Melissa T. Merrick, PhD, is President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America), the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect.
At Prevent Child Abuse America, we work hard to realize our vision of a world where all children grow up happy, healthy, and prepared to succeed in supportive families and communities.
You can influence public policy. Advocacy happens in many different ways, but at its core advocacy is about raising awareness, building and leveraging relationships, and educating others around the issues and policies that matter to you.
During the 2020 election, we want to draw candidates’ attention to the issue of child abuse and neglect prevention, and the critical importance of supporting families and improving both child and parent well-being.
To say that the COVID-19 pandemic has upended daily life is an understatement. For many of us, the pandemic has required that we reconfigure our whole lives—not only in terms of how we live and work but also in how we think of larger social issues.
Let’s raise awareness about the impact of childhood adversity on mental health and connect families across the country with resources like counseling, therapy, and support groups they need to build resilience, cope with trauma, and thrive.
In our 2024 Mental Health curated resources, you will learn about mental health and wellness, and you’ll find resources to help you navigate difficult situations. Our goal is to empower you to take action to improve your health and the health of your community.
As we celebrate mental health this year, let’s work together to prevent child abuse, support those who have experienced adversity and connect them with the support they need. When a parent or caregiver has positive mental health, they are better equipped to handle stress, be more productive, and realize their full potential.
If you or a loved one is showing signs of mental illness, it’s important to get help or seek early treatment. Healing is possible!
This study provides social work and other advocates with state-level estimates of the economic burden of child maltreatment and facilitates the interpretation of the findings to be used in advocacy efforts.
June is Pride Month. A moment to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots and promote equal rights and opportunities for all lesbians, gay men, bisexual, transgender people, and those who are questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.
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. CAPTA protects vulnerable children by providing critical funding for programs that aid healthy child development and reduce the likelihood of more serious problems in the future. CAPTA helps children and families in all 50 states through services such as evidence-based voluntary home visiting programs, early childhood and child care programs, mental and substance use services, family resource centers, and respite and crisis care, among many other valuable resources. CAPTA is also the only legislation that addresses universal primary prevention capacity building at a local level, supporting services essential to healthy and thriving communities.
Chicago—The U.S. Children’s Bureau, Casey Family Programs, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Prevent Child Abuse America are partnering to launch a national effort to prove it is possible to fundamentally rethink child welfare by creating the conditions for strong, thriving families where children are free from harm.
This first-of-its-kind effort—Thriving Families, Safer Children: A National Commitment to Well-Being—will work across the public, private and philanthropic sectors to assist jurisdictions in developing more just and equitable systems that benefit all children and families and break harmful intergenerational cycles of trauma and poverty.
“Having invested heavily in elevating the voices of parents and youth with lived experience in child welfare, we now have not only the opportunity but the obligation to act on what they’ve told us they need to stay strong and healthy,” says Jerry Milner, associate commissioner for the Children’s Bureau at the U.S. Administration of Children and Families. “Our four organizations are uniquely prepared and driven to do just that, by transforming child welfare into a child and family well-being system.”
Thriving Families will help select jurisdictions move from traditional, reactive child protection systems to systems designed to proactively support child and family well-being and prevent child maltreatment and unnecessary fami