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How to help fix a world problem 1 child at a time

October 26, 2012 By Anne Leave a Comment

This may seem a little off-topic, as it’s not fundamentally about technology, but social media can be a tool in the healing process. Let me explain. More than 5 million US children (275 million worldwide) are dealing with domestic violence – what UNICEF calls “one of the most damaging unaddressed human rights violations in the world today” – and 40 million US adults were once children who lived with it (more than half of all kids experiencing it are being raised by a parent who grew up with it). This is according to Children of Domestic Violence, a nonprofit organization aimed at addressing the problem. But this post and their work aren’t about reading awareness-raising data. They’re about how the data shows all of us adults can choose to help more of those children become as strong and resilient as some children of domestic violence do grow up to be. Here’s why:

“Groundbreaking research … shows that the common factor in the lives of resilient children is the presence of a caring adult able to deliver key messages during the formative stages of childhood and adolescence” – messages that counter beliefs like “It was my fault,” “I should’ve been able to stop it,” “I’m unlovable and unworthy of love,” “Good things don’t happen to people like me.” They’re beliefs that children usually aren’t developmentally equipped to counter themselves. So, working with people like social welfare professor Jeffrey Edleson at University of California, Berkeley, CDV developed the Change a Life Program that can be clicked to right from this page – so that, instead of not knowing what to say or do, adults in schools and communities can help children believe in themselves. The “program” is simple and well-presented, nothing time-consuming, but if you do nothing else watch the 2-min. video on that page and consider the hope a child might feel when he or she hears messages like: “It’s not your fault,” “You have had to overcome obstacles that other kids have never had,” “It’s not your job to stop it,” “You have a special strength inside you,” “I believe you,” and “I hear you.” Those messages can go through any channel, a telephone, a letter, Skype video, a text, a social network site, whatever – but probably best in a way that the child can see the kindness in your eyes.

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Filed Under: at-risk teens, child development, kids, Research, Risk & Safety, Social Media, teens, Youth Tagged With: at-risk youth, caregivers, CDV, Change a Life program, Children of Domestic Violence, domestic violence, educators, Jeffrey Edleson

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Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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