Abstract
The effects of abuse and neglect on children and on society are well documented, and suggest that prevention must be among the highest of priorities. Current child welfare agencies are limited in how effective they can be in child abuse prevention because of being overwhelmed by the caseload and being part of rigid bureaucracies. The Strong Communities initiative was successful in overcoming these limitations by employing a grassroots approach that gave their workers a great deal of freedom in their efforts to mobilize communities around the norm that children should be safe. This article reports details about what the workers actually did to accomplish this goal. Findings show that the workers were successful in engaging multiple community sectors, e.g., faith groups, community/neighborhood organizations, educational venues, civic organizations, and fire departments. Results also show that the activity within these sectors varied considerably over time and across different communities. These results suggest that those planning or working in grassroots, neighborhood-based child abuse prevention initiatives must develop relationships with, or create, a variety of community sectors, be persistent in their contacts with those sectors, and most importantly, be prepared for the activity in those sectors to wax and wane over time and be different in different communities. In short, one must continuously be creative and employ a great deal of flexibility and patience when doing this type of work.
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Berman, J.J. Flexibility and Creativity: Critical Elements in Prevention of Child Maltreatment. Int. Journal on Child Malt. 3, 163–175 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42448-020-00043-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42448-020-00043-9