April is child abuse prevention month and a great time to share the work we did last month in Durham, NC with the Positive Childhood Alliance of North Carolina. For a few days, practitioners and advocates gathered to talk about best practices for supporting families and communities, not just to reduce child abuse, but to foster the conditions where all children can thrive.

Human services can be a daunting career path. Enormous social challenges, scarcity of funding, high stress, staff burnout. Yet it attracts humans with enormous hearts and undaunted courage. Many times the advocates are people ho have been on the wrong side of past harms, and are dedicated to making sure that others don’t experience the same challenges.

It occurs to me that one of A Peace of My Mind’s roles is to encourage the changemakers. In some way, we are preaching to the choir. People who believe in human connection and service to the community. But the choir needs encouragement, too. Because if the choir stops singing, then we are all in trouble.

So it’s a joy and a privilege to spend a few days with people who are making a difference. To hear and amplify their stories so that they can see more clearly the impact they are making, and to help the world understand the good that is being done all around them.

My dad was a social worker. Early childhood intervention was his favorite mission. Most things are cheaper and easier to deal with when we address them sooner rather than later. It’s better to prevent issues than deal with the fallout later on. When we invest early on, we all win.

At the conference, we asked people, “What can we do now to ensure a successful future for our children?”

How would you answer that question? Better yet, what are you doing about it?