One Way Our Community Can Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

Summer is here and children are enjoying their "freedom".  We want to be sure that our children are safe.   Darkness to Light, is a training to end Child Sexual Abuse that will be offered for free to community groups over the next two months until the end of August 2013.

The New Beginnings Exchange Club Downriver would like to partner with community groups to host this free training.  The goal is to train 75 adults in the Downriver area to raise awareness of the harm done by child sexual abuse and encourage adults to create safe communities where every child is safe.  For more details please contact Lacea Zavala lzavala@guidance-center.org or call 734 785 7705 ext. 7291.

Preventing Child Abuse

Child abuse is a tragedy that can be avoided. We can help by supporting the things that contribute to the healthy development of children, and are actually “protective factors.” Protective factors help parents cope with the challenges of parenting and other parts of life, especially when they are under stress.

Research has shown that these protective factors are linked to a lower incidence of child abuse:

• Nurturing and attachment of child with parent

• Parents’ knowledge of parenting, child and youth development

• Parental resilience

• Social connections

• Concrete (material) supports for parents

• Social and emotional competence of children

Child abuse and neglect can be an unintended consequence of family crisis, a parent’s stresses such as those that are experienced from unemployment, or other personal difficulties such as substance abuse.

Some of the ways that The Information Center and other agencies we work with in this region can help are:

• Connecting parents with food pantries and clothing closets

• Providing referrals that connect people with the right services that can help them

• Providing immediate assistance and support in the event of an eviction or other emergency

• Supporting the family throughout a crisis

• Linking family members to jobs, job training, transportation, and other resources that lead to economic security and self-sufficiency

• Providing access for health care, child care support and other services

• In short, stepping forward to intervene and help when a family problem or emergency is happening.

On the other hand, ignoring the problems and thinking they are just going to go away, is one of the surest ways for problems to compound and grow until they are unmanageable. That is when child abuse is most likely to occur.

For help, call The Information Center's Helpline at (734) 282-7171. Watch this blog for details on the upcoming Strengthening Families Conference on April 20th.