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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, Prevent Child Abuse (PCA) Illinois, established
3 in 1990, is dedicated exclusively to the prevention of child
4 abuse and neglect; its programs contribute to strong, healthy
5 families by: helping to prepare and support parents so that
6 they can better care for their children; educating parents,
7 grandparents, neighbors, babysitters, and others about
8 situations that can be harmful to children; and raising concern
9 among all citizens -- "we are all responsible for protecting
10 our nation's children"; and
 
11     WHEREAS, PCA Illinois has 2 main advocacy priorities for
12 Illinois in 2006; the first of these is to continue to build
13 the Healthy Families Illinois Program across the State; Healthy
14 Families Illinois (HFI) is a voluntary program of intensive
15 home visiting to support parents of newborns and to reduce the
16 risk of child abuse and neglect; it is modeled after Healthy
17 Families America, a national initiative of Prevent Child Abuse
18 America; its goals are to promote positive parenting, to
19 encourage child health and development, and to prevent child
20 abuse and neglect; and
 
21     WHEREAS, Begun in 1997 with State funding, HFI grew to an
22 $11 million statewide program in 51 different communities
23 serving over 3,000 families annually by 2001; there has been no
24 additional funding since 2001, and the program has not been
25 able to grow toward serving the thousands more needing its
26 services; PCA Illinois' vision is to see this program reach
27 full scale in Illinois through incremental growth every year;
28 and
 
29     WHEREAS, PCA Illinois' second advocacy priority for
30 Illinois in 2006 is to address the methamphetamine problem in
31 Illinois in partnership with the various State agencies and
32 coalitions working on it; and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, Methamphetamine ("meth") has become the major
2 drug problem in rural Illinois and has more serious
3 implications for harm to children than any other drug; children
4 are affected by its incapacitating effects on their parents and
5 caretakers and by the risk of harm in its manufacture and
6 sales; it is now specifically addressed in the Illinois
7 Juvenile Court Act of 1986 within the definition of child
8 abuse; and
 
9     WHEREAS, PCA Illinois has worked in partnership with State
10 agencies and with community groups to help address this problem
11 through public awareness, education, training, and support for
12 legislative measures; several legislative responses have
13 already been made; the Methamphetamine Control and Community
14 Protection Act, which took effect January 11th, includes
15 stronger deterrents to meth manufacture in homes where children
16 reside or in multi-unit dwellings where other tenants,
17 including families and children, would be put at risk; other
18 recent legislation restricts access to products containing key
19 meth ingredients ephedrine and pseudoephedrine; and
 
20     WHEREAS, PCA Illinois also supports keys issues raised by
21 one of its child advocacy partners, Voices for Illinois
22 Children, including: the Early Learning Illinois effort to
23 improve and expand preschool opportunities for young children;
24 the Children's Mental Health Partnership to strengthen
25 children's mental, social, and emotional health; and the A+
26 Illinois Campaign to reform school funding and improve the
27 adequacy and fairness of education; and
 
28     WHEREAS, In 2006, PCA Illinois will work with the Illinois
29 Association of Court Appointed Special Advocates to secure $1
30 million in funding to improve and expand the Court Appointed
31 Special Advocate Program to serve more of our State's most
32 vulnerable children; Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs)

 

 

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1 are trained volunteers who serve as advocates for children in
2 the court system interacting with the child and providing
3 information in the child's best interest directly to the court;
4 operating under careful guidelines established by National
5 CASA for an intensive and ongoing commitment to the child,
6 volunteers in Illinois served over 4,200 children last year;
7 the actual need is more than six times that number; and
 
8     WHEREAS, A Child Abuse Prevention Month Media Conference
9 Launch and Awards Ceremony is planned for April 3, 2006 in the
10 State Capitol rotunda at Springfield; simultaneous launches
11 will be held in Chicago and in southern Illinois; PCA Illinois,
12 in collaboration with the Department of Children and Family
13 Services, has planned a statewide calendar of events in
14 connection with the prevention of child abuse and neglect for
15 the month of April; therefore, be it
 
16     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
17 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
18 we proclaim April 2006 as Child Abuse Prevention Month in
19 Illinois and urge organizations throughout the State to take
20 steps to increase local and statewide visibility of Child Abuse
21 Prevention Month activities.