April is... National Child Abuse Prevention Month

Felicia Wilburn is the Early Childhood Resource Coordinator for the Alabama Partnership for Children (APC) and shares below on how the APC is helping prevent child abuse through resources and programs.

Babies don’t come with instructions. Many times parents lack knowledge of child development and parenting skills to nurture their child’s development. Without this knowledge, parents can be left to ineffective habits which lead to frustration, or even anger toward the child for not behaving the way the parent expects them to behave. One way to help protect children is by giving parents the knowledge and skills they need to decrease their frustration and nurture their child’s well-being.

Alabama Partnership for Children offers a few programs to help parents gain the knowledge and skills they need to not only increase their child’s physical and emotional health, but also to be a leader in their community promoting child well-being.

• Smart Start Parenting Kit is a tool designed for parents of newborns to give them immediate access to important information to assist in their difficult and joyous job of being parents. It includes materials that answer frequently asked questions and provide easy access to toll-free telephone numbers and websites of state agencies and public programs, and information on the importance of quality child care, children’s health, safety and child care products. Parenting Kits are designed to be useful through all stages of a young child's development.
• Smart & Secure Children (SSC) Parent Leadership Project was designed with parents through a community participatory study, to introduce/improve quality parenting as a way to strengthen vulnerable families raising children 0-5 years old who may have been exposed to negative childhood experiences. The parenting curriculum is delivered through a conversational learning environment that activates parents to improve their own habits which, in turn, improve their children’s brain development and emotions.
• Alabama Parent Leadership Project targets parents who have been through an SSC or other parenting skills experience and who wish to contribute their voice to decisions that affect their children, families, and communities. These parents will be recruited to participate in a conversational learning environment centering on identifying priority concerns about their families and communities, communicating ideas and recommendations effectively and broadly, learning how to/effectively engage local leaders, and learning how to influence and participating in state policy work.