10 September, 2018.
Earlier this month was National Child Protection Week. The Charitable Foundation provided a grant to Child Abuse Prevention Services in late 2017 to develop and deliver a pilot program Safe Children Safe Families.
General Manger of Child Abuse Prevention Services, Jeff Taylor, published the following article in the Newcastle Herald featuring the success of the pilot program:
In National Child Protection Week, it’s sobering and alarming to reflect that the Hunter New England region reports the third highest rate of child abuse in NSW. State-wide, the number of child abuse substantiations continues to rise in recent years. In any form– neglect, emotional, sexual, or physical – child abuse is preventable, but we all have a role in protecting our children or any other child from abuse.
The Newcastle Herald is to be commended for its immensely important role in bringing institutionalised abuse to the surface, which begins a process for acknowledging that it takes a village to protect a child, not just an individual parent or family.
All those working with, caring for and crossing paths with children are integral to identifying vulnerability and warning signs, and taking action. The Child Abuse Protection Service has been training child care staff and parents to engage with children of pre-school age within NSW child care centres, to develop skills which reduce the risk of child abuse.
Our program also prepares children for formal education by increasing emotional maturity, social competence and improved communications skills. By providing a common language, our Safe Children Safe Families program facilitates supportive and engaged communication about safety.
It aims to build resilience, wellbeing and family connections as protective factors against vulnerability and potential abuse. Although delivered to child care centres, the concept of building a network of safety for children extends much further. All organisations can join this network which will help to build the end-goal of a culture of safety for children within our community.
Thanks to the Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation, we’re building our network in the Hunter. We’ve trained 213 child care staff and 77 parents, and delivered protective behaviour sessions to more than 315 children. 19 centres in the Hunter are already actively equipping their village.
Feedback has been positive, noting improvements in the ability of children to recognise a variety of feelings, an increased awareness about physiological responses to feeling unsafe, and improvements in the ability of children to recognise safe people in their support networks.
It’s long been time for all members of our community to step into the network, and we now have a way to do so. For those with children beyond child care age or simply wanting to join the network, I encourage you to please contact us on 02 9716 8000 to discuss ways you can help.
This article first appeared in the Newcastle Herald.
Find out more about Child Abuse Prevention Services.