Child Abuse Prevention Month is our yearly chance to build support for prevention across South Carolina. We come together with partners, highlight prevention successes and remind everyone, as S.C. Department of Social Services Director Tony Catone so aptly shared at our State House news conference, “that an ounce of prevention is really worth a pound of cure.”
We often say that prevention happens in partnership, which includes everyone from neighbors helping neighbors to Governor McMaster’s declaration of April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.
State Leaders Join Together
As an appropriate start, state leaders gathered at the State House on April 2 for a news conference. Lt. Governor Pamela Evette shared her experiences with seeing home visiting programs in action, and urged everyone to “Be an advocate. Be the eyes and ears of the little ones who cannot always speak for themselves.” Lt. Gov. Evette read Governor Henry McMaster’s official Child Abuse Prevention Month proclamation.
Committee on Children Chair Senator Mike Reichenbach and Vice Chair Representative Carla Schuessler shared reflections on our shared responsibility to support children and their families.
Sen. Reichenbach highlighted, “There’s a shared responsibility for us all from the public policy perspective, from the private sector, from the faith community, from the nonprofit community, for us all to do everything possible to give a voice to the voiceless and to empower those who feel not powerful.”
Rep. Schuessler reminded us, “It can be easy to focus on statistics, but behind every number is a child, a family and a story behind every child abuse number.”
Director Catone shared S.C. DSS prevention initiatives, including the Community Pathway Preparedness Procedure Program, which leverages federal financial participation to support the state’s upstream prevention efforts to strengthen children and families across the state.
Catone also emphasized the need for a “robust continuum…of conditional protective services, prevention providers and community organizations,” highlighting their support for family resource centers and other innovative approaches to expand the reach of positive parenting programs.
Acting State Child Advocate Margaret Bodman reminded everyone that we can “all do something about child abuse.” She recommended specific ways to help, from creating safe neighborhood spaces for children and families to adopting policies that support families, child care and education. She concluded, “The fight isn’t about ‘they.’ It is about ‘us.’”
Sue Williams thanked those who stood with us, “When you, the people who write our laws, set our budgets and lead our systems, stand here publicly in partnership with us, it sends a clear message that the well-being of South Carolina’s children and their families is a priority.”
She concluded, “I have said many times that children cannot vote. They cannot lobby. They cannot show up at a budget hearing and make the case. That is our job, and I am genuinely proud to do that job alongside the leaders who joined us today.”
