June-July 2009 Newsletter

News from Idaho Children's Trust Fund

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in this issue

:: What's News in Idaho

:: Pinwheels for Prevention

:: Conferees

:: What's News Outside the Big Spud?

:: Grantees in Focus

:: Building a Movement to End Childhood Sexual Abuse

:: Orientation now available

Commentary
Prevent = Supporting Families

While every April is designated as Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month in Idaho and throughout the country, what really matters is how we take what we've learned and use it everyday to keep kids safe. We all have a stake in the wellbeing of the children in our communities. We will all benefit when they do well and become contributing members of society. We will all suffer if maltreatment leaves them less whole or damaged so that they are unable to contribute. It is surely true that we all do better when we all do better.

Whether you know it or not, you already shape children's lives. Every day, as a member of your community you shape children's lives in ways you might not even notice. Children hear what you say and see what you do. And, whether you are a bus driver, teacher, parent, neighbor, or random passer-by, you interact with children and play a role in their development.

You can do a lot to support families and children. You can start by reaching out. Anything you do to support kids and parents can help reduce the stress that often leads to abuse and neglect.

Be a friend to a parent you know. Ask how their children are doing. Draw on your own experiences to provide reassurance and support. If a parent seems to be struggling, offer to baby-sit or run errands, or just lend a friendly ear. Show you understand.

Be a friend to a child you know. Remember their names. Smile when you talk with them. Ask them about their day at school. Send them a card in the mail. Show you care.

Talk to your neighbors about looking out for one another's children. Encourage a supportive spirit among parents on your block. Show that you are involved.

Give your used clothing, furniture and toys for use by another family. This can help relieve the stress of financial burdens that parents sometimes take out on their kids.

Volunteer your time and money for programs in your community that support children and families, like parent support groups or day care centers.

Call or write your elected officials and ask them to support funding for parent support and child abuse prevention programs. Enclose copies of articles on child abuse and neglect from your local newspaper.

Write to the editor of your local newspaper sharing what you've learned about child abuse and neglect. Point out that preventing child abuse and neglect is an important investment in the future of your community.

Report suspected Abuse or Neglect. If you suspect abuse or neglect may be occurring, report it. Call 211.

Do as many of these things as you can. A child is depending on you.

What's News in Idaho?
Being Aware is a Good Start

Sherry Iverson at St Luke's Regional Medical Center says that placing pinwheels in the children's hospital windows really got people talking. At Mountain Home AFB, Connie Powers headed a group that planted 200 pinwheels to represent all the babies born on base last year. Mayors in several communities including Rexburg, Idaho Falls and Pocatello signed proclamations declaring Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month in April. In Lewiston, the Lewis-Clark State College baseball team planted a pinwheel garden at the downtown YMCA.

At the Our Kids, Our Business Capstone breakfast in Coeur d'Alene, former editor of the Miami Herald, David Lawrence, challenged attendees to encourage investment in early childhood education and child abuse prevention while acknowledging the difficulties. "Do I think this is easy?" Lawrence asked. "I do not. But you and I are obligated to succeed for the futures of our children and our schools are at stake. 'For these are all our children,' wrote the author James Baldwin. 'We will profit by, or pay for, whatever they become.'"

Head Start Centers throughout the Magic Valley sported pinwheel gardens planted by children from each center. At the 9th annual Celebration of Children at the Discovery Center in Boise, Disc Jockey, KeKe Luv, ended his 7 days of marathons and talked to supporters.

Numerous articles and opinion pieces supported the effort.

Pinwheels for Prevention
Raising public awareness is an important prevention strategy in any major public health endeavor. We are well aware of campaigns to change behavior like "Buckle Up for Safety" to get people to wear seat belts, "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" with Smoky the Bear as an emblem, more recently the Race for the Cure and the pink ribbons to raise money and find a cure for breast cancer.

The new pinwheel branding is the first step in a new campaign to raise public awareness that child abuse and neglect can be prevented. It refocuses the public's attention towards strengthening families to assure that all children have happy healthy childhoods free from abuse. The campaign will educate people around brain development and the impacts of trauma and neglect.

We still have a long way to go to have the recognition that the campaigns mentioned above now get but those campaigns all started somewhere too. We've laid a good foundation this year for future efforts.

Pinwheels for Prevention

Raising public awareness is an important prevention strategy in any major public health endeavor. We are well aware of campaigns to change behavior like "Buckle Up for Safety" to get people to wear seat belts, "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" with Smoky the Bear as an emblem, more recently the Race for the Cure and the pink ribbons to raise money and find a cure for breast cancer.

Find out more...

Conferees:
"Everyone has a place at the table"

"It's never enough just to tell people about some new insight. Rather, you have to get them to experience it in a way that evokes its power and possibility. Instead of pouring knowledge into peoples' heads, you need to help them grind a new set of eyeglasses so they can see the world in a new way." John Seely Brown, quoted in The World Café: Shaping Our Futures through Conversations That Matter.

At our Strengthening Families Training Institute in March, the over 150 people gathered engaged in a community café to talk about the future of child abuse prevention work in Idaho. The café process is a way of creating intentional but natural conversations that encourage people to put their best ideas into the group in this case to provide a shared vision of the future.

Each small group discussed three questions culminating in the final question: What will Idaho's social movement to strengthen families and prevent child abuse look like?

This question generated much discussion with the following conclusions about how we can build the interconnections necessary to create a shift in the society.

Agencies working together-advocating as one
Policy change
Step forward as a neighbor and community to be a part of a child's life
Be the connector
Everyone has a place at the table
Barriers being broken down
Use of the language of possibilities
A well defined, early childhood professional work force that provides quality practices for kids and families
All child care staff/programs are trained in Strengthening Families Curriculum
Universal pre-K that is modeled after Head Start
Nurturing, happy childhoods
Coming together from all backgrounds for one purpose
Protective factors built into every family
Patient Impatience
A big, extended family dinner
Community coming together
Neighborhoods have the resources and support that they need
Strength based practices with families

Some of these address how we need to be together. Others are proposals for programs to build and implement.

Find out more...

What's News Outside the Big Spud?

CHICAGO - The American Academy of Pediatrics wants doctors to stop using the term "shaken baby syndrome" in favor of something more scientific.

The nation's largest pediatricians' group recommends "abusive head trauma," calling it a more comprehensive diagnosis for brain, skull and spinal injuries associated with shaking and other head injuries inflicted on infants.

The academy says the new diagnostic term should be used in medical records and that it may provide more clarity in the courtroom.

Some defense attorneys and doctors believe shaken baby syndrome doesn't exist, arguing that it's impossible to shake babies hard enough to cause brain injuries without breaking their necks. But that argument is based on faulty evidence and is not shared by most physicians who specialize in treating child abuse, said Dr. Robert Block, former chairman of an academy committee on child abuse.

The National Institutes of Health says shaking can cause bruising, swelling, and bleeding, "which can lead to permanent, severe brain damage or death."

Block said legal challenges to the term "shaken baby syndrome" can detract from more important questions about whether abuse occurred. The new term can avoid that problem, he said.

"In no way does this change the position of the academy" about the potentially fatal risks of shaking an infant, said Block, a pediatrics professor at the University of Oklahoma's community medicine school in Tulsa.

The pediatrics academy recommends the new terminology in a policy statement being published in the May issue of its journal, Pediatrics.

Dr. Cindy Christian, a co-author of the policy statement and a child abuse researcher at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said evidence shows babies can be injured by severe shaking alone but sometimes they have head injuries caused by other abuse as well.

The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome says an estimated 1,200 to 1,400 U.S. children are injured or killed by shaking each year, but that the number may be much higher since many cases likely are not detected.

The advocacy group also uses the umbrella term "abusive head trauma," but says shaking is the leading cause of death in these cases.

The pediatricians' new policy says doctors should be alert to signs of head trauma that could include abusive shaking. Doctors also should teach parents safe ways to calm fussy babies and how to avoid the dangers of shaking, the policy advises.

Marilyn Barr, executive director of the center on shaken baby syndrome, praised the academy for "trying to clear murky waters."

Grantees in Focus
Traditional Parenting and the Five Protective Factors at Ft. Hall

Protecting their children while preserving native culture is the goal of the Keeping Kids Safe Project on the Shoshone-Bannock reservation at Fort Hall in eastern Idaho. Using the Positive Indian Parenting curriculum developed at Fort Hall and used by the National Indian Child Welfare Association, the Early Childhood Development Center staff collaborated with the Shoshone Bannock Tribe Social Services Program to present a six week parenting class. Says program director, Malissa Poog, "it was a total success, I was surprised by the numbers of parents, and they were the very young mothers up to the older parents who brought their teenagers to listen and learn."

This parenting class is one of the initiatives provided by the Shoshone Bannock Tribe Social Services Program within their Multi- Year grant funded by the Idaho Children's Fund to strengthen families in order to reduce the occurrences of child abuse and neglect.

The weaving of the two main messages made for a valuable and interactive group of classes. First and foremost, Indian parenting traditionally was characterized by patience and kindness. Children were kept close with cradle boards and blankets and were celebrated with songs, stories and dance. Parents knew that their children were always growing, developing and learning, even before birth. The whole community acted as parent--making sure that children were treated with respect and love. And storytelling and listening were at the heart of the family building values and mutual respect, naturally. Head Start teacher, Aradonna Perkins, presented this part of the curriculum. (Positive Indian Parenting: Honoring Our Children by Honoring Our Traditions), NICWA

The other message came from Malissa Poog, who shifted the focus of child abuse and neglect prevention efforts FROM family risks and deficits TO family strengthens and resiliency. A careful study of the five protective factors known to reduce child abuse and neglect were presented and discussed. Using new strength based knowledge; parents wrote and shared in activities like the one below:

"Take time to write about:

What is my parenting style?
What would I do if felt I were losing control of a situation?
Who are the people I can talk to?
Where could I go to for help?
Who is my network of support?"

Throughout all 10 evenings, the community of parents grew together in the warm, welcoming setting, organized by Sarah Hubble, parent liaison for the project. Meals were served, children were involved in craft activities, and to end each evening, a parent- child project was offered. "No one wanted to leave, they were talking to each other, connecting and smiling," said Poog.

What's next? As the Shoshone Bannock Child Welfare Program moves into its second year of ICTF funding, they are planning for more parenting classes and community time. They see a need for further collaboration among services provided on the reservation for studies show that parent education, to be effective in improving parents' child-rearing skills, needs to be offered in conjunction with other services. Finally, the caseworker plays an important role in empowering parents to strengthen their families and keep their children safe. Therefore, connecting case workers and strengthening families activities is a must.

Building a Movement to End Childhood Sexual Abuse

Unbelievable!

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys will be sexually assaulted by age 18.
Most people who sexually abuse children look and appear to act like everyone else and in 90% or more of cases, the child knows and trusts the person who commits the abuse.
In fact 34% of victims are abused by family members.

Yes, these facts are difficult to believe, and research reports that this disbelief or denial is a major contributor to ongoing occurrences of child sexual abuse. People just don't talk about it, as if it were a taboo subject; don't ask, don't tell. Yet, the American Medical Association names child sexual abuse as "a silent epidemic," so widespread that most people know someone who has been or is being abused.

The Idaho Children's Trust Fund continues to ask and to research the question; what can be done to curb child sexual abuse in our families, our communities and our towns in Idaho? It is clear; people must begin talking, begin facing the facts, and begin taking active measures to protect and to prevent. The ICTF is making this talking and learning possible following the example of other states' efforts and using a curriculum proven to reduce the incidences of child sexual abuse in other parts of the country.

The Trust Fund took the first steps towards building a child abuse prevention movement by bringing together concerned practitioners at our Training Institute this spring. We brought in Suzy Fenger from Driggs, Idaho and Elaine Knobbs from Bend, Oregon to talk about what they have done in their communities to engage key adults in stopping sexual abuse of children. Participants wondered "Why aren't we doing this everywhere?" and made action plans to extend this work statewide beginning with a plan to train trainers to teach concerned citizens, community by community.

The training that will be used to train adults, Stewards of Children, was developed by Darkness to Light as a prevention and response program for adults. At the heart of their work Stewards of Children upholds if child sexual abuse is to be prevented, adults and adult communities must become aware of the problem and then take action to prevent and protect. The ICTF and our partners have plans to train up to 25 new prevention facilitators (8 hours workshop) in key geographic regions within the next year. As part of this training, community organization strategies will be addressed. To build a safety net of protection, many youth and family serving programs must be trained.

Preventing child sexual abuse is a choice.

"It does not simply happen on its own, and no adult is off the hook. There are lots of arguments that some adults don't know when it is happening, there will always be perpetrators, and so on. These protests are a distraction from the fact that every adult has a choice to make about whether to not they learn about child sexual abuse and whether they take steps to protect children. We don't get child sexual abuse in 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys by happenstance." Stewards of Children

The Idaho Children's Trust Fund has made the choice to coordinate a statewide program that gets adult talking about and learning the facts about child sexual abuse prevention; making child sexual abuse, believable in order to prevent it.

Stay tuned for training dates and further articles on child sexual abuse research and information.