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Products -- Safe from the Start Newsletter Archives
SFTS March 2002 News
T&TA is available to collaborative groups who are focusing on children exposed to
violence. T&TA can be provided in person, by telephone, fax, mail or email.
T&TA will be provided through a local county contact that will act as a
liaison between the SFTS project and the county/community training and technical
assistance needs. Assistance can include printed materials, videos, workshops,
speaking before community groups, working on local SFTS activities or facilitation
of community planning meetings. County contacts are currently being developed.
A county contact must be a representative from a public agency, or from
a private non-profit organization. A list of contacts is included in the
Community Connections section of our web site at www.safefromthestart.org.
If your county does not have a contact person, please contact Barbara Thorsen
at (707) 664-3325 or at barbara.thorsen@sonoma.edu to discuss the possibility of becoming the contact person.
A four hour "Discussion Day" facilitated by our training and technical assistance contractor was
held in San Benito County on February 20 bringing together representatives
form law enforcement, social service, school, mental health, health and
community based organizations to discuss a plan of action to reduce children's
exposure to violence. Community representatives discussed a variety of topics,
settling on developing a clearinghouse for data related to child abuse,
domestic violence and other related statistics. A follow up meeting is planned
to discuss future activities to address this issue.
A power point presentation has been developed to educate community members
on Safe from the Start goals, objectives, history and activities. The presentation will be available on this website in the coming weeks.
Every year millions of children are physically and emotionally
abused. Learn creative and practical approaches to understanding and working
with maltreated children via free, online courses at ChildTraumaAcademy.com.
Courses are short, self-paced and allow you to talk to other students online.
Facts and Research
The West Australian Child Health Survey: Education, Health and Competence
(1997), found that students with mental health problems were five times
more likely to have low levels of academic achievement.
Children in this
country are more likely to become victims of crime than adults. Of the 22.3
million children in the U.S. between the age of 12 and 17 years old, about
1.8 million have been the victim of a serious sexual assault, 3.9 million
have been the victim of a serious physical assault, and almost 9 million
have witnessed serious violence at some time in their life. This research
from the Office of Victim Services Bulletin is available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/factshts/cevcjr.htm.
This new U.S. Department
of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics release examines data from the
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the FBI's Supplementary Homicide
Reports on trends in violent crime by age in the United States. It is available
at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/.
A youth violence expert emphasized the importance of violence prevention in school,
at home, and in the community as a means of helping children thrive. The
January 2002 issue of Youth Crime Alert reported that children thrive when
they have a routine and live in a nurturing environment. He stressed that
if a child does not feel safe in school, or if drug dealers plague a community,
then children will have less chance to succeed.
Prevention programs can prevent youth substance abuse
and help reduce use among young people who already smoke or use drugs. Programs
that combine life skills, interactive rather than passive classroom techniques,
intensive participation, and strong implementation, consistently show stronger
and longer lasting positive outcomes. For more information, check www.health.org/govpubs/fo36/overview.asp.
During February 2002, the U.S. DOJ, Office
of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), met with the standards
committee of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) program to discuss
changes to ICAC investigation standards and operating procedures. The ICAC
program supports multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task forces to prevent
and respond to online crimes against children.
If you are like most parents today, your greatest challenge is probably caring for your baby
while also taking care of yourself and your responsibilities. The competing
demands on your time and energy make finding the time to connect with your
baby no small challenge. But daily activities, such as feeding, bathing,
and grocery shopping, don't need to take time away from bonding with and
enjoying your baby. In fact, these everyday moments are rich opportunities
to encourage children's development by building their self-confidence, curiosity,
social skills, self-control, communication skills and most of all, you build
their desire to learn about their world. For more information, check www.zerotothree.org/magic/.
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