National Child Abuse Prevention Month: What is That?

          I'm sure that if you have spent any amount of time on social networks, you have hear about a movement called the Army of Angels and about the campaign, National Child Abuse Prevention Month (NCAPM), which is not much over a week away. This movement and this campaign have been going on for several years, though I'm new to this. You may have been urged to become part of this movement and to become an "Angel in Action." You may have heard about the founder and leader of this movement, Kathleen de Spain Moore and may have "friended" her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter or have "liked" her popular Facebook page. You yourself may serve as one of those "Angels in Action." And if you do, you may be able to add to what I am about to write and share your experiences. Whatever the case is and your relationship with this movement, there are a number of things I would like you to consider.
         If you are unfamilar with NCAPM or the Army of Angels, you probably, understandably, wonder what the fuss is all about. NCAPM is actually a series of organized events that are designed to bring awareness to child abuse and to facilitate ways to prevent and end it in the communites all over the US. High-profile people whom most of you probably know, will be involved, such as Marc Klaas, father of murdered Polly Klaas, and Mark Lunsford, father of murdered Jessica Lunsford and other well-known people. These two fathers any many others "everyday people," are planning to travel, cross-country, on motorcycles. They plan to travel and make stops at designated areas. There are organized events, and they will include things such as fellowship, music, food (specifically barbeque), games, presentations and much media involvement, specifically on the part of the HLN network and its prime-time talk show hosts.
         Many of you may be justifiably wondering, as I tend to, just how will these events and all the festivities and media blitz ACTUALLY help combat the terribly HUGE problem of child abuse? After all, child abuse (and other forms of abuse) most often take place inside the walls of homes, schools, and inside other settings. How will NCAPM reach into these settings to where people are hurting? How will their awareness efforts work? What is going to be done to reach the families that are identified to be "at-risk" and who face the stressful circumstances that so often cause adults to snap and to commit acts of abuse or violence against children? What is going to be done to reach out to families which live in tough, crime-infested neighborhoods, where shootings, sad to say, are a regular event? In these awareness events, other than the one safety fair in California, what is going to be done to empower parents and other adults, parents, grandparents, other guardians, teachers, and others who deal most with children, to keep children safe in their homes, in their communities, and online? These are the people who are most in need of NCAPM's message. Will they, of all people, have access to these events?
          According to the Army of Angels website at http://armyofangels/biz/, funds raised for NCAPM will be going to two nonprofits, Klaas Kids Foundation and to Wyn Spring Family Resource Center. Good enough. I know about Klaas Kids and I understand that they do wonderful things for children, through awareness and outreach. I don't know about Wyn Spring and so I can't comment on that nonprofit.
          I don't mean to come across as saying anything negative about these well-meant events and the campaign or all the festivities that are associated with it all. My concern is that the Army of Angels cause is obviously seen as a cool, fun, glamorous cause to join and be associated with. I have had more success, on both my Facebook accounts, in recruiting people to this Army of Angels cause on the Causes site, than I have for any other cause I have recently tried to get people to join. I have had much more success in recruiting people to the Army of Angels cause on the Causes site than I have recently had in recruiting people to another child abuse cause on that site, "For the Love of A Child," which is for Childhelp, a nonprofit that gives comprehensive services in child abuse prevention and services. These services include a hotline. Childhelp does REAL things for children! Therefore, my observation of  heavy Army of Angels involvement, judging from this support for their cause vs. other child abuse causes, and posts and comments I see often, can actually encourage one to lose sight of what it is supposed to be all about: to prevent and end child abuse. Child abuse prevention comes about not by awareness but by action which is taken based on what we already know. We need to get to awareness but get past it to ACTION that takes place all year long, for child abuse takes place all year long. Out efforts to prevent and end child abuse, whether done through Army of Angels or through some other means, ought to take place after April ends and the events are long over. All the blitzing about Army of Angels and all the camaraderie among those involved in it, should not make us lose sight of those whom all these efforts are supposed to help: the children.
          Last night, on a prime time talk show, Marc Klaas was weighing in on the current disppearance of a 15-year-old girl; I hear him say that, in the US alone, there are half a million registered sex offenders. This does not count all those who have not been caught, and we can be sure that they are many. Violence against children happens everywhere, in the home, in schools, in the community, and online. And child abuse is intertwined with other forms of violence, as abusers have often been abused themselves and are motivated by other forms of abuse, such as partner abuse, for example. And many youthful criminals who have done heinous things, have also cited bullying, which is another word for peer abuse, as their motive. How many school shooters have been motivated by bullying and by abuse in their homes? Recently, I wrote a blog about this very topic, about how bullying has been the motive for many brutal crimes; these crimes are on the rise. Children, themselves, are getting more and more violent. In a child-centered society like ours where it is politically correct to put one's child even before one's spouse, we have startlingly many severely troubled, unhappy, angry, frustrated, empty children. When we talk about preventing and ending child abuse, we ought to talk about other forms of violence that feed into and motivate child abuse. We also can be sure that the predators and violent offenders that we detest and vilify as evil incarnate, were often abused children themselves or suffered some or other stress or trauma in their childhoods. Not always, but often.
          Much abuse happens because of our broken system itself which places children in bad foster homes where they are subjected to even more abuse than was experienced in their original homes or are kept in homes where they should be removed from. Another form of child abuse happens where children are removed from good homes because of false accusations against the parents, because of the system's prejudice against parents who have disabilities, who live in the "wrong" neighborhood, or for another inapropriate reason, and most often because of custody issues between two fit parents who cannot or will not, resolve their differences. How will NCAPM these issues? Any talk about preventing and ending child abuse ought to include a discussion about how to make changes in a broken system which fails children over and over again.
          Another way of preventing and ending child abuse is sharing what experience of abuse we may have suffered in childhood, for the purpose of helping others (and I include bullying, which is peer abuse). Sharing your story puts a human face on abuse, brings it home to people on how abuse feels, how it leaves emotional scars that last a lifetime, and gives others the courage to share their own stories. It demystifies abuse, including child abuse. In connection with this, the other way to prevent and end child abuse is to break the cycle of abuse in your own life, often with professional help, as so much abuse happens because the abusers have been abused.
          In the meantime, what is the most obvious way to combat child abuse? Call the hotline 1-800-4-A-CHILD if you suspect or know a child is being abused.
  
       
http://armyofangels.biz/
This is the website for NCAPM and, in concise terms, provides information about this movement and the campaign. It also provides Kathleen de Spain Moore's contact information, where you can contact her if you are interested in providing help with last-minute details.

http://www.childhelp.org/
This is the website for Childhelp, which provides comprehensive services for child abuse prevention, including the hotline I provided above. Accorging to Charity Navigator, this nonprofit is in debt financially and is having trouble paying its bills. So, if you are looking to give to a child abuse nonprofit that needs your $$$ and that is doing REAL things for children, I recommend giving to this one.