Today, we present the fourth grantee highlight of our Summer in a Safe City Campaign — The New York Foundling’s Child Abuse Prevention Program (CAPP). Established in 1986, CAPP has been at the forefront of the ongoing battle of breaking the cycle of child abuse. Nearly 1 in 10 children suffer from child maltreatment; 1 in 16 children suffer from sexual abuse; and nearly 1 in 10 are witnesses to family violence.1 For over 30 years, the organization has raised awareness about the consequences of child abuse, taught how to spot signifiers of suspected child abuse, and created prevention strategies to help even one more child from suffering another act of abuse.
In an engaging and highly effective method, the program uses life-sized puppets in detailed skits to teach children how to recognize, resist, and report all signs of abuse. The Prevention Specialists, who run the workshops, educate the children on their right to a safe childhood and future. Through the puppets, the Prevention Specialists are able to educate about various types of abuse and how to receive help in a manner that the children can understand and not feel intimidated by the information presented.
Following each session, children are given an opportunity to confidentially speak with staff and guidance counselors. Roughly 1% of all children who participate in the workshops will disclose abuse serious enough to warrant a call to the State Central Register, and 4% of participants are followed up and connected with community services (such as domestic violence, mental health, etc.) on an as-needed basis in response to the information disclosed in these sessions. Since last year, the program has reached 18,000 children through 213 workshops held in all five boroughs.
Your donation to our Summer in a Safe City Campaign will help CAPP increase their ability and capacity to present this information to more children. With an increase in workshops conducted in more schools, more children will be have the strength and skills to vocalize their mistreatment. Every 47 seconds, a child is confirmed to be abused.2 Donate to make this statistic cease to exist.
Click here to donate to our campaign.
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