Children need to be safe at home, in school, and on the streets of every town. We need to work together, as communities who care for our children, to prevent child abuse, violence, hate crimes, and youth violence in our schools. Maine is not immune to youth violence. More than a dozen students were expelled in Maine in 1997 for bringing guns to school and the number of teachers threatened in the classroom appears to be rising. The climbing rate of violence is a clear indicator that kids need help.
Many promising initiatives are now underway to address and mitigate the problem.
The Children's Cabinet proposes to serve as a focal point and provide additional resources to support, enhance, and complement these efforts. The Children's Cabinet collaborative efforts with schools, communities, and other groups will be based on what has been proven to work effectively in youth violence prevention and intervention such as taking a comprehensive approach, making a long-term commitment, encouraging strong leadership and staff development in schools, involving parents, and creating interagency and community partnerships. Research shows that one of the assets children need in order to succeed is a relationship with at least one caring adult in addition to their parents. Community members need to begin to make a plan for ensuring that every child has this kind of connection to the community. The resources available for mentoring in Maine have been shown to be inadequate.