4/3/2025

Each week, PWA will be posting a quote on our website and we are asking people to consider the quote during their work, interactions with people or social connections. This week’s quote is:

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. I'm highlighting this because every child deserves to grow up in a stable, safe and secure home. When they do not, there are lifelong consequences, potentially to their physical and mental health. However, we can prevent abuse through strengthening parenting skills, supporting families and helping caregivers create a nurturing environment for children.

While PWA is not directly involved in services to prevent and address child abuse, we are all tangentially able to support hope, joy and a bright future for children. The science of prevention is similar for many issues related to health and well-being. There are a few common threads, such as building a strong, supportive network or ensuring people have access to accurate information and education related to the topic. Hawkins and Catalano’s research in the early 90’s was focused on substance use and identified risk and protective factors to prevent substance use. Since then, their work has expanded to include prevention of a number of risky health behaviors. Although it is not a perfect “match”, the concepts often overlap with a number of public health issues.

Speaking in general terms, risk factors are things that may contribute to the unhealthy behaviors and protective factors are things that support engaging in healthy behaviors. It is important to realize that one is not the absence of the other, for example, a risk factor may be lack of information but a protective factor does not mean that providing that information will translate into a healthy behavior. The interaction between the risk and protective factors is nuanced but follows a logic. To illustrate this point, consider the person who started smoking cigarettes at age 15 and has now been diagnosed with cancer at age 55. Most likely at many times during those 40 years, they were given materials explaining the potential link between smoking and cancer. And in the last years, each time they purchase cigarettes, the information is provided directly on the packaging. Information did not result in preventing smoking. For some people, the stark reality of having an unexpected health diagnosis may result in behavior change but that too is not guaranteed.

So how can we help prevent negative or traumatic health behaviors?  We need to build strong, consistent, inclusive and cohesive communities that demonstrate a care for all in the community. And, sorry to say that you have to engage with the community to be in the community – just following is not going to give you the important concrete support you will need in challenging times. We need to return to critical thinking skills that allow us to analyze information, research and logic around health behaviors – again we have to engage with information and take responsibility instead of relying on others opinions. We need to develop basic life skills, including social and emotional skills, as well as resilience in young people as well as adults. We need to help people build social connections and access support services when needed to address basic needs.

I encourage you to search online to see if there are events or other ways that you can support prevention efforts related to child abuse in your local community or in your region. At the national level, people are encouraged to wear blue on Friday, April 4th to show their support and you may want to paint one finger nail blue to draw attention to the cause. Let’s use our public health knowledge, background and experience to move toward equity and justice on behalf of children!

Recently, PWA has started hosting regular support groups. I wanted to share with you all about my first group and that experience. Even though it was held on a very busy Wednesday, and we encountered a slight technical difficulty, the experience was great. I can honestly say I was nervous to hold my first group for nothing. 3 clients showed up providing a very intimate and close session. We discussed a variety of topics and started to ponder and begin the creation of personal vision boards. As we move forward we'll continue to add and curate them. It was great being able to lead this session and my clients loved and felt a sense of community and connection with us getting together, being able to talk openly, and being around others who would understand. 

We're excited to see where this leads!

At Positive Wellness Alliance, we believe that compassion and community are powerful tools for change. For many in our community, this compassion comes from diverse but yet a similar familiar place, our faiths. We're calling on members of the faith community in our region to partner with us in supporting individuals and families living with long-term health conditions.

If you live in any of our service areas, we know how our faiths can curate and foster meaningful change. Your congregation, no matter the faith, can play a vital role—whether through volunteering, awareness-building, education, or coordinated outreach. 

Together, we can provide not just help, but hope. If your place of worship is ready to walk alongside us in this mission, we’d love to connect and explore how we can make a meaningful impact together. Reach out today to learn more about partnership opportunities. 

You can send us a message by responding directly to this email or visiting pwanc.org/contact and submitting the form. 

Take a moment and imagine what we’d ask ourselves after receiving devastating health news. Will our health insurance cover this (if you have it)? Do we have a way to consistently get to our appointments? Do we have a safe place to live? Can we keep our homes if we miss work due to this? Will my friends and family be there for me?

For those we help, unfortunately those questions are met with extreme uncertainty. For this reason, PWA urges you to consider making a planned monthly donation to PWA. For as little as $30 a month, you can help heat a home in the winter and have A/C in the summer. For $50 a month you help children get a healthy breakfast each day. For $100 a month, you can help provide a housing deposit that allows a single parent to move into an apartment. 

In today’s challenging times, let’s come together to make sure that we can help as many as possible.