The impact of prevention education is far reaching and life changing. For Sandra, a student of Speak Up Be Safe’s forerunner program, that impact not only helped stop ongoing sexual abuse by her father, but provided an early understanding that what was happening was not her fault, and help was available to her.

In 1924, Calvin Coolidge — renowned as a president of few words — exhorted Americans to celebrate Father’s Day to “establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the measure of their obligations.”

It has been 30 years since Childhelp first started a residential program in Orange County, and while we have changed addresses as we grew, the Orange County program is stronger than ever. The three current homes in Costa Mesa are located within a mile of each other, and each can house up to six children or youth in need of 24-hour a day therapeutic supervision and intensive treatment, but who are still able to participate in community activities.

In 1979, through encouragement and hard work by Childhelp Founders Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson (joined by legendary actress Sophia Loren), President Jimmy Carter designated the first National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Four years later, President Ronald Reagan formally established April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Most child refugees from Syria have experienced what we have only seen on television: chaos and sadness.