Perspective: Child Abuse Prevention Month 2011 - Who is Caring?

As it has been since 1979, a presidential proclamation was issued designating April as "Child Abuse Prevention Month." Link to 2011, 2010, 2009

This is the Wordle view of the 2011 Proclamation :



And the Wordle view of the first Proclamation of Child Abuse Prevention Month in November, 1979 . Note that it seems to show a subtle shift in emphasis from children to abuse.



Google News found 437 articles today that mention "child abuse prevention" and 259 that mention "child abuse prevention month." In comparison, 12,497 mention Charlie Sheen, 2,923 mention Paris Hilton, and 10,333 mention "March Madness."

The Google Trends chart above shows how "child abuse" fares as a Google search term in comparison ("Child Abuse Prevention Month" doesn't even make the chart).

What's the lesson: push vs. pull. Most folks just don't have any interest in pulling information about CAP Month (or child abuse prevention, in general). Consequently, most media don't attend to it.

NB. The Journalistics blog has a good post on getting your message out via "pull" tools. Link

Try a Twitter search to see what's happening with CAP Month: I used
"child abuse prevention month" since:2011-01-01

Twitter hashtags #CAP2011, #Pinwheels

It's interesting to search Twitter: it seems that the hashtag #childabuse doesn't occur at all with #earlychildhood #ece (early childhood education), #homevisiting, #nfp (nurse family partnership).

This would be a good time to start breaking down the silo walls...