Strengthening Families and Preventing Child Abuse: Meet Jennifer Stein

From a career in banking to fortifying families against child abuse, our guest today is a testament to the power of following your passion. Jennifer Stein, Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse Georgia, joins us to share her inspiring journey and the transformative work her organization is doing to safeguard children. She sheds light on the critical role her team plays in strengthening Georgia’s families and the impact of their first family resource center in Northeast Georgia.

In our discussion, we also touch on the innovative approaches that Jennifer and her team are using to prevent child abuse. Hear how they’re leveraging non-traditional partnerships and emphasizing the role of community support for parents. 

Prevent Child Abuse Georgia  www.PCAGeorgia.org 

Jennifer's Bio:
Jennifer Stein is the Executive Director for Prevent Child Abuse Georgia (PCA Georgia) in the Mark Chaffin Center for Healthy Development a Georgia State University Research Center located in the School of Public Health.

Jennifer joined PCA Georgia in 2021 after seven years of leading Prevent Child Abuse Habersham where she identified the need for and launched the Family Resource Center of Northeast Georgia. 

With more than two decades of management experience collectively in compliance operations, sales, and nonprofit management, Stein has a gift for discerning organizational capacity and implementing a collaborative vision for excellence. 

As PCA Georgia serving as one of three key partners for Georgia’s Essentials for Childhood initiative, Stein partners with the Division of Family & Children Services to lead the implementation of the state’s Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Plan (CANPP).  Additionally, as the implementing agency for Strengthening Families Georgia (SFG), and the Georgia Family Support Network (GFSN). Stein serves on both the governance and strategic planning committees within SFG’s leadership infrastructure as well as GFSN’s steering committee and communications workgroup. 

With the support of its Board of Directors and strong staff, Stein scaled the organization to increase its potential and tripled its funding within five years, cultivating local and regional support, and expanding its service sector from one to five counties via grants, state contracts, and direct investments from donors.   

Additionally, Stein plays an integral role on Georgia’s Supreme Court Committee on Justice for Children, Georgia’s Child Abuse Prevention Treatment Act Panel (CPSAC), and Child Fatality Review Prevention Subcommittee; she previously served globally in the Supervised Visitation Network as a board member and officer.

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Transcript

Ann Price: 0:03

Welcome back to Community Possibilities. Jennifer Stein joins me today. She is the Executive Director for Prevent Child Abuse Georgia. She and I have a great conversation. You know I always say, I think it's so fascinating how people came to do the work that they do. Jennifer told me she started out wanting to be a teacher, ended up in banking. She was a banker for a good long time before getting involved in a local prevention agency, which led her to prevent child abuse Georgia.

Ann Price: 0:40

Now, before you say, hmm, I'm not from Georgia, this probably doesn't apply to me. Hang in there. Jennifer has really led the organization to grow in its capacity, in its partnerships, its influence in the state and the space. So if you are a community leader, a community nonprofit leader, I hope you will listen to this episode. Her enthusiasm for the work and passion for people who are in hard spaces is really contagious. I hope you enjoy this episode and, as always, please like, share and subscribe. Hi everybody. Welcome back to Community Possibilities. I'm so pleased that Jennifer Stein is with me today. Jennifer is the fearless leader of Prevent Child Abuse Georgia. Welcome, jennifer.

Ann Price: 1:44

Good morning and thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. I was so happy to meet you at the conference. Was it last month already?

Jennifer Stein: 1:53

Yes, and we're happy that it was last month Getting back. After all of that planning, it feels good to get back to the day-to-day work.

Ann Price: 2:01

Yeah, I'm sure it was a lot of work. I think there were like 400-ish people there.

Jennifer Stein: 2:08

Almost 400. Yes, we've exceeded our goal and just thrilled that there were so many. Especially getting back to being in person, it felt really good to be there with the people that we've known over the years.

Ann Price: 2:22

Right. Well, before we get into the nitty-gritty of the work that you all do and maybe we can come back to the conference I was so happy to be there with you guys I want you to introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a little bit about yourself, how you came to do this work.

Jennifer Stein: 2:43

Well, I'm a little bit of the unconventional find when you think of the child well-being ecosystem. Goodness, my career was in banking and finance, sales and service customer service. That was kind of my thing. I had the gosh, the great fortune. My husband and I decided that I would stay home while we were rearing our children. And I have three amazing, a little quirky, always right. All of our children are so different. So I have three adult children that are finding their way and as they figure out what makes them tick.

Jennifer Stein: 3:22

So later in life I went back to work and at that time my husband had started a special victims unit. He's in law enforcement and we were living in rural northeast Georgia in Habersham County and just hearing bits and pieces of these responses to the different calls, whether they were domestic violence, family violence, person to person, peer to peer and, of course, just the horrific things related to child abuse. And as I learned more, I had the amazing opportunity to attend a board meeting for a local child abuse prevention council called Prevent Child Abuse, habersham, and I remember my first meeting back in early I think it was 2013, and just kind of hearing from the counselors that were serving on the board. This was a grassroots nonprofit. They had no paid director. I got recruited to serve on a fundraising committee and, lo and behold, you just do a couple of things right as a volunteer. Sometimes it's just showing up and following through and executing and the next thing I know, within a few months I'm president of the board and still working full time.

Jennifer Stein: 4:49

And I just the more I learned, the more trainings that I took. I remember attending my first Prevent Child Abuse Georgia conference that fall and I was truly. I was just drawn into how there's approaches, there's recipes, if you will, on how we as a community, we as moms and dads and grandparents, aunts and uncles, business owners, can really step up to support families, to help them be strong and be resilient for their children, and it just really appealed to me so fast forward. 10 years later, through different opportunities, I get to lead an amazing team at Prevent Child Abuse Georgia and I love waking up every morning and seeing how we can put the pieces of the puzzle together to strengthen Georgia's families.

Ann Price: 5:43

That is an amazing switch from banking to c hild abuse. Wow.

Jennifer Stein: 5:51

Y es.

Ann Price: 5:54

Wow, you talk about following. I don't know.

Jennifer Stein: 6:00

Yes, it was a leap of faith because prevent child abuse Habersham had not had a paid directors role, so it was a big leap of faith for them as well. Through that opportunity, I started the very first family resource center for Northeast Georgia, which now serves over five counties. So we goodness with just in a few years, 2016 and open its doors. It's just because of funding, of course, can't meet all of the needs of the areas of Northeast Georgia, but they are developing some significant relationships and how they can lean on some different physical spaces and environments and partners in some of the other counties, whether they be faith-based or corporations, that are stepping up. So, yes, it's a beautiful world. Not profit is a beautiful world and just truly happy and inspired to be in it.

Ann Price: 7:02

Yeah, a lot of people don't know this about me, but I actually started off as a clinician. I thought I wanted to help children and families and I do, and I still do after all these years but it was prevention that really drew me in. It just made so much more sense to me to be on the prevention side of the house rather than waiting for people to struggle. Yes, yeah.

Jennifer Stein: 7:29

I think too, I can always. When I was up in Habersham, I did do a lot of direct services, because when you're a director or something you put on every hat every day, whether it's picking up kids or doing orientations or intakes or writing a grant you're doing all of these things, Starting to work with families directly, whether it was doing home visits or orientations for supervised visitation. Many times I could see myself in their shoes, where I was blessed with an incredible support system. I had nearby grandparents.

Jennifer Stein: 8:07

My sister was nearby. I lived in a community that had parks and recreation. Here these families were lacking just possibly one or two things, and it was because of those lack of resources or connections or personal support as to why they came to the attention of child protective services. So I really hurt for them. I felt for them because they didn't need to come to the attention if they had the support that they needed. So I, just, like you, want to figure out how we can bring in more people to be the village.

Jennifer Stein: 8:42

So that way they don't come to the attention of child protective services.

Ann Price: 8:47

Exactly. We know that so many of our families that are involved in the foster care system are there because of neglect, as a result of poverty, not abuse.

Jennifer Stein: 9:02

Unintentional, unintentional neglect. Yes, I think, of course, when you look at the statistics and the numbers, that is the main reason that they might enter care. So, yes, it's a heavy load that we all, when we think of this ecosystem, when we think of the work that we have in front of us, because it takes every individual to step forward and to help us lead this charge.

Ann Price: 9:28

Yeah, I guess my other thought is I can really resonate to seeing you 10 years ago and in Habersham, because so many of our rural communities not just in Georgia, everywhere really struggle to find the band aid, the fixes, the resources, because they are under-resourced in a lot of cases. And God love the nonprofit leaders in those communities who are, as you say, doing all the things writing that grant, fixing the IT issues, leading a parent group meeting with the chamber, all of the many, many, many things. And oh yeah, by the way, habersham is beautiful.

Jennifer Stein: 10:13

It is. It is and beautiful people, because besides the Family Resource Center of Northeast Georgia, there's other nonprofits that we would partner with that do incredible work similar to the state level. So it really, you know, to see people step up like that is very hard-working and I think to you know, when we think of how we can help families reduce the shame when it comes to reaching out for help and that's one of the things I love about a Family Resource Center concept is it's really serving people with dignity and trying to take away the shame that they might feel by needing some support.

Ann Price: 10:55

Well, let's talk about the support that prevent child abuse Georgia does. You've moved from Habersham. Now you're in Metro Atlanta. That's a big switch. But let's talk about the work that you and your staff and your partners do at Prevent Child Abuse Georgia.

Jennifer Stein: 11:12

Sure, well, we have, you know, some core, core things that we do. You know a lot of it is related to training, strengthening our network when we think of our people that are out there serving families or community members that want to know more. We do everything from introduction to what is child abuse prevention what does that mean, all the way to those heavy-duty mandated reporter curriculums, learning about protective factors and why they are important to build in families, to those connections matters and some of our partnering trainings that we do. And then, of course, the last year, our Find Health Georgia and training around that. You know we do that through webinars. We have our annual conference that we were referring to, and then we do a lot of workshops and presentations at our partnering agencies, their conferences that they hold. And then we also want to lift up our local formal council structure. What trainings do they need? To make sure that they're aware of, I'm going to say, cutting-edge technology, this industry we're always learning new frameworks or science-informed approaches, such as healthy outcomes from positive experiences and what we know now about the importance of positive childhood experiences. So a lot of training and that's all about strengthening those that are doing the work and making sure that they have the tools that they need to infuse those primary and secondary prevention efforts into the work that they do.

Jennifer Stein: 12:54

Some other things that we do around partnerships. When we think of our core work is, here we are with the blessing of having state partners. So DFACS, division of Family and Children Services, they have this whole prevention arm and they like to call us their nonprofit arm of their work. So we do have an incredible partnership, both financial partnership with the prevention section and that led to our Georgia Essentials for Childhood Initiative. We're one of the backbone members there and on the steering committee with 50 other organizations. We have close to 40 local child abuse prevention councils, such as Prevent Child Abuse, hebracham, and we're continuing to build that structure. There are boots on the ground. They're out there directly serving and providing support to families and strengthening them right there in their neighborhoods.

Jennifer Stein: 13:52

We have the great honor of housing strengthening families Georgia. That is the state's, the national effort, that framework on those five protective factors that we know if they're strong and families are going to reduce child abuse and neglect and they have just a great feel to them when we think of that strength-based approach to working with families and children. Recently, our Georgia Family Support Network. That's a membership network that has subscribed to the National Family Support Network, in this model of quality of standards. How I equate to that is we have family resource centers across the state, but we also have those that are doing direct services. But how do we infuse some quality standards that we know that represent serving a family with dignity and respect, diversity, equity, inclusion all of those things that we need to make sure are strong and family service providers? Then, of course, our partnership with Department of Early Care and Learning and the technical college system of Georgia, where we rebranded and re-vamped our 1-800 children's health line, is now find help Georgia. That's a key body of our work too.

Ann Price: 15:20

I have several follow-up questions. Oh, my God, sure, let's start with find help Georgia, because you mentioned that. First, because I'm not sure if I'm very familiar with that and some of our listeners may not be either. What is that? First one?

Jennifer Stein: 15:37

Absolutely. In the early 80s, when prevent child abuse Georgia started, they had a caregiver health plan called Parent Anonymous. Through the years it did change slightly. Later on it became more of an information and referral warmline where people could call and get linked to local community resources in their area. Proud of that, later on we added a mapping system where, if you were online with your computer, you could search for different resources in your area. But technology has advanced. It is so much so that we were finding that the call volume still wasn't quite there for our helpline or warmline.

Jennifer Stein: 16:24

How do we meet the needs of people where they're at Many of our mirror, using their cell phone, their self-resourcing, or maybe they would prefer to chat with somebody, but they want to be able to navigate resources anonymously. They want to feel like they can look at what a program might have to offer without fear of government interference. Or maybe they're not a citizen and we want to make sure that they're linked to the supports that they need. In 2021, we vetted some various platforms. While we were vetting, we invited some state agencies to join us as we looked at this, realizing that we want to remove the negative stigma that might come with finding help. Through this, we found a great national platform called Find Help. Find Help you can become a customer of, and through becoming a customer, you can really personalized what our platform would look like for Georgians.

Jennifer Stein: 17:29

It is a statewide community resource virtual hub linking people by zip code to resources that are free or reduced cost in their area Anything from financial assistance for paying utility bills or maybe helping pay for rent, looking for food when that might be something that you're just not able to budget-wise make ends meet, to childcare, to parenting, to workforce development.

Jennifer Stein: 17:58

Find Help Georgia is really there for every person that lives in our state. Because it's an open platform, you might be moving out of state and, through Find Help being our partner, we can find resources across the 50 states. It's been a great launch. Matter of fact, on October 31st I'll make sure that you have a link to an invite to that, but we are holding an annual forum. We have come a long way in just a short time as we relaunched our 1-800 children to this Find Help Georgia. There's also a messaging capacity where people have various ways to plug in or they can download the app Find Help Georgia from their smartphone and be able to navigate. So we're really excited to what it's bringing to helpers and then help seekers across the state.

Ann Price: 18:57

Yeah, that's true, because sometimes people, even if they don't know about it, some of your partners and your local partners can help people connect through that way. Is it something that all PCA organizations have across the country or is it unique to PCA Georgia?

Jennifer Stein: 19:15

There are a couple. So Prevent Child Abuse. Kansas does use Find Help. They call it something different, but it's branded to their state as well. Gotcha Fancy name for ours is this connected community model. Again for us working with DeKal and Technical College System of Georgia. We did not want to duplicate efforts. So, yes, 2-1-1 exists. We would love to work with 2-1-1 and see how Find Help Georgia can complement, but 2-1-1 is not statewide. So there's many, as we were talking, these rural areas that so far we've looked at 19 for office Bonus data have resources.

Jennifer Stein: 19:56

they're resource rich and a lot of times Georgia Family Connection partners have a PDF resource guide but it can become outdated so quickly.

Jennifer Stein: 20:05

And it might not show eligibility criteria and we don't want to send families or individuals on a wild goose chase. We want them to be able to see what's available, whether they're a good fit for that program, and then directly connect them to the helpers at that organization and get a dignity of a response. Also, we have a lot of non-English speaking, so Find Help Georgia is translated into over 100 different languages just by clicking a button, so really improves access and I might have somebody on the language line that I'm helping. Right, I'm a helper at an agency, but as I get off the line, if I find more resources that I want to email or text to them through the platform, I can still click their native language and they'll receive it in their language. So it's a beautiful marriage.

Ann Price: 20:59

It really is that is that really blows my mind 100 different languages and I'm aware if you're in the Metro Atlanta area, you should have an appreciation of how many different cultures we have here. So that's kind of blown my mind 100 different languages. Yeah, I'm afraid to mind that. She loves to travel and she tells a great story of being lost in a mountain in South Korea and having this language app. I'm lost on a mountain, my family is lost and I need help, and it was translated into the language that she spoke. Yeah, that's beautiful. Let's talk a little bit more about the Georgia Essentials for Childhood framework and how that kind of informs your work.

Jennifer Stein: 21:51

Certainly Well, the Centers for Disease Control. They really do incredible research around different frameworks and modalities on how we can approach this work, and so this framework. When it was out, our partners so were the backbones with Division of Family and Children Services and the Department of Public Health, and so, through their research on this, georgia moved forward with initiating, deploying this framework, and it's really about these strategies that promote relationships and environments that can help create neighborhoods, communities and really a state in which every child can thrive. And so, as you imagine, it's this blueprint, it's this recipe for success for us that don't necessarily like to talk about the science lingo, but when we started working with our other 50 state partners, with the Georgia Essentials for Childhood, we did it on our own. We had some seed funding from defects, later on some additional funding from the Department of Public Health's Injury Prevention Unit, and so through this, we have a consultant that helps us facilitate five work groups. These five work groups are everything from data to programs and evaluation, making sure that we're using evidence-based to policy. We have some wonderful friends at Voices for Georgia's Children and Gears that are really at the heart of advocacy and lobbying and introducing some language and things that we need to change.

Jennifer Stein: 23:38

So preventing child abuse cannot be done with one single program from one entity.

Jennifer Stein: 23:45

There are policies that hurt our families and children, there are laws that could be slightly tweaked to be more family-friendly.

Jennifer Stein: 23:55

And then, of course, our businesses, our Chamber of Commerce's, those business economic development that we really need for them to come alongside us.

Jennifer Stein: 24:05

And this framework from the CDC helps us charge the way, but it's not overnight. It is something that takes continuous invitations, inclusion and inviting people to come sit at the table with these different work groups to see how they can play a part in building these environments, these communities, these neighborhoods where families have the best, best opportunity for them to raise their children. And it's these little, simple ingredients that we need to introduce to those non-child wellbeing partners for them to understand why their seat at the table is so important. And that led you know we were working with defects to help our state's child abuse and neglect prevention plan. So 2018, georgia Essentials came about as a self-supported state. Later on was our state's child abuse and neglect prevention plan, which is now in a separate work group under Georgia Essentials, and through that, it just allows us to stay connected with our 14 defects regions on how the different things that they're already doing aligns with the activities and the work around preventing child abuse and neglect.

Ann Price: 25:29

Yeah, if I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like a. It's a systems approach. What you know when you said, it's not just a program that is going to help us address child abuse and neglect, it's everyone together, it's the partners, it's business, it's policies that create barriers. Yes, it's all of those things.

Jennifer Stein: 25:54

And for some it's that unawareness of how that, like you said, policy or the way something might be structured currently could be prohibiting the greatest opportunity for our families.

Jennifer Stein: 26:08

And we know poverty, things of that nature, housing some of these. Some of it is also awareness. How can we bring about better awareness? And so it does. It takes all of us. We have work groups that are from all across the state and then we have local members too that plug in at their regional level, that they're trying to invite those nontraditional partners to the table to help share with them and create opportunities for conversation, for dialogue and what that can look like for them to create change. And some of it is incredible when you see how buildings are being opened up that might have been not needed by the government anymore in their local area, and their commissioners, their local commissioners, are saying well, why can't we give them a discounted rent and allow for supervised family visitation to occur or counseling to occur or whatever that might be, which is tremendous for a nonprofit to be able to work with them in that way.

Ann Price: 27:12

Yeah, and I can tell you that I did a series of 14 focus groups and key important interviews in our Northwest sector of Georgia and there were so many of our rural areas that don't have a family visitation center or don't have local medical care, so they're having. You know, families are having a difficult time staying connected while they are in the system, and that just should never happen.

Jennifer Stein: 27:43

And I think there's this, of course, the importance of this equity piece too. So, you know, as we look at the challenges that these communities face and the barriers that are preventing families from succeeding, especially when we think of the supervised family visitation area, you know there's more equity that we can bring there from training, so that way there's better standards that people are being trained on, because we want to break down those pieces that might be unintentionally preventing a family from successfully reuniting with their children, Right? So, yes, right.

Ann Price: 28:22

Yep, and that can be the language that we use, that can be the spaces that are or are not available, right, right, yeah, that makes me kind of think about, like you know, trauma informed approaches. We hear more and more about that. But, you know, trauma informed approach can be our language, it can be our attitude, it can be how we approach people, it can be what the room looks like or what the space looks like, how we interact with each other.

Jennifer Stein: 28:58

And then, you know, I always think too of those parents that are impacted by being, you know, involved with the system. How can we come alongside them in making sure that they understand their rights, the opportunities for resources, and then taking away the fear of using those things because of the situation that they might be in at the time yeah.

Jennifer Stein: 29:23

But, yes, lots of great opportunity. And this is where this, you know, this framework from the essentials from childhood, gives us some great like just steps. But again, they're lengthy steps and it can take a while for different parties to understand why it's important that they're at the table. So we have work groups regularly and, of course, would welcome anybody to attend when you have an annual meeting. That happens typically in August, that gives an update, and then we have quarterly meetings that provide some updates for those that just might want to glimpse into that work.

Ann Price: 30:00

So I mentioned earlier that I went to the conference. I loved your theme Thriving Families. That's our why. There was a lot of talk about adverse childhood experiences, aces and I'll put a link to the ACEs study in the show notes so people can grab that if they're not familiar. There was also a lot of talk about positive childhood experiences. As someone who did their dissertation in resiliency and risk and protect the factors, I love that those positive experiences are being brought into play. I wonder if you can talk about how ACEs and the positive experiences tie into PCAs, thinking about how they support families.

Jennifer Stein: 30:58

Certainly With the use of the protective factors, strengthening families, protective factors, those five things that we need to be robust in families. Again, we can share a link on what those five are to save on time, but it ties in so well with what is already naturally there in a family, what is already going well for them and helping them to see that as a strength. The Adverse Childhood Experience Study was an incredible study. It helped us understand different types of trauma and how those can negatively affect us in our adulthood. Things that changed the narrative. A lot of times it was mostly around PTSD related to military involvement, those horrific experiences. But now, through the ACE study, we understood those 10 things. We also understood through the environments. We talk about the roots of the tree, the pair of ACEs.

Jennifer Stein: 32:02

Now to do further study and understand how equally important, alongside possibly those negative things, were the positive things that that child might have experienced throughout their childhood.

Jennifer Stein: 32:16

We often talk about how it just takes one person to be a supportive person to somebody that had a difficult childhood, but it also just takes a few positive childhood experiences to buffer and to negate some of those difficult experiences that they had.

Jennifer Stein: 32:34

One of the great things that they've uncovered is positive childhood experiences. Even if somebody had these negative things, if they had positive childhood experiences, that is more important than the number of ACEs that they had. So we can really lean into how we're serving children, those that might be in care, those that might be in family preservation cases, by looking at those opportunities for positive childhood experiences and what services, what supports can we wrap around those families so that way we can really come alongside these children and these adults that might have this approach, in that two-gen approach, where we can really make some positive changes for these children and families. So incredible science around that Love to see how we're threading it and connecting it to existing frameworks and how those four building blocks for hope hope, the outcomes from positive experiences can kind of you know link into the work that we're already doing.

Ann Price: 33:44

Right, and by two-gen you mean two-generation.

Jennifer Stein: 33:47

Yes, thank you, right, yeah.

Ann Price: 33:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I want something else. Hit me. And then I think I've already lost it. There was a session at the conference and I'm sure you probably do this in your training all the time but I had never seen it framed that way and I can't remember if it was the executive director of National Prevent Child Abuse or if it was another session but they showed a cartoon of a family altogether. Yes, in a room. Yes, in the room. I don't know if that was a plenary or a breakout or what it was, but I remember, because the challenge to the audience was look at this picture and what do you see? And it was a picture of a family, yes, and for those of us who have been around a skinny minute and we are all kind of like socialized to see the negative, which is really sad, right, we immediately go to the peeling paper or the dangling cord or the the hole punched in the wall.

Jennifer Stein: 34:53

Yeah, exactly.

Ann Price: 34:55

Or the cigarette, or the TV's on or the kid on screen. But then when you let it marinate, then you see a family is all together. There is food available.

Jennifer Stein: 35:08

Reading. There's books, there's literature.

Ann Price: 35:10

Right, yeah. So that was probably the most impactful thing. I'm sure to you it was like, well, yeah, but to me it was like and again, I've been doing this work for a long, long time, which just goes to show we can always learn, we can always challenge ourselves to kind of broaden our mind, because if we are approaching families with that risk mindset, that deficit mindset, they feel that shame, they feel that judgment right. So it's kind of what you've been talking about all along is how do we recognize the strengths that families have, provide them with the support and the resources and do all those other things, those partnerships, those policy changes that will really create that support that all families need?

Jennifer Stein: 36:05

Yes, and we all need them. I mean, when we primary prevention. You know, one of the things that I would love to see happen is, you know, equal, free access to online parenting curriculum, and we have one in mind. You know we've been talking with triple P positive parenting program, which is an excellent evidence based program. So we're we're looking at some different funding opportunities there.

Jennifer Stein: 36:32

We're in a world now where there's some less resistance to use technology among people, among individuals, and we have we have some resource deserts across our state. So how do we step in and fill that void? Because sometimes just understanding child development, understanding the expectations you can have of your child at that time in their life, and you know those sometimes those little things infused in the family can make all the difference in the world. So just breaking down those barriers but but you're right, when we think of in social work, many times our initial gut type one thinking is looking for those risks and protecting children. So switching and taking some time looking at some things in a little bit different perspective and really helping a caregiver and a parent uncover what are some of their natural things already available to them and how can they lean into those and then building those protective factors around that family.

Jennifer Stein: 37:37

That reminds me of bubble wrap, right, precious cargo. So each one of those five protective factors really can help us surround that family and make sure that they have what they need to succeed.

Ann Price: 37:51

Yeah, I love the idea of making parent education available to everyone, because it's not just like certain people that need that. If I think about to, you know, if my mother were still alive and she heard this conversation, she'd probably be laughing at us, right? Because her, her generation gave no thought at all to parenting. And I, you know, I think I don't know if you can relate to this as a parent of, do you have three adult children, I want to say is that right? Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, me too. And so sometimes I think about oh my gosh, all of the mistakes I've made. Certainly there was, we didn't have that. And then I look at the way my oldest is parenting their kids and how thoughtful they are about the language and all that kind of stuff. But you know, so true.

Jennifer Stein: 38:43

I remember coming back from one of my very first parenting trainings it was nurturing parenting and at that time I think my children are just emerging from high school, you know, starting their after education, whether it be technical college or college and I came home and I said to them I'm like I'm so sorry, had I known I would have approached different things so differently.

Jennifer Stein: 39:11

And I thought I would have been better, because every when you look at the full picture, most parents want to provide more for their children, have a better life, have more opportunities, more access to different experiences. We all want that for our children when we become a parent for the first time, and so we're doing the best that we can.

Jennifer Stein: 39:35

And it is hard, hard work, and so I can't imagine doing it without a partner, doing it without families and relatives that are nearby. Just the tremendous strain that that puts on caregivers and parents to do it alone and to go it alone. And so that's where these family resource centers, these community partners that are providing direct family services, and then our you know, our faith based partners, our education systems that even have family resource centers or after school opportunities, boys and Girls Clubs, right, united Ways All of us are really helping to support parents. You know lead their families in a healthy way. So, however, we can connect them with the tools that they need to be successful is a huge win.

Ann Price: 40:30

Yeah, parenting is. It's definitely hard. So what's on the what's on the horizon for prevent child abuse, george, as we wrap up here, Well, for us, you know, internally it's about building capacity.

Jennifer Stein: 40:47

We, you know, we're housed within Georgia State University School of Public Health, which is a tremendous blessing, and with that is just how can we make sure we're getting the message out there?

Jennifer Stein: 41:02

We were able, blessed last year to be able to hire a director of communications and media.

Jennifer Stein: 41:07

That team is growing and so we want to really be able to provide the tools to those working with families with those communications, those toolboxes on how we can teach others to live boldly, these protective factors, to be the village to family.

Jennifer Stein: 41:27

So we really hope to promote and provide more awareness. That's one of the biggest things in our state prevention plan is to build that awareness and that would be to that sec, those sectors outside of us, those non traditional people, to our community members. And then also, you know, we, we serve our local child abuse prevention partners, we serve those that are members of the Georgia for family support network, and so just staying in tune to what those needs are and to build capacity around that. So just, really just continuing to be mindful, being strategic and working with our other state partners so that we were not duplicating that we're working together collectively and meeting the needs of not only our network, but also making sure that we're listening to those that have been impacted, that have this lived experience. What would it have taken to never have to have involvement with Child Protective Services? And then let's work together to meet that need.

Ann Price: 42:35

Yeah, and I guess. Lastly, how can people either support prevent child abuse Georgia or, if they're not from Georgia because again we have a national audience what can listeners do to support, maybe, a PCA in their state or area?

Jennifer Stein: 42:51

Certainly Well one. Prevent child abuse America does have the list of chapters on their website so you can easily go to prevent child abuse America and find your local state chapter and plug in there. They all look a little bit differently, but they are definitely working on similar strategies and principles, with primary and secondary prevention From our state, from the state of Georgia. Pca Georgia dot org is our website. Depending on what your role is, you can go and look at prevention and through that website there you're going to be able to see all sorts of ways to get involved and what that looks like. If you're a business, if you're a corporation, you know we really need you to join us in this conversation and discuss how, how, there in your workplace, what can we do to partner with you to help build different workplace comforts and policies that really, really support families.

Jennifer Stein: 43:56

I believe that providing and creating an environment of safety where people can be honest because we can't walk away from our personal lives to come to work each day it's part of us. So this is where we can look at how we can strengthen families there. But we also have some upcoming fundraisers happening next year. So you know, look at our newsletter. We have one that goes out once a month, you can learn what's happening. So I would really encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter and that will fully keep you in the loop of upcoming opportunities, and we would love to come and give a talk and teach about prevention or a different strategy that's happening based on the work that you do. So we're here for you. Just let us know how we can be of support and partner with you.

Ann Price: 44:47

Well, Jennifer, I want to thank you for coming on the podcast today. It's been such a pleasure getting to know you and I look forward to speaking with you in the future.

Jennifer Stein: 44:57

Thank you, anne, and thank you to your listeners for plugging in and learning more about just the child well-being ecosystem as a whole. We need everybody.

Ann Price: 45:07

Yes, we do. Thanks, Jennifer, Thank you Anne. Hi everybody, Thanks so much for joining me on today's episode of Community Possibilities. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. If you would be so kind, would you please like and share this episode. Tell somebody you care about, somebody who does community work, about the podcast. That would help so much. Also wanted to let you know that we have revamped the resources page on our website. So if you go to communityevaluationsolutionscom, go to our resource page. You're going to find a whole new look and a new tool the nonprofit evaluation capacity self-assessment, designed to help your organization make informed decisions and take action to build a stronger program evaluation for your nonprofit. Coming soon is a coalition capacity self-assessment, so be sure and look out for that. Thanks everybody, and I'll see you next time.