This chart below was developed using data from Case Western Reserve University’s NEOCANDO database. All the cities in Cuyahoga County are ranked by their 8 year average rate of child maltreatment (child abuse and neglect). As you can see, we have lots of room for improvement.
My plan is to involve all the non-profits in our area who have expertise in this topic to join with the city and create a taskforce to prevent child abuse in our community. The first steps are to raise consciousness about preventing child maltreatment and educate our community about what to do if they witness child maltreatment. This approach has been proven to be effective in other communities.
You can watch videos of me presenting about this topic to City Council on more than one occasion–the videos from 12/15/08 and 2/2/09 are posted on this website.
There is a strong correlation between child maltreatment and children acting out in school, school achievement and becoming delinquent. Preventing children from being maltreated is important for all of us—and we can easily do something about it if we work together.
