“We think about child abuse and neglect and we think there’s only impacts in the home or in the family. But we know there’s impacts across society, business, and the community.”
Child Abuse Prevention Month 2023
April is National Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Month, a time when child wellness and child welfare organizations across the U.S. elevate the importance of creating systems and programs that put children and families first.
Building Together
Child abuse and neglect are preventable, and all communities benefit when children and families are well supported. Prevent Child Abuse America recognizes that all community members have play a role in ensuring that children have positive experiences and families have the resources they need when they need them, well before they are in crisis. Our annual awareness and impact campaign, Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Month, provides the opportunity for us to lead in partnership with our national network of state chapters to prevent child abuse beforeit happens and ensure all children and families have the resources and support to reach their full potential and thrive.
Watch the Spanish language version here.
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Highlights from Child Abuse Prevention Month
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CAP Month Recap
See the full list of weekly highlights throughout the month from our partners, affiliates, and followers.
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PCA Washington Announces Campaign that Highlights Efforts to Improve Outcomes for Families
Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is introducing the Thriving Families campaign. Thriving Families is made up of multiple projects in the child welfare space that focus on preventing out-of-home placements, supporting families so children and youth remain safely at home or with kin, and ensuring placements are safe, stable, and support permanency.
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Ann & Robert H Lurie Children Hospital of Chicago Launch new app
Our Partner Lurie Children’s Hospital Launches the new app, called LCAST (Lurie Children’s Child Injury Plausibility Assessment Support Tool) aims to increase earlier recognition of abuse in babies and children under 4 years of age who have bruises, with the hope of decreasing the incidence of severe injury and death from child abuse in this age group.
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First Five Nebraska’s take on Kelly Crane’s testimony on LB114
Healthy Families America (HFA) is one of the models that meets the evidence requirements for support from MIECHV. Moreover, the MIECHV program was reauthorized by Congress in December 2022 through the Jackie Walorski Maternal and Child Home Visiting Reauthorization Act. To that effect, PCA America’s State Policy Specialist testified in support of LB114 before the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.
How to get involved
Wear Blue the month of April to show your support
Show your style and support for Prevent Child Abuse America. Proceeds from these shirts will allow us to continue our work directly with families and communities. Pick up a shirt a shirt today – it’s one of many ways you can be a partner in prevention!
Digital Advocacy Day
Each year, PCA America holds a nationwide Digital Advocacy Day on April 19 during Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) month. This platform allows us to collectively amplify our voices and advocate for increased investments in community-based solutions and family-strengthening policies such as Title II, the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) grants, and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. Read our one-pager for more information and be sure to check out our policy page to learn how you can become more involved.
Plant a virtual pinwheel to show your support
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down real events, the first virtual pinwheel garden was born to allow anyone – anywhere – to participate in planting a new kind of pinwheel garden and help support happy and healthy families everywhere. Enjoy the newest version of the pinwheel garden – back and better than ever!
Support Public Policy
Support PCA’s public policy initiatives and visit our public policy page for more information about our current policies that need your support now.
Social Media Kit
Make sure to catalog all posts/tweets you can with the hashtags: #CAPMonth2023 #PreventioninPartnership #IamPrevention. Similarly, include calls to action whenever possible. Twitter users, for instance, are more likely to engage in content that asks a question or that has a picture, video or link that they can easily retweet and share, so try to include as much of this varying content as you can. Additionally, make sure to retweet those that mention you, and reply to those who are wanting to start a dialogue. It’s very important to interact with your followers! We also want to encourage you to live-post and tweet any events you host or are a part of during April.
For Chapter resources click here.
Resources from our partners on Child Abuse Prevention Month
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Child Welfare Information Gateway (CWIG)
Child Welfare Information Gateway promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children, youth, and families by connecting child welfare, adoption, and related professionals as well as the public to information, resources, and tools covering topics on child welfare, child abuse and neglect, out-of-home care, adoption, and more.
Partner Resources
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Partnerships as a Pathway to Prevention
One in seven children in the United States experiences child abuse and/or neglect each year, resulting in an array of adverse outcomes, including chronic pain, psychological concerns (anxiety, anger and aggression, depression, and suicidal thoughts or ideation), and poor or delayed social and behavioral development. In light of that, Pathway to Resilience addressed the issues of child abuse and neglect through a cross-sector collaboration.
Partner Resources
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Building Better Childhoods
The Building Better Childhoods Toolkit is intended to support organizations in their interaction with media, the general public, and other stakeholders when speaking about childhood adversity.
Partner Resources
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Your Number Story
ACEs are Adverse Childhood Experiences. Our ACE history counts experiences of abuse, neglect and household challenges that happened to us as children. But that number does not define us. It is simply an entry point to our own personal story.
Partner Resources
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Ann & Robert H Lurie Children Hospital of Chicago App
Our Partner Lurie Children’s Hospital Launches the new app, called LCAST (Lurie Children’s Child Injury Plausibility Assessment Support Tool) aims to increase earlier recognition of abuse in babies and children under 4 years of age who have bruises, with the hope of decreasing the incidence of severe injury and death from child abuse in this age group.
Partner Resources
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Healthy Families America
Healthy Families America is the signature home visiting program of Prevent Child Abuse America, the nation’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and neglect.
Partner Resources
Support families during Child Abuse Prevention Month
New mom Alejandra says that Healthy Families America has helped her to heal from own childhood trauma and helped her to “see that I can raise my kid differently than how I was raised and give my boys the best version of me.”
Make a gift today and help support more families like Alejandra’s.
