April is Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month. This month highlights the importance of families and communities in preventing child abuse and neglect. According to the National Children’s Alliance, more than 550,000 children are known to the U.S. authorities to be abused. It is our responsibility to ensure that children get the childhoods they deserve. We sat down with One Hope United team members from every line of service to reflect on the childhood every child deserves—and why hope should be part of every child’s story.
Every child deserves education
“Children should receive an early education so that they can learn how to grow and develop, so that they can learn how build relationships with other people, so that they can get their first start in life. With an early childhood education, they can be well-rounded individual and go off into society and be productive citizens.”
– Keysha, Director of Aurora Early Learning Center
Every child deserves love
“Every child deserves an adult in their life who’s going to give their very best for the little one. Who’s going to love them no matter what. Who’s going to make sacrifices for them and not even think twice about it. Who’s going to hug them and give them the time and sit with them and laugh with them and play with them and just enjoy the time with them.”
– Donna, Foster Parent
Every child deserves family
“Every child deserves a family home. Every child deserves to have unconditional care. Every child deserves to have a high level of confidence and a great feeling of certainty as to where they are going to sleep the next day or where their next meal is going to come from. They need to be able to be coached, trained, inspired, supported. They need to have a high level of emotional intelligence to be able to function as young adults. Every child deserves a Hope House. Hope House provides a healthy balance of nurture, structure, and normalcy and every child deserves that.”
– Chuck, Director of Programs for Hope House
Every child deserves understanding
“Me personally, I’ve always wanted to help, especially teens, I want them to find their voice. A lot of times you hear people talk to teens and they say “you’ll understand when you get older.” I used to hate it when people would say that to me because maybe I do understand, I just have a different perspective. My goal is to go into these homes and help the kids find the voice to be able to communicate with the caregivers and also for the caregivers to understand that sometimes we just need to listen.”
– Kim, Case Manager Clinical Services
Every child deserves support
“Everybody needs somebody sometimes and not everybody has somebody. I’ve seen it too often that there’s people that slip through the cracks or aren’t able to get the resources that they need. And mental health, it’s not cookie cutter. Again, you don’t know that it’s going to affect you until it affects you. You never think it’s going to happen to you until it does. And there’s no one specific thing that is going to identify that you may struggle with mental illness. So it’s inclusive to everybody. So being able to provide that support for people that don’t have it is what keeps me going because everyone deserves someone.”
– Kelsey, Crisis Response
