2022 COMBAT Funding: $50,421.00

In Child Abuse Prevention Assocation's Own Words

Providing Comprehensive Support To Reduce Abuse

 CAPA's mission is to prevent and treat all forms of child abuse and neglect by creating changes in individuals, families and society that strengthen relationships and promote healing. CAPA's prevention programming includes Healthy Families Jackson County (HFJC), which is a voluntary, home visitation program open to families in Jackson County from the time they are prenatal until children reach the age three.

HFJC uses the Healthy Families America model to provide in-depth services to families on a weekly basis. The primary goal of the program is to reduce instances of abuse, maltreatment and violence against children by providing comprehensive support and education for new mothers.

Research shows that the best way to prevent child abuse is by helping to facilitate safe and healthy homes for children. HFJC does this by helping to to increase key protective factors for each family served.

These factors include:

• family functioning and resiliency
• social emotional support
• concrete support (diaperes, safe sleep supplies)
• knowledge of child development and nurturing/attachment.

This is tracked using the Protective Factors survey, which is administered at the initiation of services and re-administered on a regular basis. When these protective factors are strongly present in a family, the chance of child abuse and other domestic violence is substantially decreased.

No New Involvement In Family Court System

CAPA's own statistics reinforce the success of this model by showing that 100% of HFJC participants have no new involvment with the Family Court system while participating in the program. Healthy Families Jackson County (HFJC) also works to decrease the risk of child maltreatment by actively working to detect postnatal depression for new mothers.

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale is apply to all program participants on a regular basis. Post-partum depression (PPD) can inhibit mother-infant bonding potentially leading to greater risk of child harm. If the assessment indicates that a mother may be experiencing PPD, CAPA's home visitors are able to provide a warm referral to a treatment program that can help mothers manage and recover from PPD.

Other supports are also available through the Promise 1000 Home-visiting Collaborative of which CAPA is a participating agency. Home-visits are conducted on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis depending on a participant’s level of need and experience in the program.

Quarterly Assessments

Each quarter the Family Support Specialits conduct a developmental assessment for the participating child using the evidence-based Ages and Stages Questionnaire. This assessment determines whether or not the child is developing at a normal rate in areas such as motor skills, language, mobility, and others. This information is vital in helping parents understand their child’s development, which helps in guiding parents’ expectations of the child’s behavior. This understanding of what is "normal" behavior for children of various ages is a key element in creating positive interactions between parents and children in order to prevent child maltreatment. CAPA has served the community for over four decades providing comprehensive support for families. CAPA is proud to partner with new mothers through HFJC to help equip them with the tools and resources needed to create healthy and safe homes for their infants and toddlers

3.5 Million Children

In 2019, just short of 3.5 million children were the subject of Child Protective Service (CPS) investigations throughout the United States, according to the most recently released Child Maltreatment Report . Approximately, 656,000 of the investigated children were found to be victims of physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. An estimated 1,840 child fatalities are the results of child abuse.

This data demonstrates an increase in child fatalities but decreased instances in substantiated child abuse. At the state level, the most recent report available shows that in 2020, the Missouri Child Abuse/Neglect Hotline Unit received 55,853 reported incidents of abuse that involved 78,328 children in Missouri

Of those children, 4,736 were substantiated victims of abuse/neglect; which is a decrease from the prior year. However, it should be noted that the last four months of this FY was during the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic which shut down schools and facilities where children would be observed by mandated reporters and other individuals outside of their homes.

Further, evidence shows that nearly twice as many children are maltreated as are investigated by CPS agencies. In 2020, 47 Missouri kids died from child abuse and neglect. Tragically, over 50% of these children died before reaching their first birthday and 26% were between the ages of 1 and 3 years old.

The data shows that it is the babies and the toddlers who are the most at risk of death from child abuse and neglect.

In Jackson County...

Locally, children in Jackson County face significant risks of child maltreatment and violence. The county ranks 103rd out of the 115 Missouri counties for child well-being as reported by Missouri Kids Count. With an estimated population of over 700,000, it is one of the largest metro counties in Missouri. Risk factors include poverty, community violence, child abuse/neglect and food insecurity. Over 19% of children under the age of 18 live in poverty according to Missouri Kids Count data for Jackson County.

In 2020, Children’s Division reported the following data for Jackson County:

• 360 were substantiated victims of child abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and other forms of harm

• 9,000 kids were reported to the CA/N Hotline

• Over 6,000 kids were the subject of Children’s Division Family Assessments

CAPA is located in the heart of some of the most at-risk areas for child abuse. Our two facilities are located in the heart of the 64055 and 64133, which are two of the zip codes reported to have the highest rates of sexual abuse in the state of Missouri. This is according to a area map complied by the Children’s Trust Fund of Missouri who analyzed the Child Maltreatment data from 2008 – 2018 and identified the zip codes with the highest instances of sexual abuse in the state .