Wednesdays4Kids April 14

--Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969

What Child Abuse Costs: This is a Community Issue
In 2007 Prevent Child Abuse America conducted a study that found the annual cost of child maltreatment to be about $103.8 billion. This number, as staggering as it is, even fails to account for the social costs that can not be quantified, like the pain and suffering a victim goes through and the diminished quality of life due to lingering harmful effects.

As people of faith, we don’t need a number like $103.8 billion to tell us that child abuse is a problem in our community, but it does underscore the issue of whether we dedicate state and national resources to address the problem. If we were to spend more money now investing in policies and programs that focused on the prevention of abuse and neglect, we would not be seeing such high costs spent on band-aid like solutions that work to alleviate what could and should have been prevented. Read more on our blog; let us know what you think and leave a comment.

Raise awareness in your congregation this April during National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Visit our website for resources and more information about our April Campaign to End Child Abuse.

Join Prevent Child Abuse MN at the Capitol during the weekend of April 29 to May 2 for a healing field and candlelight vigil honoring the victims of child abuse and neglect.  Click here for more information about the event.

TAKE ACTION: Protect Funding for Child Care Assistance
The budget is currently on the minds of our Legislators in St. Paul and it is time to send them a message that it is on our minds too. One of the proposed cuts that they are currently considering is a cut to basic grants and child care within the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP).

Proposed cuts to the MFIP program would mean a loss of benefits to at least 5,000 families and a loss of childcare assistance to 900 families that have a parent or child with a disability. With the current tough economy now is NOT the time to cut off assistance to families and people who need it the most.

As faithful citizens will not accept cuts that balance the state budget on the backs of children and the poor. Please take a minute to call your State Representative and ask him or her to “Please protect funding for MFIP families and don’t balance the budget by taking away necessities from children already living in poverty.”

Click here to find the contact information of your State Representative.

Be an iCAN Facebook Fan!
For a fun and easy way to stay connected to iCAN’s work be a Facebook Fan. If you are already a fan, encourage your friends to be fans. To be a Fan, simply go to www.facebook.com/icanmn and click the Become a Fan button at the top of the page.