Inspirational writer Stephanie Stokes Oliver will deliver the keynote address at the 11th Annual Community Child Abuse Prevent Conference on Thursday, April 6 in the Radisson Suite Hotel in Secaucus. Oliver is the founder and editor-in-chief of Heart & Soul Magazine and served as an editor for Essence magazine for a number of years. Her most recent book, “Daily Cornbread,” is a collection of motivation essays and other materials. The conference is sponsored by the Hudson County Child Abuse Prevent Center and the Christ Hospital counseling and Resource Center and is open to social service providers, volunteers, teachers, child care providers and family advocates. According to statistics issued by the National Victim Center, a 1995 study showed that more than 3 million children were reported victims of bad treatment (or “maltreatment”) in 1994 nationwide, with an estimated 1.2 million children dying of abuse or neglect during the same year. A 1997 survey in New Jersey showed that during 1996, 20 children died from abuse or neglect and that 17,902cases were considered at risk. Infants from birth to 11 months old accounted for 297 of the cases. Of the rest, over 25 percent were children between the ages of one to four with more than 43 percent of the total between the ages of five and 12. The Department of Health and Human Services survey estimated that child abuse and neglect nearly doubled in the United States between 1986 and 1993. The survey also indicates that while the number of total child maltreatment instances that were investigated by state agencies remained constant from 1986 to 1993, the percentage of cases investigated declined dramatically. In releasing data from the third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala challenged states to enhance their child abuse prevention and detection efforts. “It is shameful and startling to see that so many more children are in danger and that proportionately fewer incidents are investigated,” Secretary Shalala said. “These findings confirm the vital need for federal support to the states that President Clinton vigorously defended and secured in the face of congressional proposals to eliminate it. Now states, schools, health care professionals – all of us – must commit ourselves to investigating and preventing child abuse with far greater effectiveness than we have seen in the past.” The report estimates that the number of abused and neglected children grew from 1.4 million in 1986, when the last NIS report was conducted, to over 2.8 million in 1993. During the same period, the number of children who were seriously injured quadrupled from about 143,000 to nearly 570,000. The report also claimed that: • Children of single parents had an 87 percent greater risk of being harmed by physical neglect and an 80 percent greater risk of suffering serious injury or harm from abuse and neglect. • Children from families with annual incomes below $15,000 were over 22 times more likely to experience maltreatment than children from families whose incomes exceeded $30,000. They were also 18 times more likely to be sexually abused, almost 56 times more likely to be educationally neglected, and over 22 times more likely to be seriously injured. • Girls are sexually abused three times more often than boys, while boys are at greater risk of emotional neglect and serious injury than girls. Yet, all children are consistently more vulnerable to sexual abuse from age three. • There were no significant race/ethnicity differences in the incidence of maltreatment. The April 6 conference in Secaucus will also feature 10 morning and afternoon workshops that will include speakers like Debra Donnelly of the Bergen County Alternatives to Domestic Violence; Keri Logosso of the Association for Children of New Jersey; Irma Terron of the Bayonne Hospital Mental Health Center; Det. Kenneth Kolich and Sgt. Nancy Wellenkamp of the Hudson County anti-violence unit and Charles Dixon of the New Jersey University of Medicine and Dentistry, as well as others. For more information or to register call 798-5588.
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