Children thrive in safe, supportive and nurturing families and communities.  Far too many children in North Carolina are experiencing dangerous and damaging childhoods instead.   Action for Children promotes policies and legislation that reduce child neglect and abuse, prevent teenage pregnancy, improve the foster care system and strengthen families.

Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Action for Children and its partners are committed to keeping North Carolina’s children safe from abuse and neglect. In 2006, 34 children in North Carolina were killed by their caregivers.  The same year, 111,000 children in the state were assessed for maltreatment.  Child abuse and neglect are rarely single occurrences, but rather patterns of maltreatment.  Long term negative consequences of maltreatment can include impaired brain development, cognitive and social difficulties, poor mental, emotional and physical health, and self-destructive and other risky behaviors.  It is estimated that approximately one-third of abused and neglected children will eventually victimize their own children. Child abuse and neglect can be prevented.  Programs that support parents and parenting must be included in health-care systems, schools and communities.

Improving the Child Welfare System

Action for Children is committed to ensuring that all children grow up in permanent, loving homes and that any interruption is minimal. Public child welfare agencies are responsible for assessing and investigating abuse and neglect reports and, if the reports are substantiated, taking appropriate measures to keep children safe by providing services to the family and monitoring the home or, if necessary, removing children from abusive or neglectful situations.  But funding challenges have impacted the delivery of protective services, such as the number, training and retention of workers and the recruitment and support for foster families.

Funding shortfalls also compromise the ability to track and understand what happens in protective services. There is a critical need for an electronic, statewide, standardized data collection system. The absence of standardized data negatively impacts children’s safety, assessment of the system, examination of outcomes for children, data-sharing among counties and the ability to develop appropriate programs and policies. 

Youth in Transition to Adulthood

Action for Children and its partners are dedicated to fully investing in youth aging out of the foster care system, to enable them to achieve self-sufficiency and avoid many of the pitfalls for which they are at risk as they transition to adulthood. Research suggests that without the extended support most families provide young people in the transition to adulthood, youth leaving foster care face enormous challenges in building successful lives. They attain less education, have a harder time embarking on a productive career, are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and are more likely to be involved with the legal system. While most youth have the support of their families and communities as they move from adolescence to adulthood, many foster care youth make this journey without any adult guidance or support.