EveryChild announces Child Abuse Prevention Month programming
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. To spark conversations about childhood well-being and build awareness of the community resources available for ensuring safe, healthy childhoods for all, EveryChild, formerly known as the Child Abuse Council, is leading a variety of events, activities, and community trainings throughout the month.
“Childhood well-being is a community issue, and Child Abuse Prevention Month is an opportunity for us all to come together to celebrate the small steps we can take to strengthen children and families, not just this month but throughout the year—and far into the future,” said Mark Mathews, EveryChild’s executive director. “We take a proactive, strength-based approach to preventing child abuse, and that starts with a foundation of awareness and education.”
“This year, we’ve got the calendar jam-packed with different ways for anybody, no matter who they are, to get involved,” said Alyssa Acton, EveryChild’s community education program manager.
Major events include several Pinwheel Ceremonies at locations across the Quad Cities and the Celebrate Every Child Gala on April 28. Throughout the month, community members are encouraged to join a range of meetings, information sessions, and free trainings, while different family activities centered on wellness, safety, and relationship-building are suggested each week.
For Acton, the overarching goal of Child Abuse Prevention Month and the agency’s community education initiatives throughout the year is to build a common language the community can use to talk about childhood well-being and preventing child abuse.
“Childhood trauma, the challenges of parenting—these can be difficult things for people to discuss,” said Acton. “But if we all talk about the same topics with the same vocabulary, and we do it over and over again, these issues become normalized. When they lose that stigma and we become more willing to talk about them, that makes it easier to ask for help or find the information we need.”
EveryChild’s community education programming ranges from basic overviews and refreshers to more in-depth, targeted trainings. Acton’s team meets regularly with early childhood educators, case workers, law enforcement officers, parents, and even nonprofit administrators to equip them with the tools and knowledge they need to support community efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect and lay the foundation for every child to thrive.
“While we have great evidence-based licensed curriculums, we also have the ability to adapt our materials to suit the people we’re talking to,” said Acton. “We can go into a lot of different places and show how, if we train this particular group of people, it will benefit families and kids in our community.
“When you know better, you do better,” she added. “The more information you have, the more conversations you have, the more you’re able to make healthy decisions. That’s what we provide, and that’s how we’re setting our community up to succeed.”
