Self-care: Parenting is easier when personal needs for intimacy, companionship, recreation, and time alone are being met. If your own needs as an adult are being met it is much easier to be patient consistent and available to your child.

Providing a safe environment: It is important to ensure a safe and engaging environment for your child. When your child is feeling safe, it creates a more relaxed environment for parenting.

Realistic expectations: It’s important for parents to have realistic expectations of themselves and understand where their child is developmentally ready to learn and understand. Problems can arise when parents expect too much of themselves and expect their children to be perfect.

Physical and emotional availability: Parents need to be available to their children not only physically but also emotionally. Parents can feel so overwhelmed by having to be present for their child all the time, but it’s important to explore what holds them back physical and emotionally from being present for their child.

Understanding how to discipline: Parents need to choose the right discipline strategy. Understanding how to discipline your child can help them feel safe and teaches them to behave in an acceptable way.

• Positive parenting tips by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  
• Ten Tips To Become a More Peaceful Parent from Peaceful Parent Happy Kids

1. Stop. Step back from your child, and sit down.
   
2. Take a deep breath. Take another. Inhale and exhale slowly. Repeat.
   
3. Remember you’re the adult, and you set the standard for behavior.
   
4. Count to 10 or say the alphabet out loud.
   
5. Close your eyes, and imagine you’re hearing what your child is about to hear.
   
6. Put your child in a time-out chair. (One minute of timeout for each year of age.)
   
7. Take your own time out, and think about why you are angry. Is it your child or is your child an easy target for your anger about something else?
   
8. Phone a friend or relative.
   
9. Phone our TALKLine on (415) 441-KIDS (5437).
   
10. Splash cold water on your face or take a shower or bath.
    
11. Squeeze a pillow as hard as you can.
    
12. Do some sit-ups or jumping jacks.
    
13. Go outside for a walk if someone is able to watch your children.
    
14. Turn on your favorite music.
    
15. Write down your thoughts.
    
16. Lie down on the floor or just put your feet up.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time when communities across the globe recognize the importance of safeguarding our children. But awareness alone isn’t enough. We must also act, and act wisely.

Safe & Sound co-leads the Child Abuse Prevention Council in Marin which helps prevent child abuse through community education, training, and promotion of policies and services that help support families and children before harm occurs.

The Council has recently released its “2024 Marin County Kids Community Report” which paints a sobering picture. You can read the data online here.

As they explain, lived experience (sometimes called lived expertise), the deep, practical knowledge that comes from personally navigating the child welfare system, can offer unique insights into what support systems truly help, what barriers cause harm and what services work in support of families to prevent the likelihood of abuse or neglect. The article therefore champions placing lived experience at the heart of child welfare reform, so that we can build systems of care that not only protect children but also strengthen families, restore dignity, and create lasting change. You can read the full article online here.

Child Abuse Prevention Month is an opportunity to take stock and celebrate “blue ribbon” individuals, organizations, and communities who have done so much to prevent child abuse and neglect, and to look forward to what can still be achieved.

The first National Child Abuse Prevention Month took place in April 1983, but child abuse is still a critical social issue. In 2023, the City and County of San Francisco had one child reported with abuse every 1.8 hours, and the Bay Area had one child reported every 9.1 minutes.

• Creative challenge
  Express your thoughts and feelings about child abuse prevention through art, poetry, or music. Share your creations on social media to inspire others and tag organizations dedicated to child abuse prevention.

• Fundraiser
  Organize a fundraiser to support child abuse prevention efforts in your community. Let’s rally together for this important cause! Safe & Sound has set an ambitious fundraising goal for this month – support us in achieving that goal so that we can continue to support children and families to thrive.

• Family engagement
  Get to know neighbors or new families at your child’s school and help others to do the same. Encourage families to have open and honest conversations about child abuse prevention and safety with their children. Provide resources and activities for caregivers to teach children about personal boundaries, consent, and safe adults to talk to. You can find some of these resources on Safe & Sound’s website.

• Reflection
  Take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned and advocate for children in your community. Your voice matters.

Together, let’s create a safer and brighter future for every child. Let’s make April a month of awareness and action with Safe & Sound!

A key facet to our success is the developed trust with the families we support. As Pegah explained “We are trying to prevent cases of child abuse, neglect, trauma, we are trying to prevent families from being separated in the first place, and so we can only do that by being able to catch families before a challenge and a crisis has occurred and built trust with them, give them the knowledge, skills and behaviours to make the change.”

You can listen to the full episode on all major podcast providers and on the San Francisco Experience Podcast website here.

Spring Break is coming up! Spring break provides a great opportunity for kids to decompress during a busy school year and for parents to engage in fun activities. While your kids are excited that it is a week of endless possibilities, we understand that as a parent – taking care of logistics can be hard. Whether you are staying at home or going out of town, here are some activities you can try with your kiddos.

Do not forget to take care of yourself! This week can be stressful – find opportunities in your schedule to do something you like whether it be a nice shower, a date night or a walk out of the house.

Check out this website page for more resources! https://safeandsound.org/for-parents/

Parenting is hard and you don’t have to do it alone. Call our 24/7 TALKLine on: (415) 441-5437

Now more than ever, there is a severe lack of empathy and understanding in our society. Storytelling is one way to celebrate both the diversity and commonality of the human experience. Sometimes that means Safe & Sound sharing stories and advocating for families; other times, it means handing over the mic.

That’s why we’ve partnered with The Moth to offer an exclusive storytelling workshop and coaching opportunity for our clients and supporters to tell their own stories, and we’d love for you to join us. We want to hear how being a part of the Safe and Sound community has impacted you personally – a time you felt seen for who you are, when something you did made an impact, a moment when you realized what was possible and what family could be like.

The Moth is a nonprofit dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Since 1997, The Moth has invited over 60,000 individuals around the globe to stand in front of a live audience and share their personal and true stories. The Moth Podcast is downloaded tens of millions of times a year, and each week, the Peabody Award-winning The Moth Radio Hour, presented by PRX, is heard on over 560+ public radio stations. Here’s a link to some of the Moth staff’s favorite stories to give you an idea.

Additionally, The Moth runs storytelling workshops for students, teachers, adults, advocates, and professionals from around the world through its Education, Community Engagement, Global Community and MothWorks programs – which is where we come in. We’re offering you the opportunity to build your storytelling skills and craft your personal narrative, through a 20-person virtual workshop and, if chosen, one-to-one coaching to deliver that story live to an audience of invited guests.

Applicants must be available to attend all elements of the program.

Tell us about a time you showed resilience to face your challenges
➡️ Submission Deadline: Tuesday March 18th
To apply, submit a summary of your story using this google form:

• Your story should be about you, told in the first person and true, as remembered by you.
  
• It should be about a transformation in your life, not a stand-up routine, a rant, an essay, or a cultural appropriation of any kind.
  
• Please summarize your entire story — no cliff-hangers please!
  
• Please set out your story in no more than 300 words
  
• Don’t worry about the story being polished. That’s what the coaching is for!

If you have any questions about this program or your submission, please email teamdev@safeandsound.org.

Remember, the best person to tell your story is you. So join us to do just that.

Safe & Sound senior adviser and former CEO, Katie Albright, has co-authored a powerful piece in the latest issue of Family Justice Journal setting out a guide for building pathways for supporting children and families in their own communities.

Narrowing the door to Child Protective Services

Safe & Sound has already taken some steps to address overreporting to the Child Welfare System, having established that in California over 80% of general neglect allegations were not substantiated [2], that fear of being reported was discouraging parents from seeking support, and that despite the fact mandated reporters often have the best intentions of trying to get the help the family needs, the vast majority do not receive services that result in greater family stability [3].

In 2022 Safe & Sound successfully navigated California Assembly Bill 2085 through the State Assembly and before the Senate. The bill limits the definition of general neglect to only include circumstances where the child is at substantial risk of suffering serious physical harm or illness, and provides that general neglect does not include a parent’s economic disadvantage.

We also continue to deliver Mandated Reporter trainings across San Francisco – training for child-serving professionals on how to identify, respond to, and report suspected child abuse – in a way that is responsive to the research on overreporting and sensitive to its findings.

Widing the door to community support

The other side to the coin is to operationalize the alternative – Pathways to Prevention. The article in the Family Justice Journal sets out three transformative actions that will enable this. At Safe & Sound, we have been instrumental in the formation and leadership of the statewide Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting Task Force, charged with developing key reform recommendations. Our Chief Policy Officer, Jenny Pearlman, is a key member of the Task Force and co-chairs its Legal Liability and Policy subcommittee. To date, we have delivered over 20 presentations on this work to local and state entities, further advocating for a shift towards a supportive, trauma-informed approach to child and family well-being.

Safe & Sound is also the backbone agency for the Family Services Alliance, a collective of Family Resource Centers that collaborate on advocacy and coordinate resources and services, creating the groundwork for a community pathway.

Conclusion

Safe & Sound’s efforts to date put us at the forefront of the local and statewide endeavor to safely keep families together in the communities where they will thrive. We will continue to move these initiatives forward in the coming year, with the support of experts and thought leaders.

—

[1] Stoltzfus, E., Congressional Research Service (2024). Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding.

[2] California Child Welfare Indicators Project (2024).

[3] Chapin Hall (2024).

In 2024 alone, Safe & Sound’s Community Education team spoke to 3,991 K-5 students about Safety Awareness through our partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District.

This cornerstone of our prevention efforts teaches children how to keep themselves safe, how to respond to different types of pressure from others, and to talk to a trusted adult about their experiences.

The content is simple, but the concepts being articulated are potentially life changing for the children in the class. Topics covered include:

• Being assertive – saying “no” when someone tries to break a safety rule, getting away from them and telling someone.
  
• A simple rule – never touch a gun.
  
• That there is a difference between safe and unsafe touch, and which body parts are private and should only be touched by adults whose role is to keep them clean and healthy – namely parents/guardians and doctors/nurses.
  
• How to use the support system of safe grownups, telling them where you are going or reporting if someone breaks a safety rule.

The community educators generally divide these topics into three distinct but interrelated sessions of 30 minutes, visiting each class for three days in a row, in a tightly packed schedule that sees them visit 30 institutions per year across San Francisco.

Through rhymes, claps, roleplays and patiently answering questions, the community educators ensure that students understand the key concepts. This consistent curriculum is delivered to students throughout their school journey, to reinforce the messages and add levels of complexity to the information as children get older, start to understand the concepts and have different experiences.

In response to parent and teacher feedback citing their most prominent concerns, in 2025 the classes will start to incorporate internet safety, demonstrating our commitment to ensuring the curriculum remains as valuable and up to date as possible.