Fall Newsletter 2021
A Letter from the Executive Director As I enter my fourth year as Executive Director of SCAN, it is hard to believe over half of my tenure has been during a global pandemic. It’s been challenging, but challenging times have a way of focusing an organization and unifying a community to make change.
Please join us on this journey to address the devastating social and public health issue of child abuse. Support us as we change the communities we live in. Stand with us as we change the culture and norms of children’s rights. We need you because NOVA’s children need us.
From hard times come innovative solutions. While the word “innovation” is not often paired with “child welfare” and “abuse prevention,” we are working to change this. SCAN is positioning itself on the leading edge of child abuse prevention with our Institutional Abuse Prevention Program and Family Coaching Model. We are narrowing our scope to address and prevent the worst child abuse and to protect children everywhere they are.
Leah Fraley Executive Director
Turning Isolation and Vulnerability into Hope: Our New Family Coaching Program Marisol Morales, Director of Family Programs
Few have suffered more than vulnerable children throughout the pandemic. We’ve seen this firsthand through Family Programs. Family Programs serve families at high risk for abuse. Our families come from all walks of life and are often referred through schools, community organizations, or court mandates. In March 2020, everything changed for our families. Vulnerable children were isolated and the risk for abuse was at an all-time high. In-person classes with parents were no longer possible, and we had to find a new way to reach the families who needed us. We contacted every family we had worked with over the past few years, offering support and resources. Little did we know, the success of this one-on-one contact would develop into our new Family Coaching Model.
Each hour spent with a family is a dosage of prevention, reducing the likelihood that abuse will occur in the home.
In contrast to existing group programming, Family Coaching is tailored to each individual family. Designed with our most vulnerable families in mind, it’s accessible, addresses the unique needs of each family, and has proven highly effective as an intervention for abuse. Each hour spent with a family is a dosage of prevention, reducing the likelihood that abuse will occur in the home. The pandemic challenged us to help when our methods were limited, and we are so proud of the impact of our work. To learn more about our Family Coaching model, visit scanfamilies.org