Prevent Child Abuse America pays tribute to Sid Johnson, a tireless champion for children and families across the country and former President and CEO of this organization (1998–2005), who passed last month, surrounded by family, near Eugene, Oregon.
For the last several days, emotions that have run high for generations have clearly reached a boiling point, here in Chicago and throughout the country. The understandable outrage, profound sadness, and deafening demands for change stemming from the death of George Floyd and countless others before him are feelings that we at Prevent Child Abuse America share. For those who grieve, we grieve with you.
Recent news from the Department of Education regarding new rules under Title IX, anticipated to take effect by mid-August, raise serious concerns for victims of sexual abuse and misconduct in the higher education setting.
Each year, countless children are sexually victimized by those responsible for their care, be it in the home, in communities of worship, or in youth serving organizations. We must do better!
Chicago—Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) announced today that its chapters in seven states—Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia—successfully completed the organization’s strength-based chartering process in 2019. Fifteen more chapters—in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Washington, D.C.—are preparing for site visits in 2020, helping to extend the organization’s mission throughout the United States.
Chicago—Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America), the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect, announced today the addition of six new members to its national board of directors: Sanford Bohrer, Molly Campbell, Thomas Carhart, Danielle Laraque-Arena, Jodi Scheurenbrand, and Bernardo Wolfson.
Originally enacted in 1974, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the only federal program exclusively dedicated to the prevention, assessment, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect. It is also the only legislation that addresses universal primary prevention capacity-building at a local level and supports services essential to healthy and thriving communities in every state.
Chicago—Today, Dr. Melissa Merrick, president and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) calls on business leaders and policymakers to enact pragmatic strategies that prevent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Merrick is the lead author of a new report on ACEs, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she served previously as a subject matter expert for almost nine years.
There is a maternal health and mortality crisis in this country. I have seen how it devastates families and staff in the communities we serve at our Healthy Families America (HFA) affiliate sites across the country. We mourn the lives that have already been lost—mothers, daughters, cousins, aunts, friends, community leaders, beloved employees, and so many more. To honor their memory, we in the home visiting field must pledge to do better.
To thrive, children require relationships and contexts that support their healthy development in safe, consistent, and age-appropriate ways. Daily headlines remind us that all too many children, at the hands of those responsible for their care—be it family, friends, coaches, and/or faith leaders—have their rights violated through acts of violence. A recent series of articles in the New York Times highlighted the enormity of the problem of child sexual abuse victimization. Last year alone, 45 million images and videos of child sexual abuse were identified online, double the number from the previous year. Despite having done this work for decades, statistics like this continue to unsettle me. We have such a long way to go in our prevention efforts because we know that for every existing image there are multiple other children and youth being victimized in similar ways.
