Sara Kennedy

Sara Kennedy

Editor, O.U.R. Project Core Team Member, ASTra and GBYS trainer

Nonprofit, Hands & Voices, formerly a CO H&V Chapter Director 

[email protected]

Lessons Learned

• Abuse is higher for children with any kind of disability. This is still largely unshared with parents and professionals who serve them. This is not about “other people’s kids”.
• There are simple strategies that parents and professionals can learn to help them reduce the risk and increase protective factors for their kids/students.  
• The youngest children are the most isolated and the most at risk. We must find a way to reach families sooner and more effectively to increase all protective factors starting with nurturing and attachment, where language begins during those critical first years of life. 

Resources Developed

• The Oct-June monthly Community of Learners through the OUR Children’s Project at Hands & Voices https://www.handsandvoices.org/resources/OUR/index.htm 
• The Parent Safety Toolkit: https://www.handsandvoices.org/pdf/OUR-Toolkit.pdf 
• Helping Parents Talk to Children (about abuse/neglect) https://www.handsandvoices.org/resources/OUR/helping_parents.htm 
• Hands & Voices newspaper articles such as Abuse in a Nice Family: A Cautionary Tale https://www.handsandvoices.org/resources/OUR/2014/nicefamily.html also in Spanish https://www.handsandvoices.org/resources/espanol/bully.html 

Suggested Resources

• The OUR Project library of articles and recorded meetings: (https://www.handsandvoices.org/resources/OUR/index.htm) 
  and the H&V Library site  https://www.hv-library.com/our/#gsc.tab=0
• https://kpjrfilms.co/resilience/ Resilience: Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope
• Pragmatics Supplement: Pediatrics Journal https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/issue/146/Supplement_3?autologi…;
• Zero to three Healthy Steps https://www.zerotothree.org/issue-areas/trauma/ 

Collaborative Areas of Interest

• Social Media messaging for safety  
• Working with teachers/IEP teams re: how to promote early childhood language access and early language to promote safety 
• Collaborating with the CEC, other parent and professional groups on all aspects of prevention, response and reporting
• How to find funding for this work