Ohio Law Enforcement Leaders, State Representative, Nurses and Families Join Forces to Stop Child Abuse

May 28th 2009

Columbus - Ohio's premiere child abuse and neglect program, Help Me Grow, faces extinction as the Ohio legislature faces a $1 billion budgetary shortfall. Sheriff Gene Kelly, and Dr. Noble Maseru, Health Commissioner, City of Cincinnati, and Jolynn E. Hurwitz, Executive Director Butler County Family & Children First Council joined trained nurse home visitors, mothers and the children they serve at the Ohio Capitol on Wednesday, calling for the state legislature to protect child abuse programs from upcoming budget cuts.

The governor and legislature had already reduced the program's funding by $50 million in the upcoming Ohio budget, but this was before the state's $1 billion deficit was announced. Due to the fiscal crisis, it is widely expected that funding to fight child abuse and neglect will be completely eliminated.

"I understand that times are tight and we need to tighten our belts, but we cannot balance the budget on the backs of our children," Maseru said. "The Help Me Grow program protects innocent children by helping at-risk families learn how to reduce stress factors that lead to abuse and neglect. This program works and the women and nurses standing behind me can testify to that. By eliminating funding for this program, we put our kids and our communities at risk."

Ohio's Help Me Grow program served over 96,000 at-risk children in all 88 state counties during 2008-09. In 2007 there were over 100,000 reported cases of child abuse and neglect in Ohio. The more accurate number of abused kids in the Buckeye State is considered to be considerably higher, since most cases of abuse and neglect never go reported.

"Crime and violence are a part of life and it's our job to put the bad guys behind bars. But the toughest thing to see is violence against a small child," Kelly said. "While most young kids that are abused don't abuse their own children, the odds are greater that abused children will repeat the cycle of violence than those that were safe and protected. This is not just a budget issue. The safety of our children is at risk. Let's cut the budget, but let's not eliminate a proven program that protects the innocent and puts our communities in jeopardy."

Voluntary home visiting programs, such as Ohio's Help Me Grow, offer at-risk families the opportunity to have trained nurses visit expectant mothers during their pregnancy until the child has reached the age of two. The trained professionals counsel at-risk families on proper nutritional, emotional and medical care for their new child and how to cope with the challenges of parenthood without putting their children in harm's way.

"We have the chance to be smart about this: to act on what we know from first-hand experience and what the research tells us and to get our kids educationally started on the right track and end the cycle of violence that hurts children and destroys families," said Hurwitz.

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