Parenting as Prevention December 2000 marks the 2-year anniversary of the U.S. Department of Justice's Children Exposed to Violence Initiative (CEVI). In December 1998, President Clinton launched CEVI to address the needs of the Nation's most vulnerable crime victims and witnesses—children. CEVI is dedicated to improving the justice system's approach and community responses to children exposed to violence. The initiative originally consisted of four components: justice system reform, legislative reform, program support, and community outreach. Just this year, the U.S. Department of Justice instituted a fifth component: the Parenting Initiative for 2000. Children are exposed to violence in their communities, at school, and through the media. The most direct and harmful victimization, however, occurs within the home. Although the number of reported cases of child victimization continues to decline, parents remain the primary perpetrators of child maltreatment. The scars are not only physical; exposure to violence affects how children think, feel, and learn. Child victims are 53 percent more likely to suffer repeat victimization than not to be abused again, and they are 38 percent more likely to become juvenile and adult offenders than youth who are not abused.1 CEVI is designed to help parents find the support and tools they need to raise safe, strong, and healthy children. These tools are important not just for at-risk families but for all parents, grandparents, and other adult caregivers involved in raising the next generation. CEVI will be implemented as a pilot initiative in Washington, DC. In collaboration with the Mayor's Office, the District's Office of Maternal and Child Health, the national I Am Your Child Foundation, and others, a CEVI working group will coordinate the DC Parenting Initiative. For a 3-year period, this initiative will provide "new-parents kits" to the parents of every baby born in Washington, DC. The kits will include: Videotapes on child development, safety, discipline, childcare, health and nutrition, and early literacy. Written materials on child development. A guide to local and Federal resources available to new parents. A voucher to "opt in" to free nurse home visitation. A guide to the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's new parenting Web site (see Parenting Resources). A "Passport to Child Development," which includes immunization records, abuse and neglect warning signs, and other valuable information. A book to promote early literacy. The kits will be distributed in birthing hospitals, correctional institutions, community health clinics, and parenting centers. Ultimately, the DC Parenting Initiative will include a series of forums held in parenting centers in select wards of the city to foster dialog between adolescents, young parents, and community leaders. Parents: The Anti-Drug One of the most effective deterrents to drug use among youth is their parents. To get this message across, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), through its National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, launched new national advertising in fall 1999. The advertisements target parents and other adult caregivers, reminding them that they are an important influence in their children's lives and that they can make a difference in their children's decisionmaking. The advertising focuses on five basic values: truth, love, honesty, communication, and trust. Parents are urged to talk truthfully with their children about drugs and to maintain an open dialog with them as they grow older. The advertising sends consistent messages in all media—print, billboards, radio, and television—to reassure parents that they can positively affect their children's decisions regarding drugs by: Spending time with them. Listening to them genuinely. Asking them what they think. Giving them clear, consistent rules to follow. Praising and rewarding them for good behavior. Telling them they are loved. Encouraging them to participate in extracurricular activities. Being involved in their lives. The advertising's unique design—each of the five values is leveraged against a single idea ("The Anti-Drug") in all media—resulted from a national study of parents, teens, and children. Researchers talked with parents and youth about their attitudes toward drugs, peer pressure, and family dynamics and found that many parents are uncertain of their importance in their children's lives. The findings led the ONDCP campaign to designate the five basic values as tools that parents can use in raising their children to be drug free. The campaign also created a Web site (theantidrug.com) and set up a toll-free number (800-788-2800) to provide parents with more information. The Web site gives parents and caregivers strategies and tips and offers suggestions on how to address sensitive subjects such as a parent's personal history with drugs. The Web site is available in Cambodian, Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese. For more information, visit the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign's Web site at www.mediacampaign.org/ or the Partnership for a Drug-Free America's Web site at www.drugfreeamerica.org/. Call for Materials The role of parents and families in addressing juvenile crime is a growing topic of interest to parents, professionals, and researchers in the juvenile justice system. OJJDP wants to assist you and your colleagues in learning about the topic via publications and other information resources. OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse and the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) offer an extensive library collection covering all aspects of criminal and juvenile justice and drug policy. Contribute to the NCJRS library and abstracts database (http://abstractsdb.ncjrs.org/) by sending material related to the topic of how parents and families address juvenile crime. Contributions should be a minimum of four pages in length and must have been published within the past 5 years. Materials will be reviewed to determine eligibility, and they cannot be returned. Send materials or information to: National Criminal Justice Reference Service Attn: Collection Development 2277 Research Boulevard, MS 2A Rockville, MD 20850 Notes 1. Office for Victims of Crime, 1999. Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Recommendations to Improve the Criminal Justice Response to Child Victims and Witnesses. Monograph. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime.