A Time for Reflection and Looking Forward, Together.

In the wake of the Penn State settlement with Jerry Sandusky's victims this week, Prevent Child Abuse America released a Statement today - here - titled "A Time for Reflection and Looking Forward, Together." We hope you will take a look and let us know if you have any questions. We have also pasted an excerpt below.

"Following the flood of attention, and funding, that child sexual abuse prevention received during the last year, some tremendous things have occurred:

- Support for the Enough Abuse Campaign from the Ms. Foundation has helped expand this community mobilization and citizen education program from MA to NJ, MD, and now NY and CA where thousands of parents, youth-serving professionals and concerned citizens are engaged  in comprehensive strategies to prevent child sexual abuse,

- Darkness to Light provided their Stewards of Children training to 130,000 adults in the last year, and certified over 1,200 facilitators of the program,

- The National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation has developed a national child sexual abuse prevention plan,

- And Prevent Child Abuse Vermont ‘s SAFE-T program reached 4,713 students, in 53 middle schools across VT, and 1,428 adults through 39 trainings for parents, teachers school staff, and administrators."

The Jerry Sandusky Sentencing – A Call To Action.

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHICAGO, IL, October 9, 2012 – With Jerry Sandusky’s sentencing now complete there will be a temptation for our country to close the book on this story and focus on other concerns that impact us, such as job creation, the economy, and ensuring our national security. But to do so would be to ignore another concern that impacts all of us: the on-going responsibility of adults to ensure that all children have the opportunity to lead healthy lives. To neglect this lesson is to dismiss the reality of the adverse consequences on our communities when a child is abused. 

This sentence must not be the end of something; but the beginning of something new. As a nation, we can learn from this tragedy and make the individual and collective commitment that we will ensure the safety of children we think are in danger, we will support community organizations that work tirelessly to help families in need, and we will make the commitment of good stewardship to our children’s development. 

As upsetting, and tragic, as this event has been, it has also increased awareness about how we can prevent sexual abuse by understanding the ways predators groom children; and how sexual abuse is less a tale of “stranger danger,” and more about the potential danger to children who are betrayed by a trusted adult or peer acquaintance. 

Because of this event the norm of silence about child sexual abuse is beginning to become a more open and honest discussion about what it takes to ensure healthy child development. Institutions in communities across the nation are refining how they deal with situations like this and how they can prevent them from ever occurring again. 

Given this, we challenge all adults to see today’s sentence as a call to action, and a moment where they can pledge to do what’s necessary to prevent child sexual abuse in their own communities by: 

• Taking a renewed interest in the lives of our children, where they go, who they play with, what they’re watching on television and the internet, and which adults they spend time with; 
• Reducing the amount of one on one unsupervised non-parental adult-child time;
• Learning the signs of abuse and reporting abuse when they suspect it; 
• Ensuring that the organizations that serve children and families have sexual abuse prevention policies in place; and 
• Volunteering at local organizations that work to prevent child sexual abuse.  

“From a tragedy such as this, hope can emerge, and the future health of not just our nation’s children and their families, but the nation itself can be addressed,” said James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO, Prevent Child Abuse America. “Today is a new day, and while we will not forget what brought us here, it can be the start of something healthy and positive. We hope you will join us, because what could be more important than the health and happiness of our children and their families.... Nothing I can think of.” 

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ABOUT PREVENT CHILD ABUSE AMERICA 
Prevent Child Abuse America, founded in 1972 in Chicago, works to ensure the healthy development of children nationwide. The organization promotes that vision through a network of chapters in 50 states and 530 Healthy Families America home visitation sites in 39 states, the Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and Canada. A major organizational focus is to advocate for the existence of a national policy framework and strategy for children and families while promoting evidence-based practices that prevent abuse and neglect from ever occurring. To learn more about what we’re doing to prevent child abuse and neglect and how you can help, please visit our websites, here and here.

A "total disregard for the safety and welfare'' of children

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHICAGO, IL, July 12, 2012 – Maybe we can no longer be surprised by the contents of the report released this morning by former FBI Director Louis Freeh regarding Penn State’s “total disregard” for the victims of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at the contents as a call to action for all adults and all institutions to play a more profound role in the prevention of child sexual abuse and the healthy development of all children:

"The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.''
 

"The evidence shows that Mr. Paterno was made aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action, even though Sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years, and had an office just steps away from Mr. Paterno's."

"Their failure to protect the … child victim, or make attempts to identify him, created a dangerous situation for other unknown, unsuspecting young boys who were lured to the Penn State campus and football games by Sandusky and victimized repeatedly by him."
 

We say enough. Enough secrecy and shame. Enough cover-ups. And enough prioritizing institutional reputations over doing the right things by children.
 

We continue to believe that encouraging all parents to play an active role in their children’s lives and assume more responsibility for the prevention of child sexual abuse is a must.  

We believe that all organizations and communities can develop sexual abuse prevention plans that would be comprised of strategies such as following:

• Educating all adults and children about healthy sexuality; 


• Passing, and enforcing, policies that minimize one-on-one contact between children and adults;


• And when needed, reporting perpetrators to the proper authorities even when it comes at the expense of institution’s public image.

But we also believe that stronger laws and penalties won’t solve the problem by itself.
 

“When will it be the right time to awaken to the fact that organizations and institutions across the country have failed children and disregarded their welfare and healthy development?” said James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO, Prevent Child Abuse America. “We say that time is now. We no longer have a choice. The Penn State report shows us that we can no longer blindly trust that community leaders will do the right things on behalf of children. This is a call to action for all communities to play whatever role they can in prevention and we hope people everywhere are ready to join us in this fight.”  

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ABOUT PREVENT CHILD ABUSE AMERICA
Prevent Child Abuse America, founded in 1972, works to ensure the healthy development of children nationwide while recognizing that child development is a building block for community development and economic development. We believe that communities across the country are doing innovative things with great results to prevent abuse and neglect from ever occurring, and what we need to do as a nation is commit to bringing this kind of ingenuity to communities everywhere. Based in Chicago, Prevent Child Abuse America has chapters in 49 states and over 400 Healthy Families America home visitation sites in 37 states, the Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and Canada. For more information, please visit here and here. 

"We as a nation can, and must, prevent this kind of abuse from occurring to future generations, because at the very least all of our children deserve happy and healthy childhoods, free of abuse."

More.

Jerry Sandusky and Penn State Seven Months Later: What have we learned?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHICAGO, IL, June 4, 2012 – It’s been seven months since the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal broke at Penn State, and as Sandusky goes to trial, the question before us as a nation is: What have we learned?

“We have learned that communities are prepared to come together and support healthy, happy childhoods and the prevention of child sexual abuse before it ever occurs, says James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO, Prevent Child Abuse America. “We have learned that policymakers both local and federal now better understand that the laws in place are inadequate if we are going to prevent child sexual abuse from ever occurring. And we have learned that as a country the impact of child sexual abuse remains far more reaching than most of us were able to acknowledge, or even understand, before the Sandusky scandal happened.”

We have also learned that all adults must play an active role in the lives of the children who live in their neighborhoods and communities if we are to ensure that child sexual abuse is prevented before it ever occurs.

To accomplish this we must:

All learn about the grooming techniques of perpetrators and how to recognize the signs of abuse.

Let our children, all of our children, know that we are interested in who they play with; where, and how, they spend their time; and what’s going on in their lives.

Begin a dialogue with children and their parents focused on healthy sexuality at the age-appropriate time.

Minimize one-on-one contact between adults and children.

Advocate for innovative, evidence-based child sexual abuse prevention policies at all levels of government.

And trust our best instincts when we believe abuse is occurring and report it.

What have we learned?

“We have learned that what happened at Penn State is a terrible tragedy for those who were victimized and silenced,” continues Hmurovich, “but that it doesn’t have to be the whole story. We as a nation can, and must, prevent this kind of abuse from occurring to future generations, because at the very least all of our children deserve happy and healthy childhoods, free of abuse.

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ABOUT PREVENT CHILD ABUSE AMERICA

Prevent Child Abuse America, founded in 1972, works to ensure the healthy development of children nationwide while recognizing that child development is a building block for community development and economic development. We believe that communities across the country are doing innovative things with great results to prevent abuse and neglect from ever occurring, and what we need to do as a nation is commit to bringing this kind of ingenuity to communities everywhere. Based in Chicago, Prevent Child Abuse America has chapters in 49 states and over 400 Healthy Families America, home visitation sites in 37 states, the Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and Canada. For more information, please visit here and here.

Prevent Child Abuse America in The Christian Science Monitor.

Prevent Child Abuse America was invited by The Christian Science Monitor to comment on the latest stage in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case and the decision to allow him to visit with his grandchildren. We hope you will take a look at the interview in its entirety - here - though we specifically want to draw your attention to the below quote from Prevent Child Abuse America's President & CEO James M. Hmurovich.

“Under no condition should children be put in a position to defend themselves,” Hmurovich says. “It is an adult’s responsibility to keep the child safe, not the child’s.”