Over the past two years, Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina has been working on an innovative project - The Gaining Ground Initiative.  Funded by the Duke Endowment and spearheaded by Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina, the Gaining Ground Initiative was a multi-year effort to identify and implement statewide strategies to reduce child maltreatment. 
Through the Gaining Ground Initiative, we completed a series of publications closely examining child maltreatment and child abuse prevention in North Carolina.  We also compiled a database of child abuse prevention programs in North Carolina.  Another critical part of the Gaining Ground Initiative was the development and support of the Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention.  

Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina, in collaboration with the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, supported this statewide task force.  The Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention was co-chaired by the North Carolina Secretary of Health and Human Services, Carmen Hooker-Odom and Dr. Marion Earles, a pediatrician in Greensboro who is a leader in child abuse prevention.  The Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention was comprised of over sixty members including state agency directors, researchers, practitioners, advocates, and legislators.  Through the work of the Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention New Directions for North Carolina: A Report of the NC Institute of Medicine Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention was created.

This report provides a blueprint for child maltreatment prevention efforts in North Carolina.  For the first time in the state’s history, a diverse set of stakeholders joined forces to outline a comprehensive vision, a set of principles, and a set of very specific recommendations for shifting North Carolina’s focus on child maltreatment from intervention to prevention.   

The Executive Summary is an excellent synopsis of the Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention’s discussions and recommendations.  The plan itself provides you with a summary of child maltreatment, prevention programs and research, and the state’s new vision for a child maltreatment prevention system. Click here to download the report.

We strongly encourage you to review the plan and share it with your staff and colleagues in your community.  Some of the key recommendations for preventing child maltreatment in North Carolina include:

• Establishment of a Child Maltreatment Prevention Legislative Oversight Council to provide leadership and attention to the issue of child maltreatment prevention.
• Creation of an interdepartmental, interdisciplinary Child Maltreatment Prevention Leadership Team, housed within the NC Division of Public Health, to coordinate and ensure implementation of the recommendations.
• Development of a broad-based, statewide public education campaign aimed at promoting positive parenting behaviors and community support of parents.
• Replication of evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programs across the state.
• Assessment of the prevalence of maternal depression in North Carolina and the ability of women to receive effective screening and treatment services for postpartum depression.

As we begin the process of educating professionals and making statewide changes, we want to thank you for all you do to protect children and support families.  We appreciate your support in the past and we look forward to partnering with you to address the challenges that lie ahead.  

Please feel free to contact us with questions or if you would like additional information about our efforts.