In the communities where we work in Jackson, Mississippi, violence is everywhere: in homes, in schools, in the streets. ChildFund is focused on child protection by reducing children’s vulnerability to violence. One part of this work is educating families, and another part is helping children become more resilient and able to make good decisions when something frightening happens.
In 2015, we completed an assessment in Jackson identifying problems specific to disadvantaged communities: large-scale domestic violence, child abuse and neglect; community violence; school violence and abuse. Causes include drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, parental absence, mental health problems, a culture of secrecy about violence, overwhelmed teachers and general institutional failure.
With our partner Operation Shoestring, we came up with a set of interventions that we believe will achieve social change and impact. They include: youth civic engagement and leadership; family strengthening programs; community mobilization; creating a support network of children, family members and other stakeholders.
A separate but dire child protection issue is taking place in the Rio Grande Valley, in southern Texas. The surge of unaccompanied children and teens at the border, arriving sick and dehydrated from Central American countries, caused humanitarian crises in 2014 and 2015. We’ve worked to give these children psychosocial support and other resources, as well as raising awareness of the crisis with local, national and international groups, and providing child protection training to our Texas staff and local partners.