First Steps: Taking Action Early To Prevent Violence

A joint project of the Prevention Institute, Action Alliance for Children, and Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, First Steps: Taking Action Early To Prevent Violence finds that

• Supporting healthy early childhood development is essential in preventing violence.
• Protecting children from experiencing violence as victims or witnesses is essential to ensuring their healthy development.
• Early approaches are cost-effective.

Includes recommendations for policy makers, funders, service providers, parents, and advocates:

• Provide services and supports for families
• Take steps to minimize the effects of poverty
• Prevent abuse, neglect, and witnessing of violence
• Increase wellness opportunities, including access to quality health care and mental health services for children and their families
• Reduce substance abuse among pregnant women and their partners
• Provide affordable, quality early childhood education and ensure that all children enter school ready to learn
• Reduce children's access to guns and time spent watching violent TV or playing violent video games.

Download the full report, user's guide, and resources at http://www.preventioninstitute.org/firststeps.html

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Action Alliance
for Children
e-mail aac@4children.org
1201 Martin Luther
King Jr. Way
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 444-7136