signed,


Jim Hmurovich, President & CEO
Prevent Child Abuse America

A lot of cool Wrigley Start Early Run stuff, including a nice shout-out from A Hen and Three Chicks and our first ever "UNRUN."

We are excited to share two pieces of Wrigley Start Early Run information with you. First, many thanks to Caitlin Giles of the blog A Hen and Three Chicks for her very kind Wrigley Run shout-out.


And second, for those of you who want to support Prevent Child Abuse America, but can't, or simply don't want to, come out for the race, maybe you would like to try out our first ever UNRUN where you can help us by doing nothing! It's true, you register for the race, you receive an event shirt and Wrigley products, but you never even leave the house. Cool, right? We think so, so please take a look and please consider joining us, whether to walk, run or unrun if that is your preference.

Social Networking – For Good or For Awesome. And many thanks to Jumeau and Mayhem Studios.

We are quite thrilled, and honored, that Jumeau and Mayhem Studios have decided to spend the next three days raising awareness (and maybe some dollars) about Prevent Child Abuse America and the work we do to enhance child development, support communities and prevent child abuse and neglect through a unique Twitter campaign they are calling "Social Networking - For Good or For Awesome." And yes we will launch our own Twitter account soon. So, for all of the details, please take a look by Friday, March 27th at 11:59pm EST and please consider Tweeting on our behalf. By doing so, you will not only raise awareness, but maybe even win a cool Jumea belt or bag (your choice) to boot. Pretty cool, yes? Yes. Thanks in advance for your time and many thanks to Druid Orion and Calvin Lee of Jumeau and Mayhem Studios respectively.

Start packing your bags and please Save the Date for Prevent Child Abuse America's 2010 National Conference.

We are thrilled to announce that 2010 Prevent Child Abuse America National Conference will be held in Jacksonville, Florida, May 17-19, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. For more information you may visit the conference website here and if you have any special registration needs or questions we can answer now please contact Greer Thornton, Conference Services Manager at gthornton@preventchildabuse.org.

New podcast with Jim Hmurovich, President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America.

We wanted to let you know about a new podcast with Jim Hmurovich, the President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America. This discussion was moderated by Jim McKay, Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia and covers a variety of topics pertaining to Prevent Child Abuse America's thinking on child development and the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Munchkin Madness. Come join us, won't you?

This event will be held March 18th at Flounders on 2201 North Clybourn here in Chicago and is being hosted by The Associate Board of Prevent Child Abuse America. It promises to be a lot of fun and we hope you will join us. For more information, or even to RSVP, please visit our Munchkin Madness Facebook event page.

The 2009 Wrigley Start Early Run. Check it out. It's coming.