Beginning in 1983, the month of April has been designated Child Abuse Prevention Month in the United States. Each year is an opportunity to learn about the signs of child abuse and how to prevent it. Communities around the nation come together to support families and children by reinforcing strategies that are working and by providing resources and activities to help end child abuse and neglect. In 2016, the theme was "Building Community, Building Hope".  According to childwelfare.gov, this theme "...acknowledges the tremendous power in communities to address the problem of child abuse and neglect and reflects our goal of providing [efforts] within research, policy, and practice related to promoting child and family well-being and protecting children, to ensure that they grow up to achieve their full potential, free from abuse and neglect." 

As child welfare practitioners in the greater St. Louis area, you know only too well what happens to children and youth when this breaks down and does not happen. When children are not allowed to grow up in abuse- and neglect-free homes and instead find themselves in foster care their well-being has been interrupted by trauma and emotional upheaval. Without you, the child's CASA volunteer, it's an even deeper hole for that  child to climb out of. So, thank you for being there for these children and youth. You are so very important.

Steve Moergen

Executive Director