CHILDREN'S TRUST OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Advocacy and messaging: children's trust uses various strategies and communication channels to grow support and awareness for the work of preventing child abuse and neglect and building family well-being. Messaging educates families and child-serving professionals on prevention strategies, and advocates with thought-leaders and policy makers for greater prevention investments. Children's trust leads the concerted effort for child abuse prevention (cap) month in south carolina. 173 partners received messaging materials and participated in child abuse prevention month awareness activities. Children's trust provided direct financial support to 34 organizations for their events and activities, reaching an estimated 5,000 parents and children. The campaign tools webpage had 3,976 pageviews with 280 downloads of the toolkit. Gov. Henry mcmaster declared "april as child abuse prevention month" in south carolina. Multiple jurisdictions also issued proclamations. South carolina was ranked no. 40 nationally in child and family well-being, according to the 2024 kids count data book, a 50-state report of recent household data developed by the annie e. Casey foundation analyzing the well-being of children and their families. Public relations efforts gained interviews and news stories that reached a statewide audience. Children's trust staff presented kids count data to several entities, including leadership south carolina, and the state child fatality committee.children's trust hosted a press conference with the lt. Governor and two state senators to educate state legislators on the value of investing in voluntary home visiting programs. The general assembly subsequently allocated $500,000 to children's trust of south carolina to support these efforts, emphasizing the importance of data-driven decision-making in making this a worthwhile investment.children's trust enhanced its prevention messaging and relaunched its parent resource website at scparents.org. The promotional campaign theme is "you've got this, and children's trust is using social media, digital advertising and event marketing to promote it. Users are encouraged to use the website to find local services (powered by findhelp), browse parenting topics in ten subject areas, explore parenting programs and join the conversation by sharing questions and parenting successes. The most common searches in findhelp were housing assistance, parenting education, food pantries and mental health.

Training and partner capacity building: children's trust empowers local partners and stakeholders to build change, promote prevention practices, and grow family well-being in their communities. To accomplish this, the organization trains child-serving professionals, convenes coalitions and networks and promotes best practices and standards of quality. Children's trust hosted its statewide hope conference, which is presented every other year. The conference offered a high-quality learning and networking opportunity for anyone interested in preventing child abuse and neglect and promoting child and family well-being. With 512 attendees, the conference was well-attended, featuring 26 sessions and 57 speakers. Participants across south carolina participated in workshops, networking and discussions on child abuse prevention, family support and organizational practices. Participants agreed that the conference provided new or strengthened knowledge (96 percent positive response) and enhanced their ability to connect with resources and peers. Children's trust partnered with the s.c. Department of social services to provide financial and technical support to two thriving families counties, orangeburg and newberry. Family solutions in orangeburg opened a family resource center with this support. In newberry, the building thriving communities foundation is setting the groundwork for launching a family resource center to serve the community. Children's trust revised the understanding adverse childhood experiences (aces) and building resilience training and training-of-trainers curricula, emphasizing the long-term health impacts of aces and strategies to prevent and mitigate them. Through partnerships with state agencies and community organizations, nearly 100 participants became certified ace trainers, joining over 300 others from diverse backgrounds. These trainers led in-person and virtual sessions for over 400 individuals throughout the year.