Earlier this month, I let you know that the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center would be changing its name. Today, I am proud to announce that we are officially Safe & Sound.
For more than 44 years, we’ve been at the forefront of child abuse prevention. During these decades, our organization — in partnership with you and others — has made remarkable strides in protecting our city’s children and advocating for their safety. Yet, every day we are reminded of how much more there is to do if we’re going to achieve our goal of ending child abuse in San Francisco and reducing it in surrounding communities.
As we work towards this end, we felt one thing held us back from fully embracing this audacious goal — our name. Therefore, on September 26, the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center became Safe & Sound.
Each and every day we work to create a society where children are safe, families are strong, and communities are sound.
Our journey to a new name took more than a year and a great deal of thought. As you can imagine, it was not easy giving up our cherished name, but we felt it was the right and necessary decision.
Safe & Sound allows us to unify our work. Today, we are many things — and names — to so many different people (such as San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center, TALK Line Family Support Center, Kids’ Turn, Child Abuse Council, SafeStart, and more). By presenting our programs under a single name, we will significantly enhance the community’s ability to identify our organization and seek our services.
Safe & Sound allows us to focus on safety. Though our mission is focused on child abuse prevention, our work is focused on creating a future without it. We work to create joyous childhoods where child abuse is no longer a concept.
Safe & Sound allows us to expand our impact. Over four decades we have woven child-focused policies and programs into the fabric of San Francisco. As we look to the future we will continue to reach far beyond the borders of San Francisco, scaling our model and sharing our successes to support the safety and well-being of children and their families everywhere.
On a very practical level we encountered several challenges with the name San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center. It’s a mouthful, causing people to stumble through it and often forget the very key word of “prevention.” And, the term “abuse” carries a stigma deterring the very families who need our services the most from seeking our support.
Make no mistake, our mission, our work, our programs, and our people remain the same.
Stay tuned. Over the coming month, we’ll be sharing with you our future initiatives as we work towards this reality. For now, take a look at how big this problem really is, how we’re planning to reduce and ultimately end child abuse, and the work we do everyday to protect children in our community.