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Leaving Children in Hot Cars May Not Be as Infrequent as We Think

Bookmark and Share Saturday, June 25th, 2011
safe kids south carolina director

Heidi Vaughn, Safe Kids South Carolina Director

Recently, The State newspaper published an article written by our Safe Kids South Carolina Director, Heidi Vaughn. The topic: Child Deaths in Hot Cars Can Be Prevented. We soon began to get a lot of feedback, but this story really brought the issue home. Read what one local Columbia woman had to say about witnessing this risky behavior.

“This is a great article, I enjoyed reading it. Sadly but true this has become a growing epidemic. I actually witnessed this last year at Stein Mart, a young baby in a vehicle with the windows up during the heat of the day. I went in and asked the manager to make an announcement for the owner to report to the service desk and the owner was actually standing there beside me. She got really upset with me and told me to mind my own business and that the baby was not alone in the car. She had an older child sleeping in the back seat…..( crazy)…. she was clueless and continued shopping. Situations like this makes it difficult for an innocent by-stander to intervene. Anyway, it was a sad situation.”

Kudos to this woman for understanding and recognizing this situation as child abuse. For more information on this topic, go to our archives on Understanding and Recognizing Child Abuse and Neglect.

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Using Evidence to Support Efforts to Strengthen Families

Bookmark and Share Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

Evidence-based family strengthening practice involves identifying, assessing, and implementing strategies that are supported by scientific research as being effective.  Just as we expect our family physician to keep abreast of which treatment options work best, we want to use evidence in our own work to:

  • Ensure we are integrating the best available research with current child abuse prevention program expertise to guide our work with children and families.
  • Invest our limited dollars in programs and practices backed by evidence that shows they produce positive outcomes for children and families.
  • Become more informed funders, consumers, and community partners to prevent child abuse and neglect.
  • Foster a culture of continuous quality improvement by promoting ongoing evaluation and quality assurance activities across all prevention and family supported programs.

The terms “evidence-based” and “evidence-informed” are defined differently in different contexts.  Evidence-based practices are approaches to prevention or treatment that are validated by some form of documented scientific evidence.  This includes findings established through controlled clinical studies, but other methods of establishing evidence are valid as well.  Evidence-based programs use a defined curriculum or set of services that, when implemented with fidelity as a whole, has been validated by some form of scientific evidence.  Evidence-based practices and programs may be described as “supported” or “well-supported,” depending on the strength of the research design.

Evidence-informed practices use the best available research and practice knowledge to guide program design and implementation.  This informed practice allows for innovation while incorporating the lessons learned from the existing research literature.  Ideally, evidence-based and evidence-informed programs and practices should be responsive to families’ cultural backgrounds, community values, and individual preferences.

Evidence-Based/Evidence-Informed Programs and Practices for Family Strengthening and Child Abuse Prevention

Research has identified a number of evidence-based and evidence-informed programs and practices that strengthen families and reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect.  National registries and websites provide more detailed information about particular programs.  Readers are encouraged to evaluate the level of evidence available for any specific program, as well as to consider its appropriateness for specific families and communities.  Some strategies that have been identified as evidence-based include:

  • Family-centered interventions
  • Individualized community supports
  • In-home services
  • Family-centered community building
  • Parent education

Selecting and Implementing Evidence-Based/Evidence-Informed Programs and Practices

Selecting and implementing the appropriate evidence-based or evidence-informed programs and practices can be daunting.  The FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, with the help of State and national partners, developed Integrating Evidence-Based Practices into CBCAP Programs A Tool for Critical Discussions.  This Discussion Tool was designed to promote conversations and careful thought to guide child abuse and neglect prevention programs in the selection, implementation, documentation, and evaluation of evidence-based or evidence-informed programs and practices.

The Discussion Tool was developed for use in a training environment with a skilled technical assistance provider.  However, FRIENDS has made the Discussion Tool’s Introduction and Appendices available on its website.  For more information about the Discussion Tool, visit: www.friendsnrc.org/CBCAP/priority/evidence.htm

The following online resources identify evidence-based programs.  This is not an endorsement or an exhaustive list of resources.  It is important to note that each registry may use different criteria to evaluate the strength of a program’s supporting evidence.

Blueprints for Violence Prevention (Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence)

www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints

California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare

www.cachildwelfareclearinghouse.org

Guide for Child Welfare Administrators on Evidence Based Practice

(National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators)

www.aphsa.org/home/doc/Guide-for-Evidence-Based-Practice.pdf

Model Programs Guide (The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention)

www.dsgonline.com/mpg

National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices

(Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)

nrepp.samhsa.gov

Promising Practices Network

www.promisingpractices.net

In addition, Identifying and Selecting Evidence-Based Interventions, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, offers guidance on how to determine which evidence-based practices and programs are the best fit for a specific organization’s goals:

prevention.samhsa.gov/evidencebased/evidencebased.pdf

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Levers for Change

Bookmark and Share Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

Deepening and Sustaining a Protective-Factors Approach

Adapted from the center for the study of social policies strengthening family initiative

Implementing a protective-factors approach to child abuse and neglect prevention is more than just implementing a model or starting a new prevention program.  It means engaging the programs, services, and systems that are already supporting and working with children and families as partners in preventing maltreatment and promoting optimal development.

To do this, States participating in the Strengthening Families National Network are using three “levers for change.”  These are high-level approaches to effecting sweeping changes in how we support communities and families to become stronger and better able to provide children with safe and happy childhoods.  The three levers for change are:

  • Parent partnerships
  • Professional development
  • Policies and systems

Parent Partnerships

Parent partnerships are one way to make sure that prevention strategies (a) are responsive and relevant to all kinds of family needs and choices and (b) model the relationships among families, service providers, and community resources that can promote the best possible environment for children’s development.  Parent partnerships work when many parents are consistently involved as decision- makers in program planning, implementation, and assessment.

Suggestions for implementing parent partnerships:

  • Partner with parent organizations.
  • Create and maintain prominent leadership roles for parents.
  • Learn about what motivates parents to engage in program leadership.
  • Provide leadership training and support for parents.
  • Create opportunities for parents to engage directly around the protective factors.
  • Designate specific resources for parent engagement, participation, and leadership

Illinois and Washington have developed models for semi-structured conversations among parents that focus on building protective factors, promoting parent leadership, and creating lasting partnerships throughout communities.  Strengthening Families Kansas launched a research initiative to better understand how parents access the support they need to nurture their children, and how agencies use parent input to inform program and practice changes,

Professional Development

Infusing the protective factors into training for all people who work with children and families helps build a workforce with common knowledge, goals, and language.  Professionals at every level, from frontline workers to supervisors and administrators, require protective-factors training that is tailored to their role.  Such training should impart a cohesive message focused on strengthening families.

Strategies for enhancing professional development:

  • Provide trainings on protective factors to current trainers to leverage existing training capacity.
  • Integrate strengthening families themes and the protective factors into college, continuing education, and certificate programs for those working with children and families.
  • Incorporate family strengthening concepts into new worker trainings.
  • Develop online training and distance learning opportunities.
  • Provide training at conferences and meetings.
  • Reinforce family strengthening training with structured mechanisms for continued support, such as reflective supervision and ongoing mentoring.

Strengthening Families Alaska is being integrated into the social work and early childhood coursework at two of the State’s universities.  Initiatives in Missouri and Arkansas are adapting child care resource and referral contracts to provide incentives for offering training on the protective factors.

Policies and Systems

AN effective protective-factors approach includes coordination across diverse initiatives, using common language and goals for families in all levels of work.  The common focal point is building protective factors in families for the prevention of maltreatment and optimal development of all children.  Integrating a protective-factors approach into regulations and procedures that govern everyday practice in child and family services is an effective way to create broad and sustainable change.

Strategies for building collaboration across systems:

  • Engage multidisciplinary partners.
  • Link to cross-systems planning efforts.
  • Adapt contractual methods for funding and defining programs to include a protective factors focus.
  • Use protective factors to define a shared set of desired outcomes for families across systems and disciplines.
  • Identify the State agencies that fund early childhood initiatives and engage these agencies in planning and implementing family strengthening activities.
  • Revise job requirements, performance reviews, tools, assessment forms, and performance contracts to reflect a protective-factors approach to working with children and families.

Massachusetts has aligned $15 million in contracts from three separate funding sources around building the protective factors.  Strengthening Families Georgia is exploring integration of protective factors into its child care licensing procedures.

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Promoting Safe, Stable, and Nurturing Relationships

Bookmark and Share Thursday, September 30th, 2010

CDC’s Strategic Direction for Child Maltreatment Prevention

The protective factors described throughout this resource guide support safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs) between children and adults.  SSNRs between children and their caregivers are the antithesis of maltreatment and other adverse exposures that occur during childhood and compromise health over the lifespan.  Healthy relationships are fundamental to the development of the brain and to children’s physical, emotional, social, behavioral, and intellectual capacities.

Characteristics of Healthy Relationships

  • Safety. Safety refers to the extent to which a child is free from fear and secure from physical or psychological harm within his or her social and physical environment.
  • Stability. This refers to the degree of predictability and consistency in a child’s environment. Families that are stable and have regular routines provide children with the consistency needed to lessen the impact of stressful experiences.
  • Nurture. Nurture refers to the extent to which a parent or caregiver is available and able to sensitively respond to and meet the needs of their child.

Importance of Social Context

To promote SSNRs and prevent child maltreatment effectively, it is critical to address social determinants such as neighborhood economic distress, lack of social support, social norms, and policies. Social contexts help to create and support SSNRs and/or child maltreatment. Understanding the role that these social factors play, as well as interventions that work to address them, may improve our ability to plan and implement effective prevention policies.

Prevention Strategy

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strategy to prevent child maltreatment is organized around four priorities:

Measuring Impact

  • Monitor fatal and nonfatal child maltreatment at national and State levels.
  • Develop and monitor specific, valid, and reliable measures of SSNRs.
  • Identify and quantify the social and economic burden of child maltreatment.

Creating and Evaluating New Approaches to Prevention

  • Identify populations at risk, modifiable risk and protective factors, and the best times at settings for interventions.
  • Evaluate parenting-focused prevention strategies.
  • Evaluate public and organization policies for prevention.

Applying and Adapting Effective Practices

  • Accelerate adoption and adaptation of evidence-based prevention strategies.

Building Community Readiness

  • Build community capacity to implement evidence-based prevention approaches.
  • Develop prevention and strategy tools for communities and organizations.
  • Establish partnerships that facilitate dissemination and implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies.

Learn more about this and other CDC prevention strategies on the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Website: www.cdc.gov/injury

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How To Keep Your Kids Safe On The Internet

Bookmark and Share Monday, September 27th, 2010
  • Keep the computer in a common room, where you can monitor whom your child is talking to and what websites they are browsing.
    Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

    Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

  • Educate yourself. Teenagers’ cell phones and computers are living diaries of their friends, activities and whereabouts. Know the people listed in their electronic phone book and learn how to review calls and text messages (Check the manuals for instructions).
  • Establish rules and guidelines with your children. Explain what websites are ok for them to use and what sites, chat rooms, games, blogs, or certain music downloads are off limits. Discuss consequences for breaking the rules.
  • Monitor your teen’s emails and Instant Messaging. Know who your teen is communicating with online. Review his/her cell phone and Instant Message contact lists. Check their e-mail address book on a regular basis and ask about any unfamiliar addresses. Use every available opportunity to meet and get to know these friends AND their parents.
  • Enforce the consequences. For example, if you catch your teen Instant Messaging someone they don’t personally know, take away the computer, Blackberry, or cell phone privileges for an extended period of time.
  • Be sure that your children’s screen names are appropriate and NOT suggestive, like “sexyteen05” or “cutegirl6.” Predators are more likely to pursue children with sexually suggestive names.
  • Visit your teen’s website or personal blog. Review their profiles, pictures, and video/music uploads. Check the links that your teen includes on his/her page. Make sure that the information on these pages is appropriate.
  • Communicate regularly (not just once!) with your children about the benefits and dangers of the Internet. Reinforce the fact that people are NOT always who they say they are. It is very easy for a 56-year old male to pose as a 13- year old teenage girl when chatting online. Stress the importance of telling an adult if someone is making them feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused online.
  • Tell your child to NEVER reveal their name, address, phone number, picture of any other personal information to ANYONE online (or through other digital devices). Children may think that giving a first name or picture is harmless, but predators can easily use that information to track your children’s last name, address, school, etc. Once that information is on the Internet, it is impossible to retract.
  • Learn the lingo! Teens use their own language to communicate online and via text messaging. Do you know what the acronyms “TAW,” “POS,” or “LMIRL”* mean? Your children do and they use acronyms like these to keep you in the dark. When text messaging, teens may write in phrases like “cu l8r” (See you later). Parents can go to teenangels.com and type acronyms into an active “Chat Translator” to decode what their teens are saying.
  • Consider investing in monitoring or filtering software. Software can help parents limit access to certain areas and material online. It can also help parents see their children’s IM conversations, e-mails and websites they are viewing online. Please note however that this software is NOT meant to be a substitute for parental monitoring and active involvement.

For more information on how to keep your children safe online and with wireless devices, check the following websites: netsmartz.com; safekids.com; ncmec.org; getnetwise.org; theantidrug.com. To report any disturbing incidents or suspected predators, go to cybertipline.com or call 1-800-THE LOST (1-800-843-5678).

* (TAW: Teachers are watching, POS: Parent over shoulder, LMIRL: Let’s meet in real life)

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Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

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Keeping Children Safe in a Tech-Savvy World

Bookmark and Share Sunday, September 26th, 2010

Today’s world is full of technology. As a parent, you may be feeling like your children live on an alternate planet, speaking their own language. Every time you turn on the television, there are advertisements for the latest cell phones, computers, hand-helds, and more. These personal technology devices can provide positive information and connection to a greater community. They can even be convenient ways for your teens to keep in touch with you if their plans or schedules change, but there is a dark side. The Internet and other personal technology devices can open a world of danger for children and put them at great risk for sexual solicitation.

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

One in seven children are sexually solicited online each year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (www.ncmec.org). Online sexual solicitation is defined as “unprovoked, uninvited, or unwanted requests to engage in sexual activities, engage in sexually explicit conversations, or give personal sexual information.” The awareness surrounding sexual solicitation via the Internet has increased dramatically in the past couple of years, due to the alarming number of children being targeted and victimized.

Teens are very creative when it comes to using their cell phones and other wireless devices. Instead of passing notes in class, they send text messages. Additionally, they can access the Internet from their phones and download pictures, videos and music. Wireless devices are an instant and constant source of information, from fi nding the latest party to contacting the closest drug dealer. They can also receive messages from anyone, friend or not, as long as the other person has the cell phone number.

Similarly, teens use the Internet as one of their primary methods of communicating with friends. Websites like myspace.com, friendster.com, facebook.com, blogspot.com, etc., and messaging services like AOL, Yahoo or MSN Instant Messenger, allow teens to post pictures of themselves, set up personal websites, post blogs, and chat live with friends. Unfortunately, these sites also allow for predators to easily seek out potential victims, as they can search for users by location, age, etc., and pretend to be the child’s peer.

The Internet is still the biggest tool that predators are using to target children, but cell phones, and hand-held computers are among the new tools that they are using to keep ahead of the game. Many cell phones now come equipped with the ability to take pictures and video, making it very easy for predators to transmit pornographic images. Children are being photographed and recorded without their knowledge or consent and these images are making their way onto the Internet and via wireless networks. You may have heard or seen news stories of predators using cell phones to take pictures underneath girls’ skirts,
in locker rooms, etc.

Fortunately, there is a lot you can do as a parent to keep your children safe. The single most important thing you can do is: EDUCATE YOURSELF. The following are some tips that you can follow to help keep your children safe from online predators.

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Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

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Talking with Your Child about Personal Safety

Bookmark and Share Saturday, September 25th, 2010

Open communication throughout childhood is very important.

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

  • Talk with your child every day and take time to really listen and observe. Learn as many details as you can about your child’s activities and feelings. Encourage him to share problems and concerns with you.
  • Open up healthy communication with your children about sexuality using simple and accurate language, thus breaking the cultural silence on the subject. After all, it is offenders who rely upon our silence!
  • Teach children to identify their feelings, including the feeling of being mixed-up or confused. If they ever feel mixed-up or sad because someone asks them to keep a secret, they can ask you for help.
  • Remind your child that sometimes we like touching and sometimes we don’t, but that touching is never a secret. Children can say “no” to touching and that they shouldn’t touch someone else who says, “No touching.”

If You Think Your Child Has been Abused

  • Believe your child. Children rarely lie about sexual abuse.
  • Praise the child for telling you about the experience.
  • Convey your support for the child. A child’s greatest fear is that he is responsible for the incident. Telling your child he is not responsible is extremely important.
  • Control your reaction. Do not let the child see how upset you may be.
  • Report the suspected abuser directly to the police or Child Protective Services, SC DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES (1-800-768-5558).
  • Remember that taking action is most important. If you don’t, other children will continue to be at risk.
  • Don’t blame yourself. Sexual abuse is a fact in our society. Many people who molest children have access to them through their jobs, family lives or community activities.

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Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

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Child Sexual Abuse

Bookmark and Share Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Today in South Carolina, the fastest-growing type of child abuse reported involves children who are sexually abused by other children. Right now, as hard as it is to accept, there are young people who are using threats, physical force, or harassment of younger or less powerful children in order to meet some of their own personal needs.

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

Why would a child act in that way toward another child? Isn’t this just kids being kids? Won’t it stop if I ignore it? Does this mean my child’s been sexually abused? What will people think?

Be brave; your child needs you to be direct and honest and help him change the behavior. You do not have to do this alone.  There are some very specifi c actions that you can take which will bring help to both you and your child. There are people in South Carolina with extensive experience working in this area who will be glad to help you. They will help answer your questions and provide you with support.

Ways to Take Action:

1. Give your child clear messages that the behavior is harmful and unacceptable, against the law, and that you are concerned about it and him, but that the child is loved and accepted. It will be helpful for you to name the inappropriate behavior and state how it affected the other child and you (i.e., “When you lifted Suzy’s skirt, Suzy was embarrassed and I was uncomfortable.”).

2. Give your child correct information and clear limits about what is “okay” and what is “not okay” behavior. This should include specific consequences for going beyond the limits as well as support for your child’s steps toward responsible behavior. You may want to build a team of the adults who come in contact with your child in order to support his changing behavior and provide caring and clear supervision. This team could include teachers, camp counselors, baby sitters, sports coaches, and therapists, among others.

3. Get professional help to improve the chance of your child having a normal happy life. People learn abusive behaviors; people are not born knowing them, but the behaviors and their impact may not go away without specific help.

4. If your child has done something that makes you feel uncomfortable, but you are just not sure if it is abuse or harassment or “just kid stuff,” ASK. Please refer to the ‘Violence, Neglect & Abuse Related Resources’ section in your county in the rear of the community prevention resource guide.

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Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

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Parenting Tips for Fathers

Bookmark and Share Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Fathers, you have a special place in their children’s lives. Children whose fathers take an active part in their daily lives tend to be more well-adjusted and better equipped for success. It’s not easy being a father, but don’t think that they aren’t as important as the mother. Roles may not always be the same, but parental interest in children can make a significant difference. .

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

  • Give your children hugs and kisses often; children need physical comfort and contact from their fathers.
  • Tell them how much they mean to you, “You’re really important to me.”
  • Praise their efforts, especially if they don’t succeed; teach them the importance of doing their best.
  • Give your children rules and make sure your rules are clear to them; don’t say “maybe” when you mean “no.”
  • Explain your rules; it’s important that children understand why they need to follow those rules.
  • Be consistent with your rules; children get confused when you seem to change your mind without any reason.
  • Use effective discipline to help children develop self-control; set limits and encourage children to feel good about them.
  • Look directly at your children when they talk to you.
  • Gain your children’s trust by listening to them when they come to you with a problem.
  • Be honest with your children; admit your mistakes and teach your children the importance of taking responsibility and making amends.
  • Tell your children that they can come to you with any questions; otherwise they may receive inappropriate answers from other people.
  • Remember that you are your children’s role model; they are looking to you to learn how a responsible and mature adult acts.
  • Do household chores with your children; make them feel good about helping you and teach them that fathers also share household duties.
  • Encourage your children to think for themselves; guide and help them with their decision making process.

Provided by Prevent Child Abuse America

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Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

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Time to Listen-Time to Share

Bookmark and Share Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

A father of a large family I know once shared a secret that the “golden hours” with his teenagers were after midnight. He didn’t mean this literally, but he was suggesting that the late hours are often best for letting down your hair and getting close to your adolescent.

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

Download Complete Prevention Resource Guide

The late-hour fatigue factor tends to open the kids up (and you too). Their defenses are down. It’s time to share, open up your heart, and listen sympathetically. If you’re there, uncritical, and their friend – not boss or first sergeant as earlier in the day – they may just open up. And if you want a really successful conversation, when you get together, make sure there is a pizza on hand, or chips, or some other snack. You know the way to a kid’s heart. Above all, every teenager needs private, uninterrupted time with one or both parents frequently. Do it on a regular basis. Give the child private moments, when she alone is the center of your attention, concern and love.

Tips on Parenting Teenagers

1. Make sure each rule is reasonable, clear and enforceable. If one of those characteristics is missing, the potential for conflict will be increased.

2. There is a difference between giving advice and listening. Sometimes, because as parents we want to be helpful to our young people, we get the two confused and our kids call it “lecturing” or “nagging” and tune us out. Ask, “May I make a suggestion about that?” and if they answer “Yes” you’ll find you really have their attention.

3. Adolescents are very sensitive to fairness. When you need to make a rule that includes a double standard (i.e. about drinking, sex, use of the car) let them know that you are aware that it is not fair and that as a parent that is your role.

4. If you say to your teenager, “That’s your decision,” be prepared to mean exactly that and not to be angry or disappointed by the decision made. Specifi cally be prepared to accept unusual hair and dress styles if you feel your teenager has a right to decide on his appearance.

5. As teenagers get more outspoken and independent, many parents begin to feel less important and like they are “losing” their son or daughter. It’s okay! The need for distance from family and closeness with friends is part of healthy development. However, studies show that parents continue to be teens most important influence.

6. When talking with a young person whose response is frequently “I don’t know” or “I don’t care” try not to take it as back talk. Those phrases are usually indicators of feelings of pressure or attack. Work on how he can feel safe and encouraged to share his thoughts and feelings.

7. Throughout your child’s teen years, talk with other parents and family members about how they handled similar situations. Remember to take great care of yourself, continue to tell your teenager that you love him and fill your growing free time with activities you enjoy.

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Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

Download 2010-2011 Child Safety and Prevention Calendar

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