Explore Ways to Make an Impact
We all wear many hats in our lives such as professionals, volunteers, members of our community or faith-based organizations, caregivers, and even as change makers. We are asking that you think of the different hats you wear and how you can get involved in our work to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Child Abuse Prevention Toolkit
Building Together: Prevention in Partnership
Messages and images in the Child Abuse Prevention Month (April) toolkit reflect current prevention approaches, social norms change, social marketing best practices. In line with Prevent Child Abuse America, our goal is to unify the communication activities of our state and national partners with this user-friendly toolkit of assets, with clear calls to action that motivate the prevention of child abuse and neglect in April and throughout the year.
Social Media Content
This calendar includes sample social media posts you can use daily during April.
Share your posts and activities with us by tagging us on Facebook @PreventGeorgia or Instagram @PreventChildAbuseGA! Remember to use this year’s theme #BuildingaHopefulFuture.
Social Media
Social Media Calendar Content and Images
(If you are having trouble downloading, right click “download” and select “open in new tab.”)
Host Your Own Event!
Spark a discussions among colleagues, friends, neighbors, and community members by hosting an Inclusivv conversation designed to spark conversation on helping families thrive.
Attend an Upcoming Training or Event
Key Messages & Talking Points
A Culture of Family Support
We must change the way our society cares for children and families. This requires shifting how we view families in our community from a culture of surveillance – looking for problems to report – to a culture of support – one that values and uplifts people who are raising children.
By setting the example of how individuals and groups can work to strengthen families, we can create a prevention ecosystem designed to proactively respond to the concerns and needs of families with compassion and resources.
Why Does It Matter?
We are the stewards of the next generation. We know that our ability to raise healthy children who will lead tomorrow’s communities requires smart and innovative thinking today.
Children are shaped by their earliest experiences and relationships. Creating a supportive environment allows families to develop stable, nurturing relationships. These early connections are the basis of child development that promotes lifelong learning and success.
What is the Issue?
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as child abuse and neglect, can cause high levels of stress. When stress is frequent and prolonged, it can dramatically change how the brain develops. In the absence of supportive relationships and community resources, these early adversities can affect a person’s health, educational obtainment, and economic opportunity over their lifespan and can even carry over to the next generation.
Challenging life circumstances can overload and overburden parents and caregivers, making it difficult to provide the necessary care and support to their children. While abuse and neglect occurs in families from all ethnicities, it is important to acknowledge that families of color continue to face differential access to supportive resources that prevent the need for DFCS involvement.
How Do We Solve It:
Child abuse and neglect is caused by multiple factors related to the individual, family, community, and society at large. Environments that have high rates of violence, inequitable access to community resources and social services, and are disproportionately affected by poverty or unemployment are contributors to child abuse.
Science shows that bolstering protective factors and providing positive conditions for early childhood can prevent or even reverse the damaging effects of early life stress, with lifelong benefits for learning, behavior, and health. Addressing community adversities and providing concrete supports to families and children is more effective and less costly than attempting to address the consequences of adversity later in life.
By increasing access to supports for all families and investing in policies and programs that work to overcome individual and widespread adversities, we can strengthen families across Georgia.
Who Can Solve It?
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time to celebrate the good things our community does and lift up the work and partners we still need to ensure every child has the chance to thrive. Below are a few examples of how caring and innovative adults, including policy makers, business leaders, and community members can prevent child abuse and neglect or other early adversities. To see a more detailed list of roles and actions to help Georgia’s families thrive go to: www.BelongingForHope.org/Roles.
- Business Leaders can promote a culture of parent support.
- Policy Makers can listen and learn from those with lived experience to enact policies that reduce barriers to families receiving needed supports and positively impact their lives.
- Faith Communities can offer space for caregivers to build social connections, get peer-support, and a place for youth to be active an engage.
- Family and Youth Serving Organizations can train staff on preventing, recognizing, and responding to child abuse using Connections Matters, Protective Factors or Mandated Reporter Trainings.
- Educators can be ready to connect families to local resources and use trauma-informed approaches in their work with children.
- Friends and Neighbors can help break the social isolation some caregivers may experience or encourage caregivers to seek support when needed by going to FindHelpGA.org.
- Individuals can volunteer for an after-school mentoring program or volunteer at community organizations working to support families.
Want to know how you can help? Georgia just released a State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Plan that includes ways individuals, communities, workplaces and others can get 
involved. As Georgians we have the collective power to strengthen families by advocating for policies, programs, and practices that increase:
- Loving and secure family relationships, supported by foundational life skills
- Access to formal and informal family supports
- Mental and physical health and wellbeing across the lifespan
- Financial stability and economic mobility
Additional Talking Points
Resilience
- Being resilient means having a sense of inner strength, but it also comes from asking for help, leaning on your social connections, and understanding your children’s needs.
- The resilience of an individual depends, to a great extent, on their relationships and community.
- The systems around us—family, school, neighborhood, faith community, friends and larger community—influence the ability of both children and adults to be resilient.
- How do We Grow Resilience? Children learn resilience from external influences such as their family, caregivers and the community around them. Protective Factors and positive childhood experiences help explain why some people who experience adversity as children fare well in adulthood.
- We know by building resilience in our communities and in each other, we can better protect and support families in normal times and times of crisis.
- Remind families that some stress is normal, and parenting is stressful for everyone. The key is how you respond to it.
- Suggest that parents keep a self-care diary to help them remember to make time for themselves each day.
- Teach parents concrete strategies for relaxation. For example, guide them to take a few deep breaths and allow their body to relax while thinking of a place where they feel happy.
“To expect resilience without social justice is simply to indifferently accept the status quo.” –Dr. Hanna-Attisha, Pediatrician and Professor
Concrete Supports
- When faced with overwhelmingly stressful conditions, we all need support. But seeking out help is always not an easy thing to do.
- Help families by assisting to identify, find, and get concrete support.
- Protective factors like providing concrete support in times of need helps to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect.
- Let caregivers know it is okay to ask for help! Encourage families to seek additional resources by going online to FindHelpGA.org or calling a Find Help Georgia resource specialist at (1-800-244-5373) to talk to trained professionals who can connect them with supportive programs in their area.
- Professionals can help families find resources using FindHelpGA.org, which containing over 3,000 resources to assist Georgia families.
- As a community, we can’t just expect or ask families to be resilient or push through every adversity. We must examine how our current systems and practices set families back or create barriers to receiving help.
Social Connections
- Networks of support are essential to parents and also offer opportunities for people to give back. Your social connections can be friends, family members, neighbors, and faith-based and community members. What are some ways your community is support?
- Isolated families may need extra help in reaching out to build positive relationships. Have your organization be intentional in supporting the development of relationships. Keep in mind that the quality, not just the quantity, of the social connections is important.
- Increasing social connection on a community level requires that parents have both the opportunity to engage in connectable spaces and the ability to meaningfully tap into a network once engaged.
- Providing opportunities for community members to meet and bond with one another is essential in increasing social connection. Recurring events and programs that unite community members around common themes such as parenting, community improvement, and education can make a big impact on community connectedness.
Challenge: One-Minute Kindness
Receiving a direct message or e-mail with a genuine compliment or expression of gratitude is more personal and longer lasting—without taking much more time. After all, we need a little extra kindness to counter the stress and uncertainty of the coronavirus.
Knowledge of Child Development
- Encourage parents to understand and encourage healthy development. Parents should know the value and importance of their nurturing role in their child’s life.
- Ensure that the parent or caregiver has a clear understanding and expectations for their child’s age-appropriate development and behavior. Model appropriate expectations to encourage age-appropriate parenting skills.
- Engage parents when their expectations are not in line with the child’s developmental phase; ask questions about successes and challenges, and who/what they rely on for parenting information.
- Provide parents with opportunities to network with other parents and participate in school activities such as parent education sessions. Determine which social media platforms to use to share parenting information on a regular basis.
- Encourage social-emotional development and model a range of age-appropriate ways for children to talk about social issues.
Social and Emotional Competence of Children
- Supporting children’s social and emotional development at an early age builds self-esteem and a solid foundation for their future by preparing children to successfully manage their emotions and behaviors, establish caring relationships with others, follow limits and expectations, and interact in groups.
- Support parents and caregivers by encouraging them to use warm and consistent responses that will foster a strong and secure attachment with their child.
- Ask the parent to think of an adult who they loved as a child. What was it about the relationship with that adult that made it so important? Ask them what elements of that relationship they can replicate in their relationship with their own child.
- Create environments, at home and in school, in which children feel safe to express their emotions. Be emotionally responsive to children and model empathy.
- Connect families to resources that can help support their children’s social-emotional development—these might be simple (such as books and games that help children to name or recognize their emotions) or more intensive (such as mental health counseling).
- Stay attuned to trauma and how it impacts the child’s behaviors and relationships, including taking time to explain and discuss children’s behavior with parents when they are “acting out”.
- Remember — Social and Emotional Competence is a skill we will need throughout our lives!
Since its beginning as a grassroots campaign in Georgia, the pinwheel has been embraced by Prevent Child Abuse America and transformed into Pinwheels for Prevention®, a national public awareness campaign used each April for Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Month. Pinwheels for Prevention is used to symbolize childlike notions and stands for the healthy, happy and full lives all children deserve.
The concept of the pinwheel focuses on prevention efforts that strengthen families and communities. Helping people understand upstream approaches that target the root causes of abuse such as social isolation, poverty, health and social inequities, and other stressors are critical to preventing maltreatment.
Talking Points, We All Have a Role to Play
Everyone can make a difference in a child’s life and the unique actions you take can nurture a community where children and families can thrive. “Pinwheel gardens” planted in communities across the nation are visual reminders that we all play a role in ensuring happy and healthy childhoods for children everywhere. Their presence has resulted in increased awareness, expanded dialogue and community engagement around strengthening families.
Positive Call to Action!
Research shows that while horrific stories of child abuse and neglect may gain short-term media attention, this approach is not successful in building lasting public will for effective prevention efforts. To promote lasting change, the pinwheel messages must focus on proposing effective solutions and engaging people in positive, preventative action they can take on their own. Connecting Pinwheels and Pinwheel Gardens to community resources or needs, let others know how they can help families in their community!
- Avoid giving lots of numbers, pick just one thought-provoking statistic
- Educate people on what child abuse prevention is and looks like in action
- Talk about the importance of healthy child development
- Focus on success stories and community
- Give specific actions others (individuals, business, etc.) can do to get involved
While pinwheels are available to be purchased through many craft stores or online vendors, purchasing pinwheels from PCA Georgia supports programs and services that are helping reduce child abuse and neglect in your own state!
Involve kids throughout CAP month by using pinwheel coloring sheets and build-your-own pinwheel activities at local events and with partners.
You can download a pinwheel coloring sheet that is great for children of all ages. For older children, download instructions on how to make your own paper pinwheel!
Help kids envision a bright future for themselves and their friends using the I Have a Dream That worksheet.
Download the worksheet and be sure to share with us!
Downloadable Activities and Resources
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Download Worksheet |
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Pinwheel Fact Sheet |
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FindHelpGA.org Promotional Materials
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Child Welfare Prevention Resource Guide |
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Communication Templates from Community Action Guide
- Press Release (page 15)
- Letter to the Editor (page 18)
- Op-Ed (page 19)
Proclamation
Want More?
Child Welfare Information Gateway: Prevention Resource Guide
Shared Message Bank – Early Childhood Colorado Partnership
Belonging for Hope– GA DFCS Prevention and Community Support Section
This toolkit is for use by the Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) chapter network only. We encourage you to leverage your local partners to help spread the word, but please note that the CAP Month artwork and campaign elements, including images and image licenses, are property of PCA America and our state chapters. Any campaign components shared with and used by a local partner must be attributed to PCA America or your state chapter (preferably both). This means they must mention PCA America or your chapter in their outreach efforts, and logos should be included on all elements accordingly. (In previous years, chapters had issues with local partners taking PCA America campaign components and using them as their own, without proper attribution, thus diluting our network’s awareness efforts and jeopardizing our license agreement.)
Please also note that Pinwheels for Prevention® and the blue pinwheel mark are both trademarked by PCA America. Therefore, partners cannot use these elements without written permission from the state chapter and, if used, must be accompanied with the PCA America/state chapter logo for proper attribution. Any partner who uses these trademarked components without written permission or misuses the marks will be notified of trademark infringement.
Please Note: that Pinwheels for Prevention® and the blue pinwheel mark are both trademarked by Prevent Child Abuse America. All campaign material must be attributed to PCA Georgia. If you have any questions, need assistance customizing any of the campaign components, or need help with trademarked materials or any other partner-related questions, please contact us at [email protected]. We also ask that pinwheels are not used with negative or graphic content (a common example is the number of child deaths in a given year) because prevention is about promoting programs and resources that strengthen families.
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| Physical: | 140 Decatur Street SE 1st Floor, Suite 178 Atlanta, GA 30303 |
| Mailing: | P.O. Box 3995 Atlanta, GA 30302 |
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Prevent Child Abuse Georgia is not a child abuse and neglect reporting agency. To make a report of child abuse and neglect in Georgia, visit cps.dhs.ga.gov, or call the 24/7 reporting hotline 1-855-GACHILD (1-855-422-4453).
Looking for resources to help a family? Visit Find Help Georgia.