As the year comes to a close, we reflect on those donors, staff, volunteers, and community partners that have made a difference in preventing child maltreatment and strengthening families in 2018.
Betty Winn
Betty Winn, founder of Yavapai County's Winn School of Real Estate, LLC, has been an incredible gift to Prevent Child Abuse Arizona. Over the last year, she has continually given of her time and resources. In reflecting during this grateful season, we spoke with Betty on where our precious relationship all began.

"I became involved with Prevent Child Abuse Arizona because they needed a real estate school to get their class on Real Estate Giving certified through the Arizona Department of Real Estate. I was very impressed with the opportunities the class would offer the real estate community in helping their sellers transfer their property in a way that helps the charity and the general community.
 
My husband was raised in a very violent household with two other siblings. It affected him in a very troubling way and as he grew older, the negative experiences from his childhood exposed themselves. In the end, he took his own life. He never sought help, but knew the cause and could not handle the pain in his heart that would not go away. If these children can get the emotional help they need at an early age, I believe that lives will be saved and the sadness that results from not getting help can be diminished."

Betty's inspiring words are matched by the actions she takes every day to set her apart as a truly charitable and compassionate individual. Betty, thank you for all you've done to make a difference in the lives of young children.
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Impact Story
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Fundraising
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Today in Prevention
The Infant Mental Health Training Series
At the end of October, Prevent Child Abuse Arizona partnered with The Infant/Toddler Mental Health Coalition of Arizona to kick off our sold-out Infant Mental Health Series (the first session of three). Subject experts Bob and Barbara Weigand, faculty for the Center of Child Well- Being presented o n infant brain development stages, the effects of trauma, the infant-parent relationships, the transactional model, and attachment theory.

Why is learning about infant mental development important? Studying the complexities of infant mental health is essential to understanding how to assure children have a safe and healthy environment to grow.

Attendees commented that more people need access to this information including law enforcement, judges, teachers, parents, case managers, caregivers, doctors, school psychologists, foster parents, YMCA employees, and more. We hope to offer this series every year to give all a chance to attend and learn this crucial knowledge pertaining to infant mental health.
PCA Arizona's
Top 12 Impacts of 2018
  1. The award of the Virginia Piper Grant provides funding applied in its first year for sustained implementation of the Triple P in Maricopa County for three years (January)
  2. Yavapai Community for Kids hosted the Pinwheel Planting Party for Child Abuse Awareness Month, engaging hundreds of individuals (April)
  3. Executive Director, Becky Ruffner, honored as the Children's Action Alliance 2018 Champion for Children (May)
  4.  Awarded The Child Abuse Prevention License Plate Grant for prevention of abusive head trauma (June)
  5. Hosted the 24th Annual Child Abuse PREVENTION Conference with a special focus on self-care, including the Best for Babies annual statewide meeting to discuss best practices and reconstruct goals (July)
  6. Director of Training and Outreach, Claire Louge, designed and released the Flourishing Families Curriculum (July)
  7. Benefiting The Yavapai Family Advocacy Center, the Hope Still Floats Event connected with the community in Yavapai County and to raise funds for the children of families who have experienced trauma (August)
  8. PCA Arizona formed the PCA Arizona Real Estate Gifts Advisory Board to launch our Real Estate Gifts Program, utilizing local professionals to provide guidance us in accepting gifts of real estate (August)
  9. Through the AmeriCorps VISTA Program Launch, PCA Arizona on-boarded the first VISTA, who provides support in the development department (September)
  10. PCA America Training where both Becky Ruffner and Claire Louge presented on PCA Arizona's best practices (October)
  11. Partnered with Betty Winn, donor and founder of the Winn School of Realty, LLC, to offer quarterly Real Estate classes on charitable giving for realtors seeking continuing education credits (October)
  12. Assisted planning the 2018 Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Summit with the Governor's Office of Youth, Faith, and Family and the ACE Consortium to initiate a trauma informed state campaign (December)
Giving Tuesday was a Roaring Success!
We raised $3,950 including monthly donor pledges, funds from our matching donor, and individual gifts. Our Prevent Child Abuse Arizona and  Yavapai Family Advocacy Center  staff want to say a huge T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U-!! to those who donated, many who we know and many who we have now had the honor to meet through this campaign. Your philanthropic hearts inspire us.
Our Year-End Appeal
As we approach our 30 th anniversary in 2019, we are encouraged every day by the consistent support we’ve received from you and our other donors, volunteers, and community partners.

Thank you for making our mission of preventing child maltreatment one of your priorities. We know there is so much more we can do to prevent the kinds of tragedies that change lives forever.

Take the story of baby Dylan…  

One warm summer morning, Anna dropped off her 5-month-old son Dylan at her childcare provider’s house on her way to work - their usual morning routine. A little after lunchtime, Anna got a panicked call saying Dylan wasn’t breathing. Anna went straight to the emergency room where she found her infant son on life support, and in a coma from a devastating brain injury.

The investigator spoke with the childcare provider, who said Dylan seemed sick when she put him down for a nap, and he cried a long time, making it hard to get the other children to sleep. She checked on him after the kids were finally all asleep and found Dylan not breathing, so she called 911.

After weeks of anxiety about whether he would survive, Dylan slowly began to recover. He was placed in foster care when released from the hospital. Following a long investigation, Anna and her husband were reunited with Dylan after the childcare provider admitted losing her patience and shaking Dylan violently in reaction to his incessant crying.

Today, Dylan is a young adult in college, but he has had to overcome multiple learning disabilities caused by having been shaken as an infant.

Dylan and his family were lucky. One in three tiny victims of severe shaking do not survive .

Today, thousands of new parents in hospitals throughout Arizona receive education about coping with crying and the dangers of shaking. They learn to make a plan for infant crying and to let ALL their caregivers know to call them if crying is a problem when they are away from their baby.

The Never Shake a Baby program is but one example of how Prevent Child Abuse Arizona is focused on education and advocacy promoting the well-being of all children in our state. 

As you embark upon this season of charitable giving, please consider including Prevent Child Abuse Arizona so the work of ensuring children can grow up safe, happy, and healthy will continue for decades to come! 

Whether it is $5 or $5,000, your gift makes a big difference in the lives of children. 
Release of new data on ACE prevalence in Arizona
The Arizona ACE Consortium, a segment of Phoenix Children's Hospital, released the "ACEs to Action - Working Together" which depicts the ACE climate in Arizona. The data reveals that 48.7% of children in Arizona experienced at least one ACE and 18% have experienced 3 or more ACEs. The most prevalent of these were parental separation or divorce and economic hardship. The manual suggests the following strategies to combat these prevalent ACEs in order to a build stronger, more resilient state.
Strategies to Prevent ACEs in Arizona:
Prevent ACEs by reducing sources of stress in people’s lives. This can happen by
helping to meet families’ basic needs or providing other services.
• Foster strong and responsive relationships between children and caregivers.
• Help children and adults build core life skills to help buffer the effects of toxic stress.
• Strengthen family economic security and make high-quality health care, child care,
behavioral health care, and education available to children in need.
• Provide the kinds of experiences in early care, education, and family support settings
that will help parents and provide sturdy foundations for children’s development.
• Invest in and support programs that provide the resources and support shown to
prevent or ameliorate conditions known to produce toxic stress.
• Share information about ACEs with friends, family, teachers, physicians, and state
and national leaders.
Please join us for the 5th Annual ACE Summit hosted by the Governor's Office of Youth, Faith and Family and the ACE Consortium LIVE on December 11th.

Listen to announcements from the our First Lady, Angela Ducey, the Govenor, Doug Ducey, and Dr. Bruce Perry as they expound on ACEs in Arizona and becoming a trauma informed state.
Prevent Child Abuse Arizona & The Yavapai Family Advocacy Center
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE
December 18th | 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Join us in Prescott Valley for food and conversation as you experience the work we do statewide and in Yavapai County.
Want to learn more about our organization?

Thank you for your continued support. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of Arizona children.
Prevent Child Abuse Arizona is shifting the public conversation about child maltreatment so that prevention is the priority. We provide training, parent education and prevention services for families, foster parents, child welfare professionals, social service providers, law enforcement, court personnel and the public.
As a 501(c)3 organization, Prevent Child Abuse Arizona is eligible to receive bequests. Please contact Rebekah Prieto at rebekah@pcaaz.org if you would like to discuss including Prevent Child Abuse Arizona in your legacy.
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