MCVP staff wears blue for Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month & Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is one of those months that everyone looks forward to seeing arrive. It’s the unofficial start of spring. The days are getting longer and warmer. The snow is gone (or nearly gone)! It also marks the beginning of both Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month.
At MCVP, we work all year long to support survivors of sexual assault and child abuse, and we work to prevent further violence in the Monadnock Region. To support survivors who have experienced sexual violence or abuse, there many different things you can do.
Here are just some ideas:
- Believe survivors
- Call out victim-blaming language
- Volunteer with a local crisis center
- Donate to MCVP or another organization close to you that’s working to end interpersonal power-based violence
- Advocate for sexual abuse prevention programming in schools
- Talk with the teens in your life about consent and healthy relationships
- Like, share, and comment on social media posts that help raise awareness
Child abuse is something that not even the Monadnock Region is free from. Advocates had a record-high number of cases in March of 2021. While it is always heartbreaking and startling to see a sharp increase in cases, this means more children and teens are disclosing their experiences. In addition to supporting survivors of child abuse, MCVP’s Education Team works with students from pre-k through college to help break the cycle of abuse and prevent abuse from ever happening.
Learn more about the Healthy Relationships Project in this short film.
At MCVP, we believe adults are 100% responsible for preventing child abuse. That is why we have chosen The Healthy Relationships Project as our flagship educational program. The Healthy Relationships Project is a trauma-informed, social and emotional learning curriculum suite created by Prevent Child Abuse Vermont for children in preschool through eighth grade and the adults who care for them. The research-based curriculum suite provides comprehensive and developmentally appropriate abuse prevention education that adds protective factors to the lives of children and works towards stopping abusive behaviors from forming within children. Learn more about this program and others.
If you’d like to see the Healthy Relationships Project or another MCVP program in your school, please contact Katrina Nugent, preveddirector@mcvprevention.org.
That is why this month, and all year long, we are calling on our community to support survivors and to help end interpersonal power-based violence in the region. You can take action with a donation toward MCVP’s Annual Fund, which supports both our Crisis Intervention Services & Prevention Education Programming.
