Massachusetts Citizens for Children, Inc.

Goal: Prevent adults from sexually abusing children now and prevent children from developing sexually abusive behaviors in the future.

Goal: Provide evidence-based trainings and expert technical assistance to schools and youth-serving organizations to prevent child sexual abuse and strengthen their prevention policies and practices.

Goal: Expand the Enough Abuse Campaign to more Massachusetts communities and to additional states. (Currently, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, and some counties in California and Maine have adopted Enough Abuse and its strategies and prevention tools. Advocates in Sierra Leone and Nigeria have also adopted the Campaign.)

Goal: Reduce infant deaths and disabilities from Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head trauma - a preventable form of physical child abuse.

MassKids affects lasting social change for children through its tested advocacy strategies including:
 Building issue-specific coalitions to create social and systems changes
 Developing and disseminating policy and data reports on pressing children's issues
 Implementing research pilots and demonstrations and moving them to scale
 Convening policy conferences to educate and train professionals
 Developing prevention products to educate parents and the public
 Educating the citizenry through public awareness campaigns.
 Mobilizing citizen action on legislative/policy issues
 Filing legal actions and amicus curiae briefs to the court.
 Promoting data-informed views on children’s issues through TV, radio and social media.

MassKids and the Campaign successfully implement activities in each of these domains. The synergy of these activities contributes to changes in social norms since activities are focused not only on the individual but also on their environments. These norm changes are critical if we are to prevent sexual abuse in our homes, communities and culture.

A consistent focus of MassKids throughout its history has been to prevent child maltreatment in all its forms, hence our work to prevent infant deaths and disabilities from Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abuse Head Trauma - a preventable form of physical abuse; our work to prevent medical neglect of children by parents in faith-healing sects; our 80s class action suit on behalf of abused and neglected children in state care; and our long-standing work to prevent child sexual abuse and its devastating consequences.

MassKids is led by a 21-member Citizens Board made up of leaders in public health, child protection, legal advocacy, finance, and business. To support the voices of survivors of sexual abuse, either in their own childhoods or in the lives of their own children, one-third of our Board includes these authentic voices. Past MassKids Presidents have included: Katharine Kane, former Deputy Mayor of Boston; Charles Welch, MD, former president of the Massachusetts Medical Society; Eli Newberger, MD, a nationally recognized Children's Hospital pediatrician and child advocate; Augusta Haydock , a former Senior Vice President at Bank of America; and Carmen Durso, a prominent lawyer who has represented hundreds of child sexual abuse survivors.

MassKids’ executive director is a nationally recognized leader with over 30 years of experience in child abuse prevention, community organizing, program planning, grant writing, technical assistance, training, and media relations. She is frequently sought by the media to provide an expert and unbiased view of a range of issues affecting Massachusetts children and their families. She currently serves as Co-Chair of Policy for the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation and is a past Board member of Prevent Child Abuse America and Voices for America's Children, the latter which recognized her with it national award for leadership and effective advocacy on behalf of children. Among other local recognitions have included the Boston Celtics "Heroes Among Us" Award for "exceptional and lasting contributions" to our state, and the Massachusetts Dental Society's Allard Award in recognition of her leadership to prevent child abuse in the Commonwealth.

MassKids uses multiple and ongoing strategies to evaluate its progress in community organizing, and training and technical assistance efforts to prevent child sexual abuse.
A CDC-sponsored evaluation of the Enough Abuse Campaign was conducted during the first five years and results were reported in an article in the peer-reviewed Journal of Child Sexual Abuse (Daniel Schober, Stephen Fawcett and Jetta Bernier (2012), "The Enough Abuse Campaign: Building the Movement to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse in Massachusetts" 21:4, 456-469.) Here are two quotes from the article about the Campaign's impact:
"One key indicator of success that has improved in Massachusetts is substantiated reports of child sexual abuse. Massachusetts saw a 66% decline in these substantiated reports from 1992 to 2007... Jones and Finkelhor (2007) speculate that these declines are due to a variety of factors, including economic, law enforcement, and public awareness. The Enough Abuse Campaign's contribution to educating community residents and successful legal advocacy likely contributed to this increased public awareness and possibly to preventive action."

Here is another statement which shows that the Campaign contributed to an increase in adult responsibility for preventing child sexual abuse - a key protective factor: "Child maltreatment experts have identified the need for more prevention work at the community and society levels, including the involvement of professionals, parents and the entire community in taking responsibility for preventing child sexual abuse. Results from two independent statewide assessments conducted in 2003 and 2007 confirmed a 23% increase - from 69% to 93% - in the number of Massachusetts adults who believe that adults rather than children should take prime responsibility for preventing child sexual abuse. This increase suggests improvement in a key protective factor (adult responsibility) related to the prevention of child sexual abuse."

Surveys to evaluate the Campaign's 2-day intensive Training of Trainers routinely rated it around a 4.8 on a 5 point excellence scale. Subsequent presentations and workshops delivered by certified Campaign trainers are also required to be evaluated by attendees and these evaluations are reviewed by the trainers and the local Partnership to ensure consistent high quality.

"Enough! Preventing Sexual Abuse in My School," the most comprehensive online training course available in the U.S., was developed by MassKids exclusively for school personnel. It has been adopted in over 120 schools and in six sates to date and endorsed by the U.S. Department of Justice as a promising crime prevention program. Research conducted by Simmons University and findings published in the peer-reviewed Journal on Child Sexual Abuse confirm impressive gains in knowledge and prevention skills.