Keep Connected and Child Abuse Prevention

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and we’re spotlighting how our new Keep Connected program can play an important part in preventing child abuse in our community. 

According to the Administration for Children & Families, one of the most successful ways to prevent child abuse and neglect is to strengthen the family as a whole and create opportunities for them to flourish and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) compiled the following list of strategies that are most helpful in creating stable, nurturing, and safe family environments: 

• Strengthen economic supports to families
• Change social norms to support parents and positive parenting
• Provide quality care and education 
• Enhance parenting skills to to promote healthy child development 
• Intervene to lessen harms and prevent future risks 

To tap into the benefits of education and enhancing parenting skills in the prevention of child maltreatment, BBBS of Washtenaw recently applied for and received a State of Michigan grant that will enable us to  implement the Keep Connected program, an interactive workshop series specifically formulated to strengthen youth and parent relationships during the middle school years, often a highly stressful time for families. This program is designed to improve parent-youth communications, increase student motivation, connect families to other families in similar places, and give kids more confidence as they move into their teen years. 

In 2023, BBBS will host four full Keep Connected workshops at various locations, with room for 10 families in each set of workshops. Each workshop will also include six individual sessions, plus an additional graduation session. The six sessions will focus on: 

• Thriving Through the Teenage Years: The Power of Family Relationships
• You Already Care-How do You Show It?
• Sharing Power-Even When it’s Challenging
• In The Zone: Challenge and Support Growth 
• It’s a Big World Out There: Helping Each Other Discover Possibilities 
• Growing Together Through the Teenage Years
• Bonus session: Celebrating Your Family’s Journey Together: The Graduation 

If you are interested in learning more about our Keep Connected program, please contact our Family Engagement Coordinator, Keyera North, at keyera.north@bbbswashtenaw.org