The key to preventing child abuse and neglect lies within the community.
That simple truth has remained core to my experience in my nearly 14 years of child welfare work in Tennessee, South Carolina, and now Illinois. Each year, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services receives more than 200,000 calls to their Abuse and Neglect Hotline. But the vast majority of these calls are for families who are struggling and need help.
That’s where we come in. All of us.
Brightpoint’s community-based support programs can provide desperately needed support and relief to families in need. These programs connect them to essential items (like food and diapers), financial assistance programs, and other supportive services that alleviate parental stress, which can reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect. Our approach is working: 94% of families supported through our prevention programs remained together, and 97% of families report receiving timely support from Brightpoint that helped them meet their needs.
To be clear, we couldn’t do this work without the support of our community partners and donors.
‘Coming together as a community’
Consider this story from my colleague, Aidalys Nazario, case manager with Brightpoint’s Community Connection Services (CCS) Program, who works with families daily, connecting them with resources and supports that prevent future abuse and neglect.
Earlier this year, Nazario began working with a family that needed help with getting a crib for a new baby in the home to help promote safe sleep. However, when she met with the family, she noticed that their needs were much more extensive. This family had four other children, and the father had recently lost hours at work, meaning the family was having trouble paying for their monthly expenses.
Nazario worked alongside the family, connecting them to rental assistance and other essential items for the baby and the other children in the home. She also helped them apply for federal food assistance.
To do so, she had to first help them overcome a barrier – they don’t speak English. So she enlisted the help of an Arabic translator to help connect the family with the needed resources.
“It’s about coming together as a community to be the voice of the families when they cannot advocate for themselves,” Nazario said.
A new tool to help
For many families, though, it’s not always easy to know where to go to for help. That’s why we recently launched CARA (Connection Assistant & Referral Agent), a new online tool that uses generative AI to help provide individuals and families with personalized, local community resources based on their individualized needs.
With CARA, families can find and access childcare, affordable housing, food pantries, healthcare clinics, and mental health services all by typing a simple question. CARA will also provide families with the location, hours of operation, and website links for services they choose, and follow up with families to make sure the referral was helpful and find out if they need any additional help.
By making local resources easier to find in the family’s own community, we’re alleviating parental stress and reducing the likelihood of an incident of child neglect or abuse, and subsequent involvement with the child welfare system.
Responding to crisis
Crisis nurseries are another great example of how we can provide a safety net for families in need. Crisis nurseries provide emergency childcare services for up to 72 hours for parents in need – helping parents in their urgent time of need and then supporting them as they plan for the future. In addition to childcare, crisis nurseries also provide parents with diapers, formula, and other needed items, as well as access to community support groups and home visiting services.
Brightpoint operates two crisis nurseries in Illinois, in Rockford and Bloomington, and last year provided emergency childcare to 304 children, helping to reduce family stress, connect families to resources, and prevent involvement with the child welfare system. Each year, we engage the local communities through our Stuff the Bus events, where community members can donate things like diapers, formula, wipes and other daily necessities.
Being a parent is perhaps the hardest job in the world.
When we provide parents with the support they need by expanding community-based programs – when they need them most – we can help their children thrive.
Emily Medere is vice president of child welfare at Brightpoint. Previously, she held the role of deputy state director of child welfare services with the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS).