April Is National Child Abuse Prevention Month: How Communities Tackle Prevention With Purpose

National Child Abuse Prevention Month (NCAPM) is an opportunity for us to call special attention to and thank the workers, organizations, communities, and other individuals that work year-round to promote child and family safety and well-being through a variety of prevention activities and programs, such as parent education and engagement. Many of these activities and programs are possible because of grants from the Children's Bureau's Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) program. Over the past 24 years, CBCAP has been giving communities across the Nation the opportunity to create programs that support the unique needs of their children and families.

One of the many ways that CBCAP programs actively work to improve the well-being of children and their families is through public awareness and education efforts and the promotion of positive community norms. One example of this is Nurture Daily , a collaborative family violence prevention initiative of the Hawaii Department of Health—the state's CBCAP lead agency—and the Hawaii Department of Human Services. Nurture Daily is a year-round media campaign that includes several 30-second public service announcements framed around "serve and return" interactions that help support healthy brain development in young children. Messages encourage and normalize daily actions such as playing together, eating meals together, and sharing thoughtful words with a partner. Nurture Daily is also creating infographics for early child care providers and other pre-K community providers to have an even further reach in the community. You can find more examples of how CBCAP programs are strengthening and supporting families to prevent child maltreatment in our 2021/2022 Prevention Resource Guide .

The theme of this year's NCAPM initiative, "Thriving Children and Families: Prevention With Purpose," aligns with the Children’s Bureau’s 22nd National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect and highlights what it can look like when prevention efforts are guided by the need to build protective factors and provide support to children and families. The NCAPM website showcases new content and updated resources to help families and service providers better understand maltreatment prevention and take action within their communities. One new feature of this year's Resource Guide is the conversation guides that provide a roadmap to help families and service providers engage in productive discussions about protective factors. Covering all six protective factors , these guides help families explore how they can build protective capacities in themselves and their children.

NCAPM resources, including the Resource Guide, also focus on the importance of connecting families to prevention programs and supports within their communities that build on family strengths and promote positive child development. Communities can take inspiration from the work being done across the Nation and expand their work to address maltreatment prevention at the family, organization, community and societal levels.

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