SCAN • STOP CHILD ABUSE NOW!

SCAN's mission is to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect in the Greater Richmond area by:
• Delivering and promoting programs that prevent and treat child abuse and neglect
• Increasing public awareness of child abuse and neglect
• Within a one-year period, 1,185 children were abused and/or neglected in the Greater Richmond area and 30 children died in Virginia as a result of child abuse and/or neglect. Approximately 78% of Virginia's child abuse and neglect victims are abused / neglected by one or both parents.

Studies have shown that children who are abused or witness abuse are at high risk of becoming violent themselves, particularly towards their own children and/or spouses. Abused and/or neglected children also often have social, cognitive, and economic difficulties in adulthood and suffer from a variety of physical and mental health problems.

Some of the risk factors associated with child abuse and neglect are poverty, poor decision-making skills, social isolation, and domestic violence. Abusive parents also often have unrealistic expectations of their children's development and lack basic and critical parenting skills. Research has shown that the best way to positively impact abused and/or neglected children is to improve their parents' functioning and their home environment.

SCAN Programs

Family Support Program: SCAN's Family Support Program seeks to reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect by promoting effective parenting and improving parent-child relationships. The Program serves families that are at a high risk of experiencing or have already experienced child abuse and neglect. The Program consists of twenty free groups each week-eleven Parent Support Groups and nine Children's Groups.

The Parent Support Groups provide a combination of education and support services that enhance parenting skills, social networks, knowledge of child development, and knowledge of community resources. By reducing these risk factors, families can be healthier and children can live in safer environments. The Children's Groups run concurrently with each Parent Group. The goal is to provide therapeutic activities that help children cope with their experiences and form healthy relationships with their peers and adults. In addition to group participation, families in the Program are also eligible to receive a combination of services on an as needed basis including case management, assessments and referrals, and individual/family counseling.

Family Support Program provides services that target high-risk populations; employ a variety of treatment interventions; and provide an intensive, family-focused approach. SCAN is able to help families considered hardest to serve by eliminating barriers to group participation. Unlike many other family services, which have sliding fee scales, SCAN provides all services to families at no cost. SCAN also provides transportation to families via taxi vouchers and bus tickets. SCAN has developed and implemented groups designed for special needs families. For example, SCAN currently provides the only support group in Richmond for cognitively impaired parents. SCAN also recently started a group for custodial grandparents and a group for families at Hilliard House, a transitional housing facility for homeless families in Henrico County.

Public Education Program: The purpose of the Public Education Program is threefold. First, by providing parents with helpful information and tips that promote positive parenting, SCAN is able to help strengthen parent-child relationships and foster healthy homes. SCAN's public education materials address risk factors that often lead to child abuse and neglect, such as a lack of understanding of appropriate child development and poor coping skills. SCAN's goal is to reach families before they are in need of intervention and SCAN's treatment services.

Second, public education promotes widespread prevention of child abuse and neglect. Public education helps people recognize the signs of child abuse and neglect and understand the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect. An educated public is capable and motivated to provide appropriate intervention on behalf of abused and/or neglected children.

Finally, SCAN's public education efforts add to the well being of the community as a whole. A healthy and prosperous community values and protects its children. SCAN continually reminds the community of the severity and extent to which child abuse and neglect is affecting the children and families in the Greater Richmond area. SCAN also provides opportunities for community members to actively participate in the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect.

Throughout the year, SCAN conducts the following educational activities:

• Develops and distributes educational materials that promote positive parenting techniques.
• Coordinates the National Child Abuse Prevention Month Campaign for the Greater Richmond area, including the Blue Ribbon Campaign.
• Trains professionals - such as childcare providers and teachers - on the dynamics of child abuse and neglect and and provides a Speakers' Bureau to civic groups, congregations, and businesses.

Why you should help stop child abuse now: The costs of child abuse and neglect are too great to ignore and warrant a great deal of our community's resources. Providing caring and effective services to children and their families prevents long-term effects of child abuse and neglect such as violence and domestic violence, other criminal behaviors, homelessness, mental health problems, chronic diseases, lower academic achievement, and difficulty maintaining employment. In order to succeed in life and be healthy, active members of the metropolitan community, the next generation of adults in the Greater Richmond area must grow up in safe and nurturing homes.

You are capable of providing the resources needed to continue providing child abuse prevention and treatment services in the Greater Richmond area. In addition to providing financial support, you can play an active role in child abuse prevention and treatment by volunteering in our Children's Groups and participating in our Public Education Program.

For more information, call 257-7226.

or visit www.grscan.com