"Every
time a child is abused or neglected, the whole human race
suffers," said Wade F. Horn, Ph.D., assistant secretary
for children and families.
The Baby Fund is a project of the National Black Church
Initiative. The fund provides comprehensive parenting education
and utilizes best practice strategies and methods for African
American and Latino parents. The objective is to reduce
the alarming number of child abuse and neglect cases in
those communities by employing the latest parenting skill
building techniques. Additional information about SIDS and
the Back to Sleep Method for infants are taught. We cover
all aspects of safe sleeping methods even down to helping
the parents choose government approved cribs.
The BABY FUND PROGRAM also exists to provide emergency, educational,
and preventative assistance to parents. The following are
some instances of how the funds collected from the Baby
Fund can and will be used.
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The Fund will provide for any emergency care and services
needed to maintain the health of the child.
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The
Fund will provide emergency food, clothing, housing, and
other related items that sustain the health and well being
of the child. We believe that every infant should have
its own bed.
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The
Fund will provide some assistance for legal services that
may be incurred as an effort to protect the child.
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The
Fund will provide assistance for mental health services.
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The
Fund will provide for health promotion campaigns with
the objective of stopping abuse and neglect. The fund
will also help promote sound health practices such as
the SIDS Back to Sleep method and other health concerns
that threaten the health and welfare of children.
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The
Fund will provide for advocacy to compel federal, state
and local Child and Family Agencies to fulfill their legal
and moral obligation to protect the health and well-being
of all children.
The
National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) has created the
BABY FUND PROGRAM to be a vanguard for children against
abuse, neglect, and death. Too many of our precious babies
are suffering and dying because state and local childcare
systems are failing to protect them.
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The
rate of child neglect and abuse in 2001 was about
19 percent less than the rate in 1993, when maltreatment
peaked at an estimated 15.3 out of every 1,000 children.
As recently as 1998, the rate was 12.9 per 1,000 children.
The rate dropped to 11.8 per 1,000 children in 1999
- considered a statistical "outlier" that
was unduly influenced by census population estimates
- and then returned to 12.2 per 1,000 children in
2000. |
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Abuse-preventive
services and programs. The proposal provides the flexibility
and sustained financial support necessary to build
innovative programs for children and families aimed
at preventing maltreatment and removal from home.
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The
data show that child protective service agencies received
about 2,672,000 reports of possible maltreatment in
2001. There were 903,000 substantiated cases of maltreatment
of children - most of which involved cases of neglect. |
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In
2001, about 1,300 children died of abuse or neglect,
a rate of 1.81 children per 100,000 children in the
population. |
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We
will not remain silent on this issue any longer. |
NBCI
is a coalition of 16,000 diverse faith communities that
promotes good health practices through: Health Education
Seminars, Health Promotions, and Health Literature. NBCI
designed its BABY FUND PROGRAM to ensure that the environment
in which babies live, grow, sleep, eat, develop and learn
is always safe and secure. It has also developed the program
to ensure that any government services critical to the health
and welfare of babies are being provided in a fair and timely
manner. Most important, the program is designed to ensure
the lives of babies are protected and valued.
The overall objective of The Baby Fund is to provide critical
care for babies and to assist mothers and fathers who are
the primary care givers. The Fund will provide financial
assistance on an emergency basis and offer long-term educational
assistance through faith-based organizations that will provide
comprehensive child development classes to parents who need
it. This education is critical to the long term care of
the child. The objective of the eight faith based child
development centers is to provide the parents with coping
skills and strategies to better take care of themselves
and their baby.
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The
fund will not back down from controversy. It will use
the judicial system to make sure that children are safe
from neglect from their parents, state and/or city agencies.
The church sees itself as the last hope for children who
continue to be victimized by both their parents and the
childcare system.
Although the protection of all babies is at the center of the BABY
FUND PROGRAM, NBCI’s concern is not limited to babies.
It is especially concerned with those children who are considered
at risk, who are disabled and often pushed aside or forgotten,
and that are victims of deadly, yet often preventable mistakes.
Sadly, it has been documented in detail that over the past
ten years, more than 400 babies and children in the District
of Columbia died in situations where their deaths were preventable.
While the number of preventable deaths is in itself staggering,
statistics also show that the number of children who suffer
abuse in the District and elsewhere around the nation are
just as appalling. If you take the District of Columbia
as an example, in reported cases alone, the rate of abuse
of children in the District is four or five each day; and
studies show that less than half of such incidents of abuse
are reported. Thus, at minimum nine or ten children in the
District suffer abuse each and every day. This increases
by thousands around the United States. This must stop.
The NBCI BABY FUND PROGRAM is designed specifically to serve
as a voice for all these children and is designed to serve
all those who have no voices of their own. Such children
cannot ask for help but their lives often depend upon receiving
help from an adult. But the program is not limited simply
to the role of being a voice for those children. It is also
designed to be a diligent and contentious observer of the
quality of the services that various government-funded agencies
provide. More specifically, the NBCI BABY FUND PROGRAM serves
as a moral authority, and as such it will watch over services
provided by the various child-related agencies that are
part of the state and city child and family services. As
a moral authority, it will speak out when problems exist
in the service delivery area needed by children and infants.
It will speak out when problems in those agencies and the services
they provide are ignored. Finally, it will ensure that not
only changes, but also improvements are made in those agencies
and the services they provide. We will also try to work
efficiently with all agencies to improve care. The Baby
Fund will help stop the abuse. We need your help.
If you would like to help and make a serious difference in
the lives of our children, please send or
donate online on the top of the page.
Every
Child Deserves Its Own Bed
The Baby Fund launches “Every Child Deserves Its Own
Bed” Campaign. It is an effort to raise money to
buy cribs for infant children all across America. The
purpose of this campaign is to educate parents that allowing
their infant child to sleep with them increases the likelihood
for accidental death through suffocation. Child experts
agree that the best way to prevent this is for every child
to have its own bed. The Baby Fund advocates that every
child deserves its own bed for the important reason of
eliminating accidental deaths and to promote safe sleeping
habits (by placing the babies on their backs) to vanguard
against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. We need your help
to make this a reality for all our babies as we move to
put in place preventive safeguards to protect our little
angels. PLEASE GIVE TO THE BABY FUND.
Help Us Save All Babies
NBCI Baby Fund
P.O. Box 65177
Washington DC 20035-1577
Please
help us fight
child abuse & neglect!
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