National Movement for America’s Children
Responses to the Big Question:
“How can we ensure that every child has an equal opportunity for healthy growth and
development?”
 Universal parent education for all parents through collaborative efforts where
parents/caregivers receive the same basic messages from sources.
 Create a movement in society to move towards family first not job first.
 Children need healthy caretakers. We need better mental health and substance
abuse services.
 Schools need to be true community centers for families-support groups,
classes, etc. It should all happen there.
 We need a national child protective services registry that can be accessed by
all local CPS agencies, raise minimum wage and affordable housing.
 Pay social workers what baseball players make.
 Ask adult victims what they wish they had known about having a healthy
childhood.
 All parents should be mandated before they take a newborn home from the
hospital to watch a short video on child abuse, neglect and their
responsibilities as a parent.
 Affordable, accessible child care, educate community.
 Parenting licenses-adults have marriage licenses so why should it be
mandatory for parents to obtain a license that indicates they are
knowledgeable about providing SSNR for their children and parent positively.
 Home visitation for all new families, increase support and wages for child
care providers, teachers and family support providers.
 Integrated system of parenting education provided universally to all parents in
the community.
 Helping parents with job/employment and housing to support their families.
Changing the rules for convicted felons to seek employment/jobs or small
business training.
 Drug test for benefits (food stamps, TANF, etc.)
 Universal health care, more staff at local agencies to provide direct services to
make a difference.
 Ensure that all children from all backgrounds have access to all the same
services. All education materials be translated into different languages.
 Protect children from bullying.
 Young people need mentoring, guidance and training on how to be effective,
good parents, loving parents to their children.
 Networking.
 Begin assessment of support systems and education of individuals during
pregnancy. This should be available to all persons regardless of economic
status. As part of a prenatal and post natal care package.
 We need to concentrate on providing opportunities to children who have no
opportunity for growth and development.
 We need to implement God’s plan-enforce his 10 commandments.
Governments must allow for this-from this base we can build better families.
 We need to create a national policy with funding.
 Focus education on the topic of the abuser being closer to home, not so
focused on stranger danger.
 Educate parents-let them know it’s their responsibility to protect their
children.
 Sharing of best practices, knowledge, through collaborative practices.
 Afford all parents access to dedicated, well-trained responsibly child care
during these critical informative years.
 Education starts at home, must continue in school.
 Train our educators to be aware of the indicators of child abuse.
 By setting an example.
 Better pay and support to maintain advocates in field.
 Family engagement-Family partnership meetings, family group conferencing,
health care for everyone.
 Affordable daycare/childcare/ fundraiser programs/ supporting, teaching
parents/caregivers
 By recognizing the link between mental illness and abusive conduct, and
providing effective on-going treatment for mental health issues.
 Parent training is critical to good parenting
 Free, accessible health care for parents and children, better pre-parenting
education to reduce unintended pregnancies, child care, better parent support,
home visiting, more accessible mental health services, more subsidized
preschools.
 Increased development/identification of natural supports
 Education, access to resources, reaching out to women, families and
communities in hospitals, schools, churches, community centers, grocery
stores, apartment complexes. The information needs to be disseminated in the
places that these families frequent.
 Engaging families and children early on, creating awareness and safe
environments for children and families.
 Children with risk factors at birth (poverty, mental health, medical) are
assigned a support worker/team to educate families and establish/assist with
services beneficial to the family/child.
 Funds for child, centered programs that promote stability, safety, supervision
while enabling families to have positive supports in the community.
 Cheaper out of home care for school-age children, stricter laws for those who
commit crimes against children, more intense background checks on those
who work with children, holding mandating reporters more accountable for
reporting suspecting cases.
 We will ensure that every child will have an equal opportunity for healthy
growth and development, when we stop making and putting differences
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among children in regard to color, national origin, social status and legal
status. Lets stop teaching children racism.
More funding and more people to carry out opportunities to help more
children. Funding is important.
Free parenting classes with childcare provided.
Intergenerational programs-connect single, parent families with people to fill
and mend gaps to teach life lessons, etc.
Collaborate with departments of education to stop budget cuts in public
schools, access to health care for children, family friendly work place
environments, reproductive rights for women.
Train and address the needs of parents
Birth control to be certain every child is wanted, health and child care for all,
parent training, advancements in treatment of addiction, financial education
and training.
More money toward prevention programs and organizations.
Coordinate a system to provide parent education to all young people before
they become parents.
More resources to families to allow a parent to stay home and raise their
children.
Support, and do not cut funding for preventive programs like healthy families.
Provide parent education classes. Support healthy families and other programs
that do home visitation and work with families.
Positive parenting before bad habits begin.
Reach out to non-traditional partners. The entire public, legislature, the Dept.
of Labor, Chamber of Commerce, universities, etc. This is a public issue!
I believe that there are a lot of services in place for low income families in
regards to child care, the people most often forgotten are the middle class who
are barely above the income requirements and don’t have 400-500 dollars to
spend on child care.
Ensure the families have safe programs within the community that are also
affordable. Also have programs available to empower families to make strides
to move past their adversity.
Universal access to high quality early care and education programs for
children and families.
Provide health insurance childcare at work site.
Step up as community members- role model parenting.
Find prevention strategies for parents starting in the hospital.
Provide more programs to educate communities on how to support families
who are struggling financially/emotionally. A big factor is lack of childcare
for working mothers.
It is important to offer education to parents prior to the birth of their child.
Hospitals offer parenting classes but there needs to be more in depth education
on what to expect and how to deal with issues so children may stay safe.
Mandate prevention information on be disseminated during prenatal care,
health dept. visits, pediatric visits, well child check ups, school registration.
 Educate parents about dealing with children and difficulties you may
encounter. Educate children what appropriate and inappropriate actions
toward them and each other are.
 Prevent the birth of unwanted children, provide affordable health care, and
child care for working parents. Improve our education system.
 Insure that all the people have access to good, affordable health care including
mental health services.
 Putting into practice prevention programs in the schools and community
groups.
 We need to change the national mindset to embrace the concept that we are all
responsible for each other.
 In America, we are so invested in the power of the individual. We need to
somehow change the national mindset to embrace the concept that we are
ALL responsible for each other. Each child belongs to all of us. There is much
blame placed on people who are in need – even children.
 1. Ratify/ adopt the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children
(UNCRC)
2. It will extend basic human rights and protection under the law to children –
so there is NO line the cross – just as we have for women/ wives.
3. Practices programs to prevent child abuse must be EVIDENCE BASED
 Encourage neighbors to support neighbors. Make it easier for individuals to
commit their time without going through a boatload of bureaucracy. Children
need time with caring supportive grownups.
 Make children a priority in funding – mental health treatment, prevention,
intervention services—investigation of child abuse. In Virginia funding has
been cut significantly for services on ALL levels for services to children.
 To make sure that everyone and every community is educated and aware of
the extreme importance to further promote awareness of protecting children.
 We can do a better job of engaging fathers. It takes more than a village to
raise a child. It takes parents, families, and community partners as well.
 More free parenting prevention of child abuse support groups for rural areas.
 To bring to the table the reality of racial inequality. Stop labeling children and
criminalizing their color and cultural background. A vivid example is what
happens at schools in USA every day when children of color are punished in
higher numbers than their white or Asian counter parts.
 Provide education to parents on child development, positive discipline, etc.
 More attention devoted to giving our children tools and education on reporting
abuse and neglect – especially for older children whose cases are less likely to
be reported by someone else. More guidance councilor – for example.
 Implement a k-9 program to instruct children how to react to abuse and how to
get help.
 Implement intensive treatment for abuses/ neglected children to stop the cycle
of it.
 More interagency information freedom/ sharing to endure more suitable
services for the families.
 Community outreach to pregnant women educating them about healthy
development, child abuse, and how to be a good parent.
 Promote awareness education and support to women and mothers.
 Making affordable, quality child care accessible to every child, increase
compensation for child care providers.
 We need to create a culture of excellent parenting. It needs to be the thing to
do, promote in communities.
 FUNDING child welfare programs that offer concrete support to children and
their families.
 Take the fluoride out of water!