National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 2000

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Proclamation 7285 of March 31, 2000

National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 2000

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Children are our link to the future and our hope for a
better tomorrow. Within a few short years, we will look
to today's children for the vision, strength,
creativity, and leadership to guide our Nation through
the challenges of this new century. If they are to grow
into healthy, happy adults and responsible citizens, we
must provide our children with the love, nurturing, and
protection they need and deserve.

However, many of America's children are not safe, even
in their own homes. The statistics are staggering.
Every year, there are nearly one million reported
incidents of child abuse; and even more disturbing,
more than 2,000 of these incidents result in the
child's death. Whether suffering neglect, harsh
physical punishment, sexual abuse, or psychological
trauma, the children who survive will carry the scars
of their abuse for the rest of their lives.

We now know that there are a variety of risk factors
that contribute to child abuse and neglect--including
parental substance abuse, lack of parenting skills and
knowledge, domestic violence, or extreme stress--and
there are practical measures and programs we can use to
mitigate such factors. Social service providers can
offer substance abuse programs for adults with
children; schools can offer educational programs to
teach parenting skills to teen mothers or instruct
children on how to protect themselves from sexual
predators; faith organizations can offer respite care
for parents of children with special needs; and
employers can introduce family-friendly policies, from
child care to parental leave to flexible work
schedules, to reduce the stress on working families.

Keeping children safe is a community responsibility,
and prevention must be a community task. Every segment
of society must be involved, including health and law
enforcement professionals, schools, businesses, the
media, government agencies, community and faith
organizations, and especially parents themselves.
Teachers and physicians need to recognize the symptoms
of child abuse; parents need to ask for help in
overcoming addictions or controlling violent behavior;
communities must be willing to fund programs and
services to protect children from abuse; and the media
needs to raise public awareness of the availability of
those programs and services.

My Administration is committed to doing its part to
ensure the health and well-being of all our Nation's
children. We have worked to increase funding at the
State level for child protection programs and family
preservation services. Working with the Congress, we
have enacted the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment
Act and the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and we have
established the Safe and Stable Families Program. Just
a few weeks ago, I signed into law the Child Abuse
Prevention and Enforcement Act, which gives State and
local officials greater flexibility in using Department
of Justice grant programs to prevent child abuse and
neglect. This new legislation will increase funding to
enforce child abuse and neglect laws, to enhance the
investigation of child abuse and neglect crimes, and to
promote programs to prevent such abuse and neglect.
Through these and other measures, we continue our
efforts to create a society where every child is
cherished and no child bears the lasting scars of abuse
or neglect.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim April 2000 as National Child
Abuse Prevention Month. I call upon all Americans to
observe this month by demonstrating our gratitude to
those who work to keep our children safe, and by taking
action in our own communities to make them healthy
places where children can grow and thrive.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord two
thousand, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.