Dan McLean, former CHCH TV Anchor kicks off our Leaders For Kids initiative!

The Community Child Abuse Council’s Leaders for Kids initiative is an important part of our strategic plan for community engagement and education. Our Leadership Briefings are issued regularly and are designed to help leaders from across the Hamilton area share an understanding of the complex issues surrounding child abuse and trauma and the challenges and opportunities facing our community in this area. Only with this shared understanding can we truly engage community stakeholders in a meaningful, constructive and absolutely essential dialogue about how Hamilton can and should address the horrific problem of child sexual abuse. It’s time. Our Leadership Briefings offer everything from definitions of child abuse and highlights of telling statistics to research about the impact of child abuse and trauma on victims, families, and our community and the importance and benefits of intervention and treatment. Future Briefings will continue to highlight research in the field as well as provide news of related initiatives and opportunities.

It is our hope that our Leadership Briefings will help bring to light how significantly Hamilton and its vision for the future are affected by child abuse - at the individual, family, neighbourhood, community, and broader levels. From health to education, from employment to economics to justice, this is a devastating and far-reaching problem. The stakes are high. Our attention and our investment are critical.

“We all know the tremendous need and urgency out there to help those who have the smallest voices in our community – our children. I believe that business and the communities in which they work have a lot to offer each other and that together, we can begin to address the escalating problem of child maltreatment and abuse.”

Pat Tremaine, Vice-President, Consumer Markets, Bell Canada

 

What does it mean to be a Leader For Kids?

Leaders For Kids offers a vehicle through which you can join forces with others like Dan McLean and Brian Melo who want to provide leadership and initiative in Hamilton’s response to child abuse. This is the next step in our strategic initiative - to involve concerned leaders from across the community who will lend their voice and support in various ways to help us realize the vision of a community free of child abuse.

One example is our Community Dialogue on Child Abuse, a broader discussion about child abuse and what Hamilton can and must do to address it. Planned to take place in the Fall 2008, it will bring together a panel of leaders with a guest expert from the field to engage citizens in addressing and responding to child abuse. Watch this site for details of this event as they become available.

To add your name to the distribution list for our Leadership Briefings or to indicate your interest in being a Leader For Kids or in participating in our Community Dialogue on Child Abuse, click here.

To lend your financial support to help us prevent child sexual abuse and help child victims of abuse click here.