"Child Abuse Council of Windsor and Essex County Kids on the Block Research Project"

Conducted by Colleen Richardson-Millican, Coordinator, The Child Abuse Council of Windsor and Essex County, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, March 1993.

Objective:

• To determine if The Kids on the Block Program, in addition to being an educational and prevention tool, had an added dimension of providing a forum in which children feel comfortable to disclose abuse.  Between November 1991 and October 1992, when a child disclosed abuse during or shortly after a Kids on the Block program, the case was reporter to the proper authorities by the teacher or school principal.  The Child Abuse Council, keeping confidentiality a priority, later worked with the Children's Aid Society to decide the correlation between the number of alleged abuse cases opened as a result of The Kids on the Block in relation to the number of general cases reported.

Conclusion:

• A significant number of the disclosures in the county can be directly related to a Kids on the Block performance.  "Approximately one third of the reports of abuse...can most likely be related to a Kids on the Block performance at the schools."

 

• More schools need to receive a Kids on the Block performance.  "Since only half the schools in the county received a performance during this time period, the...statistics and this research indicated that if the Kids oh the Block program was implemented in more schools, the number of disclosures would increase."

 

• The Kids on the Block programs need to continue to receive funding.  "The Kids on the Block programs should receive payment funding as this research demonstrates a clear, direct relationship between the...program and child abuse disclosures."

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