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December/January 2020Vol. 20, No. 10Training to Prevent Child Neglect

CANTASD (the National Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Assistance and Strategic Dissemination Center), a service of the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect within the Children's Bureau, offers a training series on preventing child neglect geared toward students, parents, caregivers, and practitioners that serve children and families, as well as those in the general public. The training series raises public awareness and understanding of child maltreatment, its causes, protective factors that help to strengthen families, and manageable steps to take to help reduce the likelihood of child neglect.

Within the series, the course "Training 2: Fact of Fiction" shares key facts about child neglect and discusses common assumptions and allows participants to discuss the following issues:

  • Poverty can be a risk factor for child neglect. However, it is important to remember that most families living in poverty do not neglect their children.
  • Child neglect is the most common form of child maltreatment.
  • Child neglect has serious and long-term effects.
  • Although parents love their children, they may struggle with how to provide for their needs.
  • Child neglect affects not only families but the community and society as well. 
  • Child neglect crosses all cultural, economic, geographic, social, religious, and ethnic boundaries.

Courses include visual presentations and a toolkit that provides learning objectives, guidance, journaling activities, links to additional resources, and more.

To learn more about the Preventing Child Neglect series, including "Training 2: Fact or Fiction," visit https://cantasd.acf.hhs.gov/explore-topics/neglect/preventing-child-neglect-training-series/.