‘Paint for Prevention’ events to create child abuse awareness across Pennsylvania

Parents and children, children’s advocates, and state, county, and local officials will join with members of the general public at three locations around the state during April to paint murals as a way of building awareness about preventing child abuse and neglect.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance (PFSA) is the sponsor for the scheduled “Paint for Prevention” events in Harrisburg, Greensburg and Bristol.

A total of more than 2,000 participants gathered last year in April in Harrisburg, Uniontown, Scranton, and Allentown to mark Child Abuse Prevention Month by painting a series of murals that expressed the joy of parents and children together experiencing the cities, fields, and forests of Pennsylvania.

The “Paint for Prevention” events this year will be held as follows:

•    April 8, in Harrisburg, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Dauphin County Courthouse
•    April 14, in Bristol (Bucks County), from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the Grundy Recreation Center.
•    April 20, in Greensburg, from 10:00 a.m. to 12 p.m., at the Seton Hall University Visual Arts Center.

The events are free and the public is invited.

Beth Bitler, program director for PFSA, said the “Painting for Prevention” events provide a positive way to build awareness in communities and among families about the problem of child abuse and neglect—a problem that, unfortunately, occurs all across Pennsylvania.

“By joining this collaborative effort to create community art, the participants are expressing a sense of solidarity in response to the problem,” Bitler said. “We want them to leave with a greater understanding and a greater desire to be part of the solution.”

According to the state Department of Public Welfare, over 25,000 cases of suspected child abuse and neglect were reported in Pennsylvania in 2008, the latest year for which statistics are available. Sixteen percent of those reports—more than 4,000—were substantiated. In all, 50 children died from abuse and neglect in 2008.

PFSA works with affiliated member agencies across Pennsylvania to provide information, educational materials, and programs that teach and support good parenting practices.

PFSA also works through schools, early childhood education centers, religious institutions, and social service agencies to teach “mandated reporters” to recognize the signs of child abuse and neglect and how to appropriately report such cases. Mandated reporters are people who frequently come into contact with children in the course of performing their jobs and are required by law to report abuse and neglect.

During the past year, PFSA presented nearly 300 training sessions on reporting child abuse and neglect throughout the state. These sessions provided face-to-face training for nearly 8,000 mandated reporters.

Link to Child Abuse Prevention Month