Join Strategies TA and best-selling author of Upstream: the Quest to Solve Problems before they Happen , Dan Heath for learning and inspiration around the critical need for prevention approaches to all types of social issues, including child abuse and neglect. In Upstream , Dan Heath examines how to prevent problems before they happen, drawing on insights from hundreds of interviews with unconventional problem solvers. In this webinar, he will share insights and interactive discussion around...

The Essentials for Childhood Initiative would like to share a new resources titled, “Creating Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments for Children.” This new resource is intended to elevate primary prevention strategies that support creating Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments (SSNR&Es) for children and highlight 2019 data from the Awareness, Commitment, and Norms Survey provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This document was...

Rozhan Ghanbari is a California Epidemiologic Investigation Service (Cal-EIS) Fellow working at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) within the Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (IVPB). Currently she is working on analyzing and disseminating information regarding the Fatal Child Abuse and Neglect Surveillance (FCANS) system. She is also working with the Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative! She received her B.S. in Public Health from the University of Alabama at...

This article was first published in RACMonitor and appears with explicit permission. Another week, another report on Americans facing concerning access to basic human needs. This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual report, Household Food Security in the United States in 2020 . Data for the report was collected from 34,330 households in December 2020, though at first glance, this is misleading. While 89.5 percent of U.S. households were “food secure” at that...

The stress on EVERY food insecure family is a catalyst for parental frustration with normal child energy facilitating child abuse behaviors.

A newly developed document titled “Connecting Families to Tax Credits to Improve Child Wellbeing in California: A Brief for California Local Health Departments and Children & Family Service Providers" has just been released and can be found attached to this blog post. This document is intended to assist Local Health Departments (LHDs) and children & family service providers in their efforts to educate about how the collection of the California Earned Income Tax (CalEITC), California...

Important post! As an MD who has reviewed the literature, even though they list childhood adversity as a risk factor, it is often omitted from many epidemiological studies of suicide. I am not aware of any good data on the prevalence of childhood abuse and neglect in completed suicides or attempted suicides in youth or adults.

Reducing child poverty is the best primary prevention strategy for child abuse and neglect. Every impoverished family lives inconstant stress. I cannot imagine the ability to manage unbridled child energy in that circumstance.

It is disappointing that both the homicide and suicide fact sheets tabulate deaths in children and youth less than 18, and refer to"family stress or conflict" but do not go to the clinically relevant and prevention important detail to tabulate specifically the presence of child abuse or neglect.

The Essentials for Childhood Initiative is pleased to share the “ Building Partnerships to Strengthen California’s Families” Convening Summary and Presentation Slides that supported the event that took place on November 3, 2021. The Convening Summary contains a detailed overview of the information shared and the feedback provided by the participants during the convening. You will find these documents attached below. To view the recording, please access the video at this link and use...

Comprehensive and useful data. I am disappointed that they do not have more information on the 60,000 children in foster care or in the 1000 possible cases of child fatalities due to abuse or neglect.

By Sarah Catherine Williams , Reva Dalela , and Sharon Vandivere Families that experience poverty-related stressors such as income insecurity or loss , material hardship , and housing hardship or instability —in other words, families with a financial inability to provide for their children—are also more likely to come into contact with the child welfare system. The intersection of poverty and economic insecurity with neglect poses a challenge to child welfare agencies when they respond to...

Mark your calendar for The National Child Abuse Prevention Month Webinar Series hosted by the Office of Child Abuse Prevention and The Child Abuse Prevention Center occurring Wednesdays during Child Abuse Prevention Month this April. Each workshop will run from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm and will cover important topics related to the prevention of child abuse and neglect. The events are FREE to attend. RSVP today by clicking on the links below. Limited space is available. For additional...

During Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Month the Office of Child Abuse Prevention encourages counties to participate in events to increase awareness of child abuse and neglect statewide. One such event is Children’s Memorial Flag Day on April 22, 2022. The OCAP’s vision is for each county to host a Children’s Memorial Flag Day event and to conduct a flag raising ceremony to honor the young lives lost due to senseless violence in the past year. In addition to a statewide raising of the...

AB 506 is a new law that was signed in September 2021. This bill requires an administrator, employee, or regular volunteer, as defined, of a youth service organization, to complete child abuse and neglect reporting training and undergo a background check. The bill also requires all youth service organizations to develop and implement child abuse prevention policies and procedures that, among other things, ensure the reporting of suspected incidents of child abuse to persons or entities...

The Children's Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funds the National Child Abuse Prevention Month initiative each April and offers may resources and publications to help spread the word in an effort to prevent child abuse and neglect. For more information please visit: National Child Abuse Prevention Month - Child Welfare Information Gateway

I am reaching out to share a new resource, “ Hardships and Hope in California During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Family Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic Questionnaire Brief, Wave 1 ,” developed by the Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , a project of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the California Department of Social Services ; CDPH’s Office of Strategic Development and External Relations (Fusion Center ); and the Population Reference Bureau , Kidsdata . The...

The EfC Initiative would like to share two resources developed by Safe & Sound , an organization dedicated to strengthening families and ending child abuse, that may be of interest to you in your work. The Economics of Child Abuse Report has been updated to share the economic impact of child maltreatment and estimates that California's communities incurred $22.6 billion in economic impacts due to child maltreatment in 2021. Explore this interactive tool to learn the economic impact of...

PACEs Connection and the Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , a project of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) have developed two new resources, “ Community Strategies to Address California’s Digital Divide and Its Impact on Children and Families ” Report and the “ Digital Divide Brief: Community Strategies to Address California’s Digital Divide and Its Impact on Children and Families ” . “ Community Strategies to...

The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) ’s, Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative is excited to share the new report “Adverse Childhood Experiences Data Report: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2013-2019: An Overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences in California”, developed by The purpose of this new report is to share about...

The California Department of Public Health Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) in partnership with the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention's Essentials for Childhood Initiative (EfC) has recently released a new resource titled "California Child Fatality Data." The purpose of this resource to (1) describe the purpose of California Child Fatality Surveillance System (CCFSS), (2) describe the type of data collected by the CCFSS and the...

The California Department of Public Health Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) in partnership with the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention's Essentials for Childhood Initiative (EfC) has recently released a new resource titled "Understanding California's Child Fatality Surveillance System (CCFSS) Data ." The purpose of this resource to (1) describe the purpose of CCFSS, (2) provide an overview of the data collected by the CCFSS from...

The new CCFSS system may provide a foundation for truly getting complete epidemiologically reliable and valid data on child fatalities due to abuse and neglect in California, but this report demonstrates it is not ready for prime time. The DPH has taken the flawed, confusing, incomplete, and miscatagorized data from the former FCANS system and squeezed it into the CCFSS format. This is inappropriate, confusing and misleading. This post should be taken down for some rethinking.

“Reimagining Child Wellbeing: Local Policy Strategies to Prevent and Reduce Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in California’s Communities” is a resource developed in collaboration with the All Children Thrive, California (ACT) project and the California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) ’s , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative . This resource was created...

Ask Governor Newsome to sign AB 2660 now

The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) ’s, Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative is pleased to share a new report titled “Statewide Child Abuse and Neglect Non-Fatal Injury Trends Observed in California Hospitals and Emergency Departments During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. The purpose of this new report is to assess changes in the frequency, severity,...

The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative and the Active Transportation and Safety Program , a project of IVPB and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Active Transportation Program (ATP) have developed a new resource titled, “Trauma-Informed Approach to Active Transportation: Recognizing the...