UA among Five Receiving Funding for Child Maltreatment Prevention

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama’s Child Development Resources is one of five Tuscaloosa organizations to receive a combined $465,000 to help fund community programs committed to the prevention of child maltreatment.

The Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention will present the organizations with the individual grant awards at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, at UA’s Child Development Research Center.

This year’s grant recipients include Big Brothers Big Sisters of West Alabama, Child Abuse Prevention Services, United Cerebral Palsy of West Alabama, Tuscaloosa’s One Place and UA’s Child Development Resources, which is part of the College of Human Environmental Sciences.

The Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention was established in 1983 to address the state’s growing problem of child neglect and maltreatment. While several state agencies already existed to deal with different aspects of child abuse, none of these agencies specifically focused on solving the problem before it occurred.

To address the problem at its origin, the ACANP Act established The Children’s Trust Fund. These state dollars are intended to provide annual funding of community-based prevention programs throughout the state, as well as create a self-sustaining pool of funds to fund future programs.

The grant money will be used to fund the following programs:

• UA’s Child Development Resources will receive $40,000 for Baby TALK (Teaching Activities for Learning and Knowledge), which is a community effort designed to encourage parents in the nurture of their small children. New parents are provided with basic child development information and suggestions for developmentally appropriate activities.

• UA’s Child Development Resources also received $70,000 for its Parenting Assistance Line, which is a statewide toll-free number answered by a Parent Resource Specialist who will listen and offer helpful information and support.

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of West Alabama received $45,000 for school-based programming and $45,000 for community-based mentoring program. Partnering with parents/guardians, schools, corporations and others in the community, Big Brothers Big Sisters carefully pairs children (“Littles”) with screened volunteer mentors (“Bigs”) and monitors and supports these one-to-one mentoring matches in building safe, enduring relationships.

• Child Abuse Prevention Services received $45,000 for Second Step, which teaches emotional management and problem-solving skills to students in Pre K-8^th grade, and $20,000 for the Child Protection Unit to serve Barbour County. The Child Protective Unit is a school-based program where students are taught how to recognize unsafe and sexually abusive situations, how to report abusive situations and how to assertively refuse these situations when possible.

• Tuscaloosa’s One Place received $125,000 for CHAMPS, Because Every Child Needs a Champion Fatherhood program, which is a program designed for noncustodial parents in Tuscaloosa and Greene counties to establish and strengthen positive parental interaction by providing activities that develop and improve parenting skills, communication and economic stability.

• Tuscaloosa’s One Place also received $40,000 for No Place Like Home, which provides family specific services that reduce risk factors while increasing protective factors.

• United Cerebral Palsy of West Alabama received $35,000 for HEARTS Respite, a respite program that provides voucher reimbursement for respite care to families of children birth through 19 living with special needs in several Alabama counties.