-Survey-
O.U.R. Children Safety Project
If we can predict it, we can prevent it.
~Dr. Rob Anda
Lead Researcher of the ACE study
In 2014 while interviewing a community member for a class project I was shocked when she stated early in our meeting, "I was sexually abused at age 4." These words echoed in my mind as I began to learn of the alarming psychological and health outcomes for individuals who have experienced child maltreatment. (ACEs Adverse Childhood Experiences)
As my awareness grew, so did the number of families who reported child maltreatment (abuse, neglect and bullying) when connecting with them. Subsequently, I could no longer ignore the increasing need to provide information that would help build resilience for these families and work to prevent further maltreatment. The O.U.R. Children Safety Project, which stands for Observe, Understand and Respond focuses on child maltreatment prevention for children with disabilities. Harold Johnson, Ph. D. is a recently retired professor of Deaf Education at Michigan State University, who began work on this topic in 2007. In 2008, Harold Johnson teamed with Hands & Voices, a national parent led organization providing unbiased support and information to families of children who are deaf, hard of hearing. Their goal was simple - to identify other organizations who focus on child maltreatment prevention for families of children with disabilities in which no other organizations were found. Through their team efforts, the O.U.R. Children Safety Project was created. |
As part of this groups efforts they established child maltreatment goals that could be written as functional goals into a child's Individual Educational Plan (IEP) and an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) for families enrolled in early intervention services. These goals have the ability to build self advocacy/determination and child safety skills for a family and their child. Such goals can be embedded into speech and language goals, physical therapy goals, self advocacy or determination goals etc. This portion of of their work is entitled, “Silence is Not an Option”.
Recently, Harold Johnson led me to a Special Project by the Division of Communicative Disabilities and Deafness (DCDD). This is a special interest division of Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) called “Prevention of Maltreatment”. For the purpose of this survey I was curious to find out from other parent led organizations that focus on supporting children with special needs if they would join in the efforts to carry out the mission set forth by the CEC. In addition, I was curious about which digital media would be best to create for information dissemination of the O.U.R. Children Safety Project. Would creating new media projects benefit the O.U.R. Children Safety Project efforts? The survey was sent out to Parent to Parent Coordinators throughout Washington State. Below is the survey, which only 10 individuals completed. Most of the participants are colleges who I have worked with on other projects throughout our state. |