National Child Protection Week
The key message of the campaign is:
Walls protect child abuse, not children. Break down the walls and help bring child abuse out into the open.
Act now against child abuse. 6 September marks the start of a two month campaign to engage the whole of the Australian community in the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Go to www.preventingchildabuse.com.au and complete the short online survey.
The safety and wellbeing of Australia's children is everybody's business - it is not just the responsibility of governments but a responsibility that should be shared by the whole Australian community; individuals, professionals, business and the media.
Did you know that over 30,000 individual children were abused or neglected in Australia last year? How can this happen in our community?
Perhaps it's because child abuse largely remains hidden behind walls - the real walls between us in our communities and the walls of fear, ignorance, denial and disinterest.
These walls protect child abuse, not children. So if we are going to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all of Australia's children we must bring child abuse out into the open.
As a first step NAPCAN is calling on all Australian adults to start thinking and talking about this issue, not just people who have children but everyone, to help solve this problem.
From the beginning of National Child Protection Week on 6 September to the end of Children's Week on 1 November, NAPCAN and its partners are conducting the largest ever survey of community attitudes. This survey has been designed with the assistance of leading researchers from across the country to gather information which will help in the planning of effective strategies to prevent child abuse and neglect. You can play a part in this.
