Every Child Is Important

 Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Larry Anthony, today launched the Australian Childhood Foundation’s Every Child Is Important campaign for Queensland.

Mr Anthony said the campaign has received more than $1.2 million in funding from the Australian Government’s National Agenda for Early Childhood.

“The Australian Childhood Foundation had originally received $264,000 from the Government for the Every Child Is Important campaign in Victoria and Tasmania. Given the success of this campaign, the Prime Minister announced further funding of $1 million to extend the campaign to all of Australia.

“As part of the Queensland campaign, eight parenting seminars in urban and regional centres throughout Queensland will be held.

“The Every Child Is Important campaign also includes a media campaign, the distribution of information booklets and newsletters and three tracking studies to learn of any changes in the community’s attitudes to the issue of child abuse.

“Also launched today is the campaign’s multilingual “Talking Book”. This CD Rom will assist parents from major language groups, as well as those with visual impairments or poor literacy skills, to access parenting information.

“The campaign aims to promote attitudes in adults that are caring and supportive of children and encourage a commitment from adults to develop safe and non-abusive relationships with children. It is effective in informing adults about the causes and consequences of child abuse from the child’s perspective.

“Since the campaign was launched in March 2004, 100,000 copies of the parenting information booklet have been distributed and 1,500 parents have attended parenting seminars in NSW and ACT. This is a great achievement and of great benefit to Australian parents.

“Australia faces a real challenge in reducing child abuse and neglect. Rates of notifications and substantiations of child abuse and neglect have increased over recent years.

“However, it is a challenge that cannot be met by government alone. It is something that the whole community must be engaged in to ensure our children are safe,” Mr Anthony said.

More information about the campaign, upcoming seminars and the multicultural Talking Book can be found at kidcount website (www.kidscount.com.au)