United Way leads new collaboration to prevent child abuse and neglect

When in doubt, make the call.

That point is stressed over and over by Onondaga County officials and experts who work with at-risk families and abused and neglected children. The point was made again at this summer’s Keeping Kids Safe community forums: If you are concerned for a child’s well-being, do not hesitate to call a child-abuse hotline. And if you continue to see signs of abuse or neglect, call again.

Raising community awareness is a special focus of the Keeping Kids Safe Initiative—a collaborative effort convened by United Way to identify and eliminate roadblocks to our community’s child abuse prevention efforts. As part of the initiative’s work, a series of forums are being held this summer to inform community residents, listen to their views, and learn from their experiences.

“People know what’s happening in their neighborhoods,” said Jenni Bartholomew, vice president of United Way’s Community Impact Division. “They see and hear a lot, and we need to tap into that informal system of community awareness. If we really want to protect kids from suffering, we have to help people recognize the signs of abuse and neglect and know what to do when they see a problem. At the same time, we’re learning the reasons why people hesitate to make that call and what obstacles they may have faced when they tried to take action.”

At the first of these forums, young parents, grandparents and concerned community members shared stories and advice, asked questions, talked about the challenges of raising children—and voiced their concerns. A common complaint was that reports go unanswered. One attendee expressed frustration that her call to the Department of Social Services child abuse hotline appeared to have no results.

Attendees listen at a recent community forum held by the Keeping Kids Safe coalition.

“It can be really discouraging to report a problem and then not see anything happen,” Bartholomew said. “It feels like you aren’t taken seriously. What people may not know is that children are only removed from the home when they are in imminent danger. An outsider won’t see that a family is receiving counseling, taking parenting classes or getting help from a food pantry. But we also want people to know that whether or not families seem to be improving, if the problem behavior continues, it’s right to report it again.”

The Keeping Kids Safe collaboration includes most of the local non-profit organizations, government offices, and educational institutions that are active in the area of abuse prevention. The initiative has also reached out to faith-based partners and neighborhood leaders in a deliberate effort to expand the traditional base of partnerships.

This collaborative approach has led to better understanding of where gaps in service and ineffective communication may have weakened the effectiveness of our abuse prevention efforts. The initiative has purposely included more listening and learning from non-traditonal sources such as the community forums and interviews with young mothers to learn more about where there are opportunities to improve.

One consistent goal has been to provide highly at-risk parents, especially teen mothers, with the supports they need to be good parents and many good programs have been developed to help. But when Keeping Kids Safe met with teen moms to learn how they were faring as new parents, it became clear that there was a communication gap that needed to be filled.

“Some teen moms have very good support networks, often parents or grandparents, and might not need help,” Bartholomew said. “But some have no support at all. We discovered that many of these teen moms were unaware of the services available to help them. Often, they didn’t even know what help they needed, just that they needed some kind of help. These are the girls we need to reach.”

To that end, United Way has created outreach materials for young moms and people in the community who work with them. By adopting an encouraging approach, “Be the best you can for your baby,” and providing a simple list of contacts, the initiative hopes to influence young mothers to give these services a try.

“The idea is to give at-risk parents quick referrals to organizations that can help with an immediate crisis: Food, formula, shelter, healthcare, advice, support, and refuge from violence,” Bartholomew said. “Not having diapers or food is a stressor, and child abuse often happens when there is a culmination of stressors in a family. Once a parent is connected with a program to help with an immediate crisis, the agency can offer referrals to more specialized services.”

In addition, a comprehensive Community Resource Guide has been created to help professionals and community members who work with teen parents or other at-risk families. The guide includes the warning signs of child abuse and neglect, links to state and county child abuse hotlines and prevention programs, and a comprehensive list of services available to help at-risk parents.

“These materials are intended not only to educate young moms themselves, but to empower the community to step in to help them,” said Helen Hudson, United Way/AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison and founder of Mothers Against Gun Violence, a Keeping Kids Safe partner. “A next step of the initiative is to distribute the materials to all Onondaga County middle and high schools.

“We’re learning from the community and providing them with what they tell us they need. And among the partners, there’s a sense that we can work better by working together. It’s great to see how committed the partners are to protecting children above all else. This is good news in our community.”