We want to take a moment to celebrate Roni Deutch Tax Center.

Roni Deutch Tax Center has joined the movement to prevent child abuse and promote healthy child development in communities nationwide. From January 1 until the end of tax season on April 15, clients at any of the 44 participating franchises will have the opportunity to purchase a $1.00 “paper pinwheel” to support Prevent Child Abuse America. This effort is being conducted in support of Prevent Child Abuse America’s national campaign, Pinwheels for Prevention®, introducing the pinwheel as the symbol for child abuse and neglect prevention in the United States. To locate the Roni Deutch Tax Center nearest you, please visit the following link. Our sincere thanks to Roni Deutch Tax Center for joining us in preventing the abuse and neglect of our nation’s children.

New health care law includes unprecedented investment in early childhood home visitation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chicago, Illinois, March 23, 2010 – Prevent Child Abuse America applauds Congress and the Administration for enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Among the many provisions that benefit children, the legislation signed by the President today will dramatically improve the health and development of our nation’s children and families through the expansion of high-quality, voluntary, home visitation services, such as Healthy Families America.

“We have long known that home visiting is one of the most effective ways to improve child health and development,” said Jim Hmurovich, President & CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America. “Now, for the first time, there is federal funding dedicated solely to expanding access to this valuable service.”

Research has shown that high-quality, voluntary early childhood home visitation programs lead to proven, positive outcomes for children and families and evaluations of Healthy Families America, Prevent Child Abuse America’s nationally recognized, signature home visitation program, have consistently found that program participants showed:

Reduced child maltreatment;

Decreased pre-term, low weight babies;

Increased utilization of prenatal care;

Increased access and use of primary care medical services;

Increased child immunization rates to improve health outcomes;

Increased school readiness;

Decreased dependency on public assistance and other social services; and

Improved parent-child interaction.

Because of this proven track record, evidence-based early childhood home visiting services have long enjoyed bipartisan support at the state and federal levels. Home visitation services across the country have struggled, however, with unreliable and unsustainable funding, a situation further exacerbated by the recent state of the economy. Overcoming this challenge has long been one of Prevent Child Abuse America’s top priorities.

The new law provides states with $1.5 billion over five years to fund the home visitation services that best suit the needs of their communities, while putting important parameters in place to assure quality of services.

“While no one piece of legislation can prevent child abuse and neglect,” said Hmurovich, “the enactment of the new state grant program for home visitation is an important step towards ensuring that all children have the opportunity to grow up in a healthy and nurturing environment.”

2010 Wrigley Start Early Run. April 10th. Please join us, you can make a difference.

Chicagoans will try to raise more than $200,000 during Child Abuse Prevention Month at the 13th annual Wrigley Start Early Run & Walk on April 10, 2010. The event will help build awareness and raise money to keep children safe and prevent abuse and neglect. In addition at least 16 other child-focused organizations through-out the Chicagoland community will participate and benefit from the event’s proceeds, making it a true community event. Please join us, you can make a difference.

James M. Hmurovich interview with Public News Service.

James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO, Prevent Child Abuse America is speaking at the 2010 Strengthening Families Institute sponsored by the Idaho Children's Trust Fund in Boise, Idaho this week and he took a moment to record an interview with Public News Service to talk about prevention, public health and messaging and communities.

On NPR: National Public Radio - State Budget Cuts Threaten Child Welfare Programs.

NPR: National Public Radio recently ran a two-part series on state budget cuts threatening child welfare programs and Micah Stirling the Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse Oklahoma was featured on part one - State Budget Cuts Threaten Child Welfare Programs.

An urgent message regarding the Council for Children & Families from Teresa Rafael, ED, National Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Washington State is on the brink of losing the state children's trust fund, formally called the Council for Children & Families. I'm asking your help in contacting the key legislators listed below TODAY - or by noon Wednesday, March 10th at the very latest - today would be better. The trust fund supports vital strategies that strengthen families and prevent child abuse before it occurs, including home visiting programs and the well-received "Speak Up When You’re Down” Post Partum Depression Awareness Campaign.

We all know the state's economy is in trouble. However, the loss of the trust fund will not result in substantial cost savings. The home visiting funds will be moved to the Department of Early Learning and most of the remaining funds will be moved to the state child welfare department. We have seen in other states that such a move inevitably results in a decreased focus on preventing abuse before it occurs as the primary mission of that agency is child protection after abuse or neglect occurs. Such a move also significantly reduces the capacity to build broad non-governmental coalitions in most cases.

Currently the House budget does not include any funding for the Council for Children and Families and essentially terminates the agency. The Senate budget includes some funding but with significant reductions. The budget is being reconciled now and there is still time to ensure that the final budget includes the CCF - but only if we act now.

Specifically I am asking the following:

Task #1: Calling the Legislative Hotline

Please call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and make the following statement:

"Please restore funding to the Council for Children and Families which includes the “Speak Up When You’re Down” Post Partum Depression Awareness Campaign in the final state budget."

Task #2: Email Key Representatives:

Please email the following Representatives with the sample messages below. Please add 1-2 sentences as to why this is an important priority for you - the importance of supporting children and families in these tough economic times, etc. It is perfectly fine to use the exact same message in each email to each legislator. Just make sure that you change the name each time you send it to the next email address! Here is the sample message:

Dear Representative____________________

Please restore funding to the Council for Children and Families which includes the “Speak Up When You’re Down” Post Partum Depression Awareness Campaign in the final state budget.

Thank you for all of your hard work.

Sincerely,

Your full name
Affiliation (optional)

Please send your emails for Representatives to:
Representative Mary Helen Roberts: Roberts.maryhelen@leg.wa.gov
Representative Eric Pettigrew: Pettigrew.eric@leg.wa.gov
Representative Kelli Linville: Linville.kelli@leg.wa.gov
Representative Mark Ericks: ericks.mark@leg.wa.gov


Task #3: Email Key Senators:

Sample Message for Senators:

Dear Senator _____________________

Thank you for including funding in the Senate Budget for the Council for Children & Families which includes the "Speak Up When You're Down" Post Partum Depression Campaign. Please ensure that these vital services are FULLY funded in the final budget.

Thank you for all of your hard work.

Sincerely,
Your Name
Affiliation (optional)

Please send your emails for Senators to:

Senator Lisa Brown: brown.lisa@leg.wa.gov
Senator Debbie Regala: regala.debbie@leg.wa.gov
Senator Rodney Tom: tom.rodney@leg.wa.gov
Senator Margarita Prentice: prentice.margarita@leg.wa.gov


A Few Minutes of Your Time Keeps Families Safe: I know that making a call and sending out these emails takes precious time, but this is a tough year and now is the time to make sure that our legislators hear from us.

Pass This Along: Please feel free to pass this email along to anyone you know who cares about keeping children and families safe.

Keeping Tallies: Please let me know when you have made your calls and sent your emails! I am keeping a tally which is very important during this very tough year.

Our trust fund in this state is one of the strongest and best in the country. Almost every state has a children's trust fund and if we lose what we have now, it is unlikely we will ever regain it. Almost all the trust fund's work is community-based. They are a national model in engaging with parents and community members as well as other state agencies and the non-profit field. They are this state's chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America and in that role, they bring in many additional resources to our state.

Thank you so much,

Teresa

Teresa Rafael, MSW, Executive Director
National Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds
5712 30th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105
206-526-1221
trafael@juno.com

Prevent Child Abuse America receives new awards that focus on early child development, home visiting and the country’s prevention infrastructure.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chicago, Illinois, March 4, 2010 – Prevent Child Abuse America is pleased to announce that it has received three new awards to further its work on behalf of the nation’s children and the programs and communities that support their healthy development. Two of the awards come from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the third comes from the Pritzker Early Childhood Foundation.

The Pritzker Early Childhood Foundation grant will support the maintenance of current program services to Prevent Child Abuse America’s network of more than 400 Healthy Families America sites. This financial support will allow Prevent Child Abuse America to work with Great Kids, Inc. to improve Core Training for direct service staff, implement more than 35 hours of Distance Learning Modules for direct service staff and begin to strengthen Healthy Families America’s prenatal curriculum for use with families.

“Home visiting in general, and Healthy Families America specifically, is a crucial strategy for supporting children, their development, their families and the communities they live in,” says James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO, Prevent Child Abuse America, “and we cannot thank The Pritzker Early Childhood Foundation’s enough for their investment in this important work.”

Prevent Child Abuse America has also received two grants from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The first is a one-year grant focused on supporting the work of Prevent Child Abuse America’s chapter network to address the budget shortages being faced by states and communities and the move to cut funding for prevention at the very time these investments are being shown to have an impact on children’s lives and the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

With the funding from the grant work is well underway to develop a series of tools created by a number of experts from both within and outside the field of prevention that will make the argument for “Why Prevention Matters” and why the prevention infrastructure that has been developed must be maintained and even expanded during this time of economic crisis.

The second grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is a two-year grant focused on public education that will build on Prevent Child Abuse America’s signature campaign Pinwheels for Prevention and seek to create an active, engaged and sustained national movement that works to prevent child abuse and neglect.

“The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has shown that it not only believes in the need to sustain the prevention infrastructure across the country,” said Mr. Hmurovich, “but that it’s possible to build a social movement focused on prevention. We celebrate their interest in this work and appreciate their support of Prevent Child Abuse America to accomplish it.”