This April, and every April, join Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse and Suicide (ICPYAS) to raise awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month. Prevention organizations nationwide embark on this mission every April in order to not only raise awareness, but also demonstrate how to recognize the signs of abuse and how to prevent it.
ICPYAS Director of Education and Community Relations Maggie Owens said, “One of the things that is really eye-opening is that 80 percent of reported child abuse happens in the home or at the hands of someone that a family knows and trusts.”
Part of the evidenced-based curriculum ICPYAS uses encourages students to find several trusted adults in their lives.
“When we teach our program in the schools, we encourage the students to identify five trusted adults that they can talk to if they need help,” Owens said. “In the state of Indiana, we are all mandated reporters so if you have reason to suspect a child is endanger, stand up for kids and call local law enforcement or 800-800-5556 to make a report.”
As the mission reflects, ICPYAS works diligently to end abuse and save lives. By continuing to provide services virtually, students and adults across Indiana continue to have access to prevention programs.
“We have transitioned to doing all our school-based programs via zoom and other web-based formats and have been able to still need the mandated legislation to provide this to all students K-12, school staff and community groups,” Owens said.
In an effort to raise awareness and provide additional resources, ICPYAS is offering free online training opportunities for individuals to sign up for Stewards of Children as well as QPR. Stewards of Children focuses on an adult-centered Child Abuse Prevention and awareness program to recognize the signs of abuse as well as how to react appropriately. QPR is one of the Suicide Prevention programs that teaches the participants how to question, persuade and refer as well as provide resources for suicide prevention.
Visit indianaprevention.org for online resources as well as a way to register for these training opportunities.