National Safe Place (NSP) Week takes place in March each year. This nationally recognized week highlights the Safe Place® program, a national outreach and prevention program which brings together businesses and volunteers to provide immediate help and safety for all young people. Unfortunately, youth may face a variety of dangers in their young lives, including abuse, neglect, bullying, family struggles, homelessness, and more. NSP Week is a time to raise awareness of Safe Place as a critical connection to supportive resources for young people. It is also an opportunity to recognize the many valued Safe Place partners that are committed to serving youth in crisis and ultimately strengthening the national safety net for youth

NSP Week garners support for Safe Place and calls attention to local and national issues affecting youth. Well-planned awareness activities provide opportunities for individuals and organizations to share information about Safe Place and youth in crisis as well as opportunities to get involved in local Safe Place program efforts.

To learn more about the ways you can get involved for NSP, visit: http://www.nationalsafeplace.org/nsp-week

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This month and throughout the year, Sally Kate Winters encourages all individuals and organizations to play a role in making the community a better place for children and families. By ensuring that parents have the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to care for their children, we can help prevent child abuse and neglect by making meaningful connections with children, youth and families in our communities. Research shows that protective factors are present in healthy families. Promoting these factors is among the most effective ways to reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect. They are:

·         Nurturing and attachment

·         Knowledge of parenting and of child and youth development

·         Parental resilience

·         Social connections

·         Concrete support for parents

·         Social and emotional competence of children

Each April, people are called to action in support of healthy child development and support National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  This is a time to recognize that we can each play a part in promoting the social and emotional well-being of children in families and communities. Here’s how you can make a difference and help us put an end to child abuse:

·         Become a sponsor for Child Abuse Prevention Month. 

·         Volunteer for or attend any of Sally Kate Winters Family Services' events throughout April

·         Become a SKW Hero and lead a team to raise money on behalf of Child Abuse Prevention Month 

National Bullying Prevention Month is a campaign in the United States founded in 2006 by PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center. The campaign is held during the month of October and unites communities nationwide to educate and raise awareness of bullying prevention. Initially held the first week in October, the event was expanded in 2010 to the entire month.

PACER developed the initial campaign, National Bullying Prevention and Awareness Week, to raise awareness about bullying. Historically, bullying had been viewed as “a childhood rite of passage” that “made kids tougher,” but the reality has always been that bullying can leave devastating and often long-term effects such as a loss of self-esteem, increased anxiety, and depression for those involved. PACER reached out to the community through partnerships with education-based organizations such as the National PTA, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association to provide schools, parents and students with the educational resources and support to better respond to bullying behavior. The National Bullying Prevention Center laid the groundwork so that National Bullying Prevention Month is now a nationwide call to action around educating communities as to their roles in bullying prevention. This initiative has helped shift thinking away from bullying as “rite of passage” and toward the knowledge that bullying can be prevented and stopped through education and awareness.

National Bullying Prevention Month is recognized in communities across the United States, with hundreds of schools and organizations signing on as partners. Facebook, Disney, Instagram, CNN, TLC and Yahoo! Kids and many others have supported the month through media outreach and dissemination.

Learn more about NBPM here: http://www.pacer.org/bullying/

National Runaway Prevention Month (NRPM) is spearheaded each year in November by the National Runaway Safeline (NRS) and National Network for Youth (NN4Y).

The goals of NRPM are two-fold:

·         To raise awareness of the runaway and homeless youth crisis and the issues that these young people face

·         To educate the public about solutions and the role they can play in ending youth homelessness

Why support NRPM?

Between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away in a year. If all of these young people lived in one city, it would be the fifth largest city in the United States. These numbers are unacceptable, particularly when you consider the fact that many of these young people will end up on the streets. These are not bad kids; they are good kids in bad situations. By supporting NRPM, you are showing America’s runaway and homeless youth that they are not invisible and they are not alone.

Check back for more information here: https://www.1800runaway.org/runaway-prevention-month/