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Face It® adds Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell as partner

The effort to prevent child abuse in Louisville gets a strategic new ally

June 9, 2015. Louisville, KY – The Face It® Movement is proud to announce the Office of Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell as its latest partner in the effort against child abuse and neglect.

“I am thrilled to join the Face It partnership to end child abuse,” says Jefferson County Attorney Jefferson County Attorney's OfficeMike O’Connell. “Unfortunately, as prosecutors we see the victims of abuse and neglect far too frequently. We are committed to working to bring justice for these victims. But the effort must extend beyond the courtroom. As a community, we must unite to work on intervention and prevention efforts designed to create a world without abuse.”

There are more than 1,600 cases of substantiated child abuse and neglect in Jefferson County each year, and thousands more across Kentucky. Face It® has compiled this and other information at its Jefferson County Child Welfare Data Dashboard, which has recently been updated and is available online at https://faceitabuse.org.

The Office of Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell and Face It® understand the key to ending the tragedy of child abuse is through strong partnerships that focus on prevention and intervention.

Since its launch, the Face It® movement has made strides in ending child abuse through:

  • Creating and funding an independent, statewide External Child Fatality Review Panel to review every detail of when a child dies from abuse, to learn from the findings and identify how to prevent future tragedies.
  • Passing and implementing a state policy to ensure all medical professionals are trained to recognize early warning signs of child abuse and how to report the abuse.
  • Passage of a state policy that will ensure school personnel receive appropriate information on recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect.
  • Trainings for youth serving organizations across the community on how to prevent child abuse and keep children safe in their programs.
  • Launching a resource portal for childcare centers in Jefferson County with information on how to prevent and end child abuse.
  • Ongoing community awareness campaign through various forms or media, educational materials and events to educate the community on how to prevent and end child abuse.

The Jefferson County Attorney’s Office joins more than two dozen organizations and public entities that have joined the Face It Movement since the initiative launched two years ago. Those dedicated organizations are: Archdiocese of Louisville, Boys & Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana, Boys & Girls Haven, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) of the River Region, The Center for Women and Families, Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C), Department for Community Based Services, Exploited Children’s Help Organization (ECHO), Family & Children’s Place, Home of the Innocents, JCPS, Jewish Family & Career Services, Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Justice, Kentucky Youth Advocates, Kosair Charities, Louisville Metro Police Foundation, Maryhurst, Neighborhood House, Our Lady of Peace, Peace Ed, Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky, Safe Place, Sunrise Children’s Services, University of Louisville Pediatrics, Uspiritus, and the YMCA Safe Place Services of Louisville.

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About the Face It® Movement: The Face It® Movement, conceived and created in 2012 as a response to the public outcry against the increasing number of child abuse deaths in the Commonwealth, officially launched in April 2013, as a 10-year initiative led by Kosair Charities; its vision is that by 2023 all children in Jefferson County will be free from abuse and neglect. Face It® directly addresses the increasingly unacceptable number of child abuse deaths in Jefferson County and the surrounding areas with best practices in child abuse prevention, community engagement and the promotion of effective policies to improve the child welfare system. For further information visit https://faceitabuse.org. Socially, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faceitabuse, Twitter: https://twitter.com/faceitabuse.