Child Abuse Prevention Month Begins Tomorrow.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

As the nation turns its attention to healthy child development and child abuse prevention over the next 30 days, we wanted to highlight four ways each of us can make a difference next month and throughout the year:

Educate yourself and others on the issue of child abuse and neglect prevention.

Advocate for effective implementation of local healthy child development and child abuse prevention efforts.

Donate financially or through the contribution of professional expertise to a local charity that supports children and families.

Participate by volunteering for a local charity that supports children and families, or asking their local school boards, community centers, faith-based organizations, youth sports leagues, summer camps and the like to incorporate child abuse prevention and healthy child development into their dialogues and programs.

Watch for more announcements throughout the month and please take a moment to see what's happening in your state by going to this link, clicking on your home state and then clicking on the link for your local chapter's website.

The 2011 Wrigley Start Early Run. We have CTA bus ads. And we are just one month away.

This year's Wrigley Start Early Run will be held on April 23, 2011 at Chicago's Grant Park. Run. Walk. Join us. Spread the word. Register. Learn more here. We are live and we look forward to having you join us.

It's party time! House Party Weekend. October 14-16, 2011.

It's party time! But we're not asking you to get dressed up, buy a table, or come to a fancy gala. We're asking you to have your own party - the way you want it, with your friends - to raise awareness and funds for healthy child development and child abuse prevention.

We're designating October 14-16, 2011, as the weekend for people across the country to host parties supporting kids. However, as you will be hosting or attending these parties, feel free to host a party when it works best for you. We're hoping you'll join thousands of people coast to coast, having parties throughout the year and on that weekend. Our goal is to raise $30,000 by the end of the weekend. Please help us make this happen!

Please visit the House Party Weekend website for more details. We've even built a house party toolkit, so (most of) the work is already done.

We hope you find a way to get involved, as a house party host, guest, or virtual party giver, and have a great time doing it. Because we believe everyone has a role to play in creating a healthy future for children.

We're having fun already.

The Child Abuse Prevention Month Strengthening Families and Communities: 2011 Resource Guide is available at the Child Welfare Information Gateway.

And you can download it here.

One Month to Go... Help Families Nationwide this Tax Season!

For every person we direct to call Roni Deutch Tax Center at (800) 426-1245 that results in a paid federal tax return with Roni Deutch Tax Center between now and the end of tax season on April 15, the company will donate $50 to Prevent Child Abuse America. It’s that simple! Please consider sharing this with friends as we all strive to prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation’s children this tax season. Roni Deutch Tax Centers are also donating 100% of $1.00 "paper pinwheels" sold in-store to Prevent Child Abuse America through the end of tax season.

Our sincere thanks to Roni Deutch Tax Center for making this generous, additional commitment to Prevent Child Abuse America.

Prevent Child Abuse America talks to the Boise, ID office of the Public News Service.

Prevent Child Abuse America's Senior Director of Strategic Communications Ben Tanzer who will speaking at the 2011 Strengthening Families Training Institute in Boise, Idaho on March 16th recently had the opportunity to talk to the Boise office of the Public News Service about healthy child development, building a prosperous Idaho, social movements and preventing child abuse and neglect.


"Create a movement for children and families, and a movement that not only enhances healthy child development; to really engage people in a dialogue on how we prevent child abuse and neglect before it ever starts."

Tanzer says preventing child abuse and neglect is in everyone's best interest because it is tied to the larger values Idahoans treasure.

"We want to live in a certain kind of Idaho that is prosperous, that is healthy. Here are the things we are going to do for children and families, because we know that when we don't prevent child abuse and neglect, all of those other things get undermined."

Help us build the movement for America’s children!

We would like to invite you to provide feedback on two important initiatives this year.

The first is our third annual House Party Weekend. Like the name suggests, Prevent Child Abuse America will be designating the weekend of October 14-16, 2011, as a time for people across the country to host parties to raise awareness of and funding for child abuse prevention. To help make this strategy as effective as it can be, we’d like to ask people to complete a quick five-question electronic survey you can find here. It should only take a few minutes to complete. Results will be collected between now and Friday, March 18. Your input will be most helpful!

We are also going to be unveiling a potentially first of its kind online program this April via the Causes application on Facebook to raise awareness of and funding for our work. To help us make the most of this effort, we’d like to ask people to complete a simple five-question electronic survey which you can find here. Due to the unique nature of this program, we’re going to accept the first 100 completed surveys and then close the link.

Thank you very much for your help. Watch for more details on both programs soon!

Prevent Child Abuse America announces dates for 2012 National Conference.

PRESS RELEASE

Chicago, Illinois, March 8, 2011 – Prevent Child Abuse America is pleased to announce that it’s next national conference has been scheduled for October 12 - 15, 2012 at the Jacksonville, Florida Hyatt Riverside.

The conference will be a unique and innovative experience for the participants with its focus on healthy childhood development, advancing public policy, what’s working in child abuse and neglect prevention, messaging, corporate responsibility and all how all of these moving parts will ultimately allow Prevent Child Abuse America and its partners to engage citizens everywhere in a national movement for children, their families and the communities they live in.

“This is not going to be like any other conference people have been to before,” says James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America. “We believe that when all children don’t have equal opportunity for growth and development we put our future as a society at risk. We also believe though, that when we focus on healthy child development and supporting families and citizens in the communities they live in as we plan to do at the conference, great things can happen for children and for the nation.”

Prevent Child Abuse America is also pleased to be holding the conference not just in the state of Florida, which has widely embraced home visiting and other innovative prevention programming, but in Jacksonville itself, the inaugural city selected as a Pinwheels City, USA for its integrated and forward thinking around supporting families and the prevention of child and abuse and neglect before it ever occurs.

“We are extremely pleased Prevent Child Abuse America is hosting this national conference in Florida’s largest and perhaps most progressive city,” says Christie Ferris, Director of Prevent Child Abuse Florida. “We are proud of Jacksonville’s innovative efforts to create communities where families are valued and supported and children have a variety of opportunities for healthy growth and development. We hope this conference will strengthen existing infrastructure and advance efforts on behalf of children and families not only in Jacksonville, but throughout Florida and across the country as well.”

Prevent Child Abuse America has also confirmed dates for its 2014 conference, which will also be held at the Jacksonville Hyatt Riverside, and those dates are May 18 – 21, 2014.

Now Even More Help for Families Nationwide this Tax Season!

For every person we direct to call Roni Deutch Tax Center at (800) 426-1245 that results in a paid federal tax return with RDTC between now and the end of tax season on April 15, the company will donate $50 to Prevent Child Abuse America. It’s that simple! Please consider sharing this with friends as we all strive to prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation’s children this tax season.

Our sincere thanks to Roni Deutch Tax Center for making this generous, additional commitment to Prevent Child Abuse America.