HR0995 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0995 LRB094 19837 DRJ 56906 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Prevent Child Abuse (PCA) Illinois, established in 1990, is dedicated exclusively to the prevention of child abuse and neglect; its programs contribute to strong, healthy families by: helping to prepare and support parents so that they can better care for their children; educating parents, grandparents, neighbors, babysitters, and others about situations that can be harmful to children; and raising concern among all citizens -- "we are all responsible for protecting our nation's children"; and

WHEREAS, PCA Illinois has 2 main advocacy priorities for Illinois in 2006; the first of these is to continue to build the Healthy Families Illinois Program across the State; Healthy Families Illinois (HFI) is a voluntary program of intensive home visiting to support parents of newborns and to reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect; it is modeled after Healthy Families America, a national initiative of Prevent Child Abuse America; its goals are to promote positive parenting, to encourage child health and development, and to prevent child abuse and neglect; and

WHEREAS, Begun in 1997 with State funding, HFI grew to an $11 million statewide program in 51 different communities serving over 3,000 families annually by 2001; there has been no additional funding since 2001, and the program has not been able to grow toward serving the thousands more needing its services; PCA Illinois' vision is to see this program reach full scale in Illinois through incremental growth every year; and

WHEREAS, PCA Illinois' second advocacy priority for Illinois in 2006 is to address the methamphetamine problem in Illinois in partnership with the various State agencies and coalitions working on it; and

WHEREAS, Methamphetamine ("meth") has become the major drug problem in rural Illinois and has more serious implications for harm to children than any other drug; children are affected by its incapacitating effects on their parents and caretakers and by the risk of harm in its manufacture and sales; it is now specifically addressed in the Illinois Juvenile Court Act of 1986 within the definition of child abuse; and

WHEREAS, PCA Illinois has worked in partnership with State agencies and with community groups to help address this problem through public awareness, education, training, and support for legislative measures; several legislative responses have already been made; the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act, which took effect January 11th, includes stronger deterrents to meth manufacture in homes where children reside or in multi-unit dwellings where other tenants, including families and children, would be put at risk; other recent legislation restricts access to products containing key meth ingredients ephedrine and pseudoephedrine; and

WHEREAS, PCA Illinois also supports keys issues raised by one of its child advocacy partners, Voices for Illinois Children, including: the Early Learning Illinois effort to improve and expand preschool opportunities for young children; the Children's Mental Health Partnership to strengthen children's mental, social, and emotional health; and the A+ Illinois Campaign to reform school funding and improve the adequacy and fairness of education; and

WHEREAS, In 2006, PCA Illinois will work with the Illinois Association of Court Appointed Special Advocates to secure $1 million in funding to improve and expand the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program to serve more of our State's most vulnerable children; Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) are trained volunteers who serve as advocates for children in the court system interacting with the child and providing information in the child's best interest directly to the court; operating under careful guidelines established by National CASA for an intensive and ongoing commitment to the child, volunteers in Illinois served over 4,200 children last year; the actual need is more than six times that number; and

WHEREAS, A Child Abuse Prevention Month Media Conference Launch and Awards Ceremony is planned for April 3, 2006 in the State Capitol rotunda at Springfield; simultaneous launches will be held in Chicago and in southern Illinois; PCA Illinois, in collaboration with the Department of Children and Family Services, has planned a statewide calendar of events in connection with the prevention of child abuse and neglect for the month of April; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we proclaim April 2006 as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Illinois and urge organizations throughout the State to take steps to increase local and statewide visibility of Child Abuse Prevention Month activities.