Specialty license plates fund non-profits’ efforts to prevent child abuse
This summer, 16 Arizona non-profits shared $425,000 in grants from the “It Shouldn’t Hurt to be a Child” specialty license plate program.
The license plate program was started in 1999 as a joint effort between The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com the Governor’s Office of Youth, Faith and Family and the Arizona Community Foundation. Since then, more than $9 million has been distributed to agencies working to prevent child abuse and neglect.
The plates are $25, $17 of which goes to the agencies. Get your plate at servicearizona.com.
This series takes a closer look at the work being done by the non-profits. Featured today: Casa de los Niños and Arizona Youth Partnership.
Casa de los Niños: Addressing parenting challenges before a crisis Grant amount: $35,000. 520-624-5600. casadelosninos.org.
Stephanie Castillo-Leon, of Casa de los Niños, said her agency really works to create strong families.
“We want to promote child well-being and family stability because we know that that builds strong communities,” she said. “And when (parents and families) feel good about themselves and they’re connected to the resources to be successful, the communities are more successful.”
In order to do this, Castillo-Leon said the organization works two-fold by providing community education for anyone who works with children as well as parenting education for families.
The grant received this year from the Child Abuse Prevention License Plate program, Castillo-Leon said, allows the non-profit to offer parenting classes that focus on all ages.
“There’s different parenting challenges at each level,” she said. “There’s a lot of birth to 5 support and there’s also school age support. What’s missing a lot of the time in the resources or conversation is what to do with the adolescents.”
One of the hardest parts though is getting parents to attend classes if they don’t have concerns, Castillo-Leon said. She said parenting classes don’t have to be to just address problems, but can instead
be used to strengthen or build relationships.
“It’s parenting education on the prevention level,” she said. “The biggest impact is that it addresses challenges before parents realize that they have them. We really want to get families education and support before it turns into crisis.”
Prevention is now one of the agency’s biggest focus area. Castillo-Leon said they used to be very crisis-based, but now work a lot on prevention and creating healthy relationships for families.
“The goal is to get parents to feel confident about their job as parents. No parent knows everything. There’s no such thing as a perfect parent,” she said. “It’s my own personal campaign to spread the message that there’s no one right way to be a parent, but there are a million ways to be a good one.”
In addition to these classes, Casa de los Niños offers intervention programs and behavioral health treatment services. Arizona Youth Partnership: creating strong families
Grant amount: $10,000. 520-744-9595. azyp.org.
The Strengthening Families Program offered by Arizona Youth Partnership was created with the idea to end the stigma about going to child abuse prevention classes.
“What better way to prevent a curriculum that’s evidence-based that’s shown to reduce family conflict and child abuse and neglect and boost communication among adults and family than presenting family oriented, relationship building classes?” said Gauri Gladish, deputy director of the organization.
“We still reach the same goals to prevent child abuse and neglect. People are more receptive to that.”
Parents and children aged 10-14 participate in a seven-week curriculum, consisting of weekly class sessions. After class, Gladish said the organization always serves a family dinner because “statistics show that families who eat together are stronger.”
Classes last two hours. For the first hour, parents and children are separated and the second hour is a “family enhancement activity,” such as building a family tree or having a family meeting. During the hour apart, various topics are addressed for each group.