Strong Families, Happy Kids: Parenting Tips from Prevent Child Abuse Arizona
Prevent Child Abuse Arizona Executive Director Claire Louge recently celebrated ten years with the organization and reflected on what she’s learned during her tenure. We’re sharing her reflections here to help spread awareness of child abuse prevention, including how it’s changed, what’s working, and what the future holds.
1. Prevention is an act of faith. The everyday work of child abuse prevention is planting seeds for trees that we may never get to climb or rest under. It’s worth doing anyway.
2. Understanding is evolving. In a good way. In the past ten years, mindsets have shifted with regard to what it means to actually prevent child abuse and neglect. Whereas many of us used to focus on reporting maltreatment and improving foster care as the solution to child abuse, we now focus on getting families what they need, when they need it.
3. Being a parent is hard. And parenting is the most influential job in the shaping of our collective future. That’s why we need to do everything we can to support the needs of families.
4. System bias exists. More of us are aware of the baked-in biases in systems, and the tragic impacts those biases have on groups of people. It’s up to us to redesign those systems to promote equity.
5. This work requires constant self-reflection. Humans all have biases (formed based on past experiences). Because of that, we need to constantly think about our own thinking, which creates our behaviors, practices, policies, and systems. If we don’t examine our thinking, we can become the creators of the outcomes our prejudice predicts.
6. The job is never done. The work of creating a society where all parents are supported to be able to nurture their children is a lot. It will take passionate people to harness their passion and energy in the ways that we can, and to inspire others to take up the movement when we no longer can.
7. The most important leadership qualities are humility and curiosity. Our work involves learning and unlearning, and that takes steadfast humility and persistent curiosity. It’s knowing, knowing better, and doing better. It’s examining systems and practices and taking a hard look at what we’re doing, how we’re doing, and if our actions align with our values.
8. Policy matters. Some of us may be averse to advocacy or bristle at anything that steers into politics, but getting involved in the process of law and policy-making is usually where we can make the biggest, broadest change for families and kids. Policy change takes many, many small actions from many, many people. Take action when you can. Please vote and encourage people to vote.
9. Our mission matters to everything that matters. When we work to prevent child maltreatment and adversity, we’re impacting so much more than the lives of individual children. Preventing abuse means we’re strengthening families, and when families are strong, everything flourishes–educational outcomes, economic outcomes, health outcomes, world outcomes. Energy thrown into child abuse prevention is energy well-spent.
10. The best part of the work is the people. This may seem heretical coming from a leader of a mission-driven organization, but the very best part of this work is not the work. It’s the people I get to work with through trainings, collaborations, and through Prevent Child Abuse Arizona. There isn’t a day that goes by in which I am not inspired by someone I meet through this work.
Our sector is full of diverse, courageous, passionate people who have chosen to spend most of their waking hours caring about children and families. I can’t think of anything more meaningful than conspiring to do something that generates less adversity and more wellbeing, and that contributes to something bigger than any or all of us. It’s not always easy, or linear, or fun.
But it’s always fascinating and meaningful. Even after the sixth Zoom meeting of the day. Even when there’s too much to do and never enough time or resources. Even when the world is on fire, literally or figuratively. Working with people who give a damn about families and children is the most meaningful thing I can think of doing.
Editor’s Note: look for the Strong Families, Happy Kids column in every issue of Prescott Woman Magazine. It’s designed to support parents with actionable tips and strategies they can use to create optimal environments for their children to thrive. To learn more about Prevent Child Abuse Arizona’s mission and resources visit www.pcaaz.org