2022, a year in review
2022 was an incredible year for child abuse prevention. Check out highlights from this year and the extraordinary things our supporters have allowed us to do.
Resources for Families During COVID-19
SCAN continues to gather valuable resources available for children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you know of an additional resource we should include, please send an email with details to [email protected]. GENERAL SUPPORT 2-1-1 Virginia is a free service that can help you find the resources you need. Dial 2-1-1. The CDC’s COVID-19 Support for Parents […]
Trick or Treat: 5 Tips to Keep Kids Safe on Halloween
Trick-or-treating can be a fun chance for parents to spend time with their children. Here are five quick tips to consider before you head out on Halloween: 1. Make sure your child is being supervised by an adult. Make sure to stay with your child at all times. If you can’t be there, confirm […]
What Does it Mean to Be a Trauma Informed Organization?
Have you explored our trauma informed care resources for parents? You’ve heard us talk about this topic from a direct child services perspective (see our blog post here), as well as an advocacy perspective (such as this blog we re-posted from Voices for Virginia’s Children) as it relates to legislation. But how do we change whole organizations to better […]
What We’re Reading: SCAN Staff Book Picks | WINTER 2018
What have SCAN staff members (and volunteers!) been reading this winter? We have some great recommendations for you this season: The Wild Truth, by Carine McCandless We are thrilled to share that Carine McCandless will be the Keynote Speaker at our annual Ally in Prevention Awards luncheon this year! Carine is the sister of Chris McCandless, […]
From the Parent Education Desk: Creating Resilient Families
“Our family is facing financial issues at home, discipline issues with our middle child at school, and an overwhelming schedule. It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. What can I do?”* SCAN’s Parent Education team hears a lot of questions from local parents in our classes, support groups and workshops. They […]
The Cost of Caring
This week, I had the honor of co-presenting a day-long workshop entitled The Cost of Caring. It is a workshop designed by the Trauma-Informed Community Network in Fairfax County. The workshop focuses on human service providers and not just to provide resources and guidance, but to give them a chance to leave work behind and do kind […]
New Video: Using SCAN’s Free App for Parents + Caregivers
Did you know that SCAN offers a free mobile app that allows parents on-the-go access to all of the information on our online Parent Resource Center? Now we also have a short, 1-minute video you can share with parents that explains how simple it is to download and use the app: Our goal is to make it easy for parents to learn more […]
Child Abuse in Northern Virginia: The Numbers
As we reflect on the impact of our programs in 2017, it’s an important time for us to gather new data about children and families in our communities. One of our favorite resources for statistics is Voices for Virginia’s Children, especially their links to the Kids Count Data Center, a project of the Annie E. Casey […]
Helping the Helpers
Vicarious trauma. Compassion fatigue. Secondary traumatic stress. Burnout. These are all things that those of us working in helping professions experience. There are some similarities between the four but there are also many differences. Recently, over 80 “helpers” shared a day together, learning about everything from the basics of trauma to how to cope with the effects […]
It’s Report Card Season! How Can We Help Parents Deal with the Drama?
Report card season can be stressful for children and parents. Kids often want to please their parents, while parents might equate academic success with future well-being and happiness. When grades differ from expectations, it can be easy to respond in anger, disappointment or frustration. But parents should work to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children–not one […]
October is Safe Sleep Awareness Month – Here are 5 things you can do TODAY to protect the infants in your community
Providing a safe sleep environment for a baby is one of the first things you can do to protect and nurture a child. October is Safe Sleep Awareness Month (#safesleepawareness) — and there is no better time to share 5 simple things you can do today to make sure the parents you know have the information and resources […]
Tools You Need Now: Trauma Resources for Children
In recent weeks, children and parents across the country have faced hurricanes and wildfires. Families in some cities have seen racially-motivated violence on their streets. Just this week, a school in Washington state was the site of another mass shooting. When a child is affected by events like these, what can we do to help? Knowing how to define […]
Safe Sleep On the Road: Summer Tips from the Safe to Sleep® Campaign
The national Safe to Sleep® Campaign published an excellent letter this month with a special focus on summer-related tips to help parents keep their babies safe while sleeping and traveling. For more safe sleep resources we invite you to visit the “Safe Sleep for Your Baby” page on the Parent Resource Center here. Dear Safe to Sleep Community: It’s […]
It’s Summer: What Are Your Go-To Resources for Parents?
For those of us who work with children and families, summer can bring fun — but also a lot of season-specific challenges. Families are on unusual schedules, parents are juggling the demands of new childcare arrangements and children are spending more time alone / on-screen or online / with new adults / outdoors and in pools. This week, we’ve gathered […]
The Movement to End Child Sexual Abuse — Are You Our Next Facilitator?
SCAN has known for years that Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children is an excellent curriculum for teaching all adults how to protect children from child sexual abuse. We have trained close to 1,500 adults in Northern Virginia. However, there is a wider network of Darkness to Light facilitators in Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland […]
The Crisis We Must Address For Our Children: Helping Parents with Heroin and Opioid Addiction
Last month, SCAN hosted an Allies in Prevention Coalition meeting to discuss the crisis—and our response as child welfare professionals—in Northern Virginia, where in 2016 we experienced 248 drug related deaths, 80% of which were opioid related . Professor Valerie Cuffee, LCSW, MSW, CPM from George Mason Univerisity (and a SCAN board member) led a […]
Addressing Trauma Together: Inspiration from Voices for Virginia’s Children
Last month, Voices for Virginia’s Children published an important blog post about state-wide collaboration and its impact on children who have experienced trauma. They shared three states we can watch for best practices and policy, and we’re re-posting their thoughts today as we continue the discussion about Trauma Informed Care (listen to our recent radio show on […]
Tips for Parents: Talking about ’13 Reasons Why’
If you work with children and teens, you’ve probably heard about 13 Reasons Why, the Netflix Original series about a young girl who commits suicide and leaves behind 13 tapes explaining why she did it. The show’s main characters are young people, but it addresses–sometimes in graphic detail–some very heavy topics, ranging from mental illness to cyber […]
A Safe Sleep Question: Are Cardboard Boxes Safe?
In recent months, we’ve been hearing more about the use of cardboard boxes as a replacement for bassinets. Our Operation Safe Babies partner, Cribs For Kids, has released a helpful response detailing why they do NOT endorse cardboard boxes as safe sleep environments and will continue to recommend only Pack-n-Plays. In a recent post (shared in part, […]
SCAN’s New Campaign: Parenting Can Be Tough
Earlier this month, we launched our new public education campaign: Parenting Can Be Tough. The campaign is based on the ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study done in the 1990s by Kaiser Permanente and the CDC which involved over 17,000 adults. ACEs are traumatic events that children experience such as abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence, […]
We Support the Girls: A chance to educate and engage
On February 11th, I had the privilege of being on a panel for a special community event put on by We Support the Girls, a local organization that “recognizes the need to support child victims of sexual abuse, beginning with the initial reporting, continuing through the legal process, and ultimately sustaining as victims and their families […]
Discussing Race & Racism: A Primer for Parents
For many parents, talking about race with children is a difficult concept. Adults often question how much children already know and how much information is appropriate to share, while balancing a need to protect children from the United States’ complicated (and often violent) racial history. We recently taped a Parenting Today segment on this topic […]
Safe Sleep Trainings
SCAN is pleased to be partnering with Smart Beginnings Prince William County to offer valuable Workshops on Safe Sleep to the Greater Prince William community. The first workshop will be offered on Tuesday, February 21st at 4 pm at the Hylton Education Center at Sentara Hospital. The FREE workshop is ideal for service providers, health care providers, […]
Support for Immigrant Parents
There have been countless (and often conflicting) news stories in recent weeks about immigration in the United States. In our networks, the discussion–for years–has simply focused on how we can best care for and support these families. What is it like to be an immigrant and a parent? What are the unique fears, challenges, and needs faced by these families? Please […]