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Community Education | Protect And Comfort Infants | Parent Helpline | School-Based Personal Safety
Community Education Program
As part of its outreach efforts, COCA conducts a variety of activities to promote public awareness of child abuse and its prevention. COCA staff provide trainings, consultations and presentations to professionals, community groups, parents and students. Volunteers assist COCA staff at community - wide health fairs and special events. Opportunities for COCA staff to appear on television and radio programs greatly enhance the agency’s ability to reach broad-based audiences throughout the community.
Free educational print materials are available for distribution to schools, groups or individuals. Special emphasis on material distribution occurs each year in April for National Child Abuse Prevention Month. A variety of posters, fact sheets and handouts are provided on physical, verbal, emotional and child sexual abuse and neglect, bullying and other related issues. Handouts on parenting issues, child abuse statistics and community resources are also provided upon request.
During 2009, Council staff provided 100 educational presentations to 1,405 participants. The presentations ranged in duration from approximately 20 minutes to 6 hours, dependent upon the topic and audience being served. Presentations are tailored to meet the needs and requirements of targeted audiences. In 2009, 17 presentations were made to Teen Parents, 37 to Babysitter groups, 18 to Student groups, 8 to Community groups, 8 to Parent groups, 10 to Professional groups and COCA staff were featured 2 times on TV/Radio.
COCA also provides community-wide forums for parents, educators and professionals to hear noted speakers and authors on the topics of child abuse, peer abuse/bullying and school violence. We launched our new Kids Matter! Speaker Series in April 2008, with Chris Hansen of Dateline NBC’s television show. He shared his experiences from his “To Catch A Predator” series and provided important information and an interesting discussion for educators and parents on how to protect kids while on the Internet. Additional speakers will be scheduled as part of our Community Education Program as funding allows.
For more information or to schedule an educational presentation please contact COCA at 513.936.8009.
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