2014 Prevention Resource Guide The 2014 Prevention Resource Guide: Making Meaningful Connections is the product of a collaboration among the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children’s Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, its Child Welfare Information Gateway, the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy Strengthening Families.
This year’s Resource Guide reflects the theme of the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect’s 19th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect Making Meaningful Connections. 2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA, P.L. 93-247), which centralized and expanded Federal efforts to prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect. The problems that children develop due to child abuse and neglect have negative impacts that ripple across the lifespan, affecting children’s chances to succeed in school, work, and relationships.
The Children’s Bureau supports the promotion of meaningful and measurable changes in children’s social and emotional well-being and recently completed work on the development of the ACYF protective factors conceptual model. The 2014 Resource Guide plays an important role in these efforts, offering support to service providers as they work with parents, caregivers, and their children to prevent child maltreatment and promote social and emotional well-being. To do so, the Resource Guide focuses on protective factors that build family strengths and promote optimal child and youth development.
Information about protective factors is augmented with tools and strategies that help providers integrate the factors into community programs and systems. Agencies, policymakers, advocates, service providers, and parents alike will find resources in this book to help them promote these important elements within their communities and families. It has been proven that effective early prevention efforts are less costly to our nation and to individuals than trying to fix the adverse effects of child maltreatment.
This Resource Guide provides many strategies to support communities in their efforts to prevent child abuse and promote well-being. We thank you for participating in this important effort and for the work you do each day to build promising futures for our nation’s children. https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/guide2014/guide.pdf