Keeping Children and Families Safe

Our advocates work tirelessly on behalf of Maine's children and families, leading efforts to facilitate changes within social systems on behalf of children and families. Our Advocacy efforts include:

• The Children’s Advocacy Council, which promotes the well-being of children and families, leads the community in preventing and addressing child abuse and neglect, and advocates for child-friendly, family-focused policies at the local and state levels.
  
• Community Partnerships for Protecting Children, an innovative approach to child protection that involves building shared community ownership for keeping children safe. By empowering local residents to support their neighbors while transforming the way that child welfare agencies approach families, community partnerships make services more relevant, more inviting and more accessible to families. The approach is now being piloted in Portland’s Bayside and Parkside neighborhoods.
  
• Parenting Education programs, literature, events and classes that give families the knowledge and skills they need to be healthy and happy. Our parent educators help parents address such topics as developmental stages, care giving and conflict resolution with teens.
  
• The Linkage Project, a statewide advocacy and education campaign designed to increase community awareness of the strong link between human cruelty and animal violence. Project leaders were influential in advancing a revolutionary new Maine law that addresses the welfare of pets in violent homes while helping the victims to leave. What’s more, project leaders are training human and animal welfare workers and law enforcement officers from across the state to work together to stop violence against people and pets.