DENVER - (Business Wire) Tulsa has become the first community in Oklahoma to begin implementing the American Humane Association’s The Front Porch Project, a community-based initiative to prevent child abuse and neglect. Twenty-four participants in Tulsa recently completed The Front Porch Project community training, the cornerstone of The Front Porch Project, which equips community members with the knowledge, tools and action steps necessary to intervene appropriately to help protect the safety and well-being of children and to assist parents and families to do the same. The underlying premise of The Front Porch Project is that everyone has a role in keeping children safe from abuse and neglect while, at the same time, supporting and strengthening families in their communities.
Working in partnership with The Parent Child Center of Tulsa, American Humane conducted its two-day community training for 24 local community members. As a follow-up to that training, American Humane trained 15 members of the Tulsa community on how to deliver The Front Porch Project community training themselves. With the support and oversight of The Parent Child Center of Tulsa, these new trainers will use the information and techniques they learned to teach other community members how to prevent child abuse and neglect.
“The most frequent question I am asked as the director of a child abuse prevention agency is, ‘What can just one person do?’” said Desiree Doherty, executive director of The Parent Child Center of Tulsa. “The Front Porch Project is the answer to that question. The Front Porch Project helps us figure out how to help in safe, appropriate and meaningful ways for children in our 'corner of the world.' It's not about having the one right answer; it's about being proactive, helpful and practical.”
Each community in the United States has a public child welfare system that is mandated to ensure the safety, permanency and well-being of their community’s children, including responding to allegations of child abuse and neglect. However, since 1976, America has seen a more than threefold increase in the number of children who are abused or neglected by caretakers. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services report, Child Maltreatment 2007, approximately 794,000 children were victims of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse or neglect in the U.S. in 2007. This data indicates that the responsibility of protecting children is too great and too important to be delegated only to public child welfare agencies. Concerned individuals, families and communities must become involved and take on the civic and personal responsibility in protecting children and supporting families in their own neighborhoods, particularly before abuse or neglect ever occurs.
Research conducted by Prevent Child Abuse America shows that a majority of Americans — more than half of the general public and two-thirds of all parents — are willing to become involved in helping to prevent child abuse and neglect. But, they also feel they lack the knowledge and skills that would enable them to intervene safely and effectively. That’s what The Front Porch Project is all about — providing the information, skills and practice opportunities that help community members grow their relationships with one another, building stronger communities and keeping their children safe.
For more information about American Humane’s The Front Porch Project, visit www.americanhumane.org/frontporch.
About American Humane
Founded in 1877, the American Humane Association is the only national organization dedicated to protecting both children and animals. Through a network of child and animal protection agencies and individuals, American Humane develops policies, legislation, curricula and training programs to protect children and animals from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
American Humane
Kelley Weir, 303-925-9418
kelleyw@americanhumane.org
