Prevention Connection

September 2014
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In this Issue
Child Abuse Trends
Golf for Prevention
Meet Rachel Owens
New Grants
You're Invited

The second annual
Cheers! for Children
celebration will take
place Thursday,
October 23, at The
Gramercy Tap in
downtown Des
Moines. Enjoy live
music, appetizers, a
silent auction and
more. Your support
will help us provide
the services and
Adrian Peterson case calls for greater
support for parents

The recent story involving
the indictment of NFL
football player Adrian
Peterson highlights the
importance of increasing
awareness of early
childhood development and
positive discipline practices.
It also stresses the need for
community support for
parents.

Prevention programs,
including those we support,
teach parents about
appropriate child
development and positive
parenting skills, as well as
how to manage stress and
strengthen their relationship with their children.

In addition, we have partnered with the Iowa Department of
Human Services and Children & Families of Iowa to launch a
fatherhood initiative focused on building fathers' awareness
and knowledge around parenting so that they become more

The Adrian Peterson story is an
opportunity to talk about how
we can better support parents.
Read our statement.
resources needed to
make families
stronger and
children safer.


A special thank you
to the Patty and Jim
Cownie Charitable
Fund and William C.
Knapp Charitable
Foundation for
sponsoring this
event at the
Enthusiast level!
Learn more about
our sponsors.
Child Abuse
Trends

Our analysis of the
2013 child abuse
data reveals
important
opportunities for
future prevention
efforts including
targeting services
and supports to
families with a teen
mother or infant
with a low birth
weight, and
expanding work to
address child sexual
abuse. Read the full
report here.

Golf for
Prevention
Play a round of golf
engaged parents.

With greater resources and community support, we can
continue to expand prevention work so that more parents
have an opportunity to learn important skills such as positive
discipline techniques. As a result, more children will grow up
in the safe, nurturing environments they need for healthy
development.

Read our statement on this issue and join us in creating this
positive change.

Partner Spotlight:
Rachel Owens,
PCA Iowa Program
Assistant
A degree in Child, Adult and
Family Services from Iowa
State University and an
internship with an in-home
therapy service exposed Rachel
Owens to the many issues
families with child abuse cases
face. Her recent arrival as
program assistant at Prevent
Child Abuse Iowa, however, has
helped her see opportunities for
preventing these kinds of
situations in the first place.

"I had never really worked in
the prevention field and you don't really learn about
prevention in school, so I'm trying to shift my way of
thinking," she said. "If we can make these effective changes
in the community, we can stop these things from happening
and it will save a lot of government dollars down the road,
but essentially it will help improve families' and communities'
lives and society as a whole."

Previously, Rachel worked as an administrative assistant for
Boys & Girls Club of Story County where she provided office
support and helped with outreach and grant writing. Through
an internship with Cornerstone Church of Ames, Rachel
discovered that although she enjoys working directly with
people in the community, she also brings a lot of skills to the
behind-the-scenes tasks that ensure these services are
available and make an impact.


Rachel Owens has joined
PCA Iowa as our program
assistant.
in support of child
abuse prevention on
Saturday, October
4, at the Ames Golf
& Country Club.
Iowa State
University's Kappa
Delta Sorority is
hosting the
tournament. 80
percent of proceeds
raised will go to our
organization.
Register here!


About Us
Prevent Child Abuse
Iowa's mission is to
lead child abuse
prevention efforts in
Iowa through
Advocacy,
Awareness and
Assistance.



After a week of training with our organization, Rachel says, "I
feel like I'm jumping on a moving train and it's really exciting
to hear the passion about what we do. I love that even
though I'm learning a lot about how we do reports and other
paperwork, I get to hear about The ACE Study and meet
people actually working with communities and making
change. It's good to see how the research and projects we
fund are really making a difference."

Happenings

Grant expands state conference
A grant from the Iowa Department of Public Health will allow
us to expand our state prevention conference to 650 people
with a reduced registration rate of $75 for two days and $100
for three days. The conference will take place April 13-15,
2015, at the Des Moines Marriott Hotel. More details will be
announced this fall.

Community ACEs project grows
We're looking to partner with 3-4 communities to expand our
Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention Response to ACEs
project this fall. Teams from selected communities will
complete a community readiness assessment measuring
leaders' and citizens' readiness to engage in prevention
efforts and develop a plan to raise the readiness level
utilizing research on adverse childhood experiences. In
addition, a grant from a private foundation will allow us to
evaluate the process we've developed and the lessons
learned from these communities' efforts, along with the six
initial sites involved in the project. The results will be shared
nationally. Find updates on this work here.
Order your pinwheels
Now's the time to order pinwheels for your Child Abuse
Prevention Month activities in April 2015. The pinwheel is the
symbol of the happy, joyful childhood that every child
deserves. Community groups have found creative ways to
raise awareness of child abuse prevention through pinwheel
gardens, pinwheel bouquets and other activities. Learn more
and find an order form here. Orders are due by September
26.






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