April Is National Child Abuse Awareness Month

April is designated as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, providing opportunities to raise awareness about protecting children. As budget cuts threaten the safety net of services for vulnerable families, there are many ways that communities can actively support children’s safety.

April is child abuse awareness month in Texas. 

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has kicked off a month-long campaign starting April 1 to stop child abuse and raise public awareness.  

Child abuse cases continue to climb and in 2012,  212 Texas children died at the hands of their parents or caregivers, and more than 64,000 children were abused or neglected.  There were 166,211 completed investigations and 16,972 children were removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect. . . . 

Thanks to a federal grant,  The Department of Family and Protective Services is spending $1,000,000 on the campaign from now through the end of the summer. TV ads in English and Spanish are running on stations in all Texas media markets during Child Abuse Prevention Month. The online ad campaign runs from mid-March through the end of August. This advertising buy specifically targets young parents and especially young mothers. 

The ultimate goal of the Help and Hope campaign is to help Texas parents find the help and information they need in their communities to head off child abuse before it happens.
“I heard hundreds of child abuse cases when I was a district judge in San Antonio,” said DFPS Commissioner John Specia. “Many of the parents who came through my courtroom were young, poor, and stressed.  If we can get parents the support they need up-front, fewer will end up in court needing the help of Child Protective Services.” 

While prevention is best, always report child abuse or neglect. Don’t count on someone else to do something. Report your suspicions to the Texas Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-252-5400 or online at www.txabusehotline.org. 

April is also child abuse month in North Dakota. Their website presents a long list of resources to help parents and others with this national problem related to domestic violence.

Prevent Child Abuse America, founded in 1972 in Chicago, works to ensure the healthy development of children nationwide. The organization promotes that vision through a network of chapters in 50 states and over 500 Healthy Families America home visitation sites in 41 states, all the territories, Puerto Rico and Canada. A major organizational focus is to advocate for the existence of a national policy framework and strategy for children and families while promoting evidence-based practices that prevent abuse and neglect from ever occurring. 

Quotes from Scriptures about raising children: 

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” - Genesis 18:19

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. - Proverbs 22:6  

 All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. - Isaiah 54:13 

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. - Colossians 3:21 

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. - Hebrews 12:5-11 - ESV

Children are A Blessing From God 

He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.Praise the LORD! - Psalm 113:9

 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. - Psalm 127:3-5

 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. - Psalm 139:13-16

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. - John 16:21

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. - James 1:17

Read more: Bible Verses About Children- 25 Inspirational Scripture Quotes