Prevent Child Abuse America in the news. Supportive family members. Healthy kids. And The New York Times.

Dr. Janet Rosenzweig, the Vice President for Research and 

Programs at Prevent Child Abuse America, was recently quoted in The New York Times talking about healthy kids in an article titled "After 2 Deaths, New York City Adopts New Strategy to Protect Homeless Children." You can read the article in its entirety here and we have pasted an excerpt below. We are also interested in your thoughts on the article, Dr. Rosenzweig's response, and the role you think community members can play in the lives of the children and families discussed in this article. Thanks.

“We prefer not to look at child abuse from the medical model of finding a sick person and treating them,” Dr. Rosenzweig said. “We prefer the inoculation model of preparing families and communities to raise safe and healthy kids.”

Home visiting in the news. And the impact of Healthy Families America.

We want to share a recent OP-ED with you from The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof titled "When Even the Starting Line Is Out Of Reach." In the piece, Kristof writes about the benefits of home visiting, including the excerpt we pasted below. We would also like to draw your attention to a series of briefs we wrote on the impact of Prevent Child Abuse America's home visiting program Healthy Families America, which can be located on our website here. And we would like to hear your thoughts on the Kristof piece, the Healthy Families America briefs, and how the availability of home visiting might impact the neighborhoods and communities you live in. Thanks.

"Let’s push for home visitation programs that encourage parents to speak to children and read to them; many low-income homes don’t have a single kid’s book. We also need initiatives to reduce exposure to lead and other toxins. Finally, how about screenings for problems like hearing and visual impairment — all followed by a good prekindergarten.

Rigorous evidence suggests that these kinds of interventions save money because the costs of failure are so great. Yet most kids don’t get such help."

Prevent Child Abuse America Letter to the Editor in The New York Times.

The New York Times recently published the Letter to the Editor Prevent Child Abuse America submitted - here - in response to their February 7th article "School Linked to Abuse Claims Will Replace Entire Faculty" - here - regarding the Los Angeles Unified School District's decision to replace the entire teaching staff at the Miramonte Elementary School. We hope you will take a look, but we also want to draw your attention to the below paragraph from the letter.

"We must ensure that all adults receive training to recognize the grooming behavior of perpetrators. We must prevent scenarios that place adults in one-on-one situations with children. We must provide children with developmentally appropriate education about healthy sexuality and encourage them to let adults they trust know when they are in situations they find confusing."

Prevent Child Abuse America's Letter to the Editor in response to The New York Times article "Programs That Tie Funds to Effectiveness Are at Risk" by Annie Lowrey.

We wanted to share the Letter to the Editor we submitted to The New York Times in response to the article "Programs That Tie Funds to Effectiveness Are at Risk" by Annie Lowrey. 

To the Editor,

Annie Lowrey is to be applauded for her article concerning threatened cuts to the federal program that funds evidenced-based home visiting programs such as our signature program Healthy Families America. Home visitation services are a wise investment that balances the importance of early child development and the health, educational and fiscal challenges we face as a nation. Investing early allows us to shape the future and build human capital; investing later chains us to fixing the missed opportunities of the past, for which we pay dearly. Home visitation services deserve the unwavering support of Congress, as an option to reduce the need for more expensive services that are necessary when healthy child development options are not chosen. But there’s even a better reason:  it’s the right thing to do if we would like to be our nation to be competitive and build upon the potential every child has at birth.

Sincerely,

James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO

Prevent Child Abuse America