Message Regarding Our COVID-19 Policies

Safe Shores – The DC Children’s Advocacy Center is committed to being a safe, helpful, and trustworthy resource, available to everyone who needs our services and support. Due to COVID-19, we are observing federal and local government public health protection guidelines. Upon arrival, visitors will complete a COVID-19 screening (questions and temperature check) and may be asked to wear a mask. If you have recently had COVID-19, you must wear a mask on the premises for the full 10 days from the date of exposure or infection, consistent with DC Health Department and CDC guidance.

To report suspected child abuse in the District of Columbia call 1-202-671-SAFE(7233)
To report suspected internet crimes against children, contact report.cybertip.org

Safe Shores

To report suspected child abuse / Para reportar sospechas de abuso:

1-202-671-SAFE (7233)

Child Abuse Prevention Month 2024: Video Introduction

Michele Booth Cole, Safe Shores Executive Director, invites adults to learn more about children and more about themselves in order to prevent abuse. She offers examples of steps adults can take to support and protect children.

Child abuse — two words that should never go together. Yet, child abuse is so prevalent in the United States that April has been marked as Child Abuse Prevention Month since 1983. 

This is Michele Booth Cole, Executive Director of Safe Shores – The DC Children’s Advocacy Center, home to the DC Chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America. When we talk about children at Safe Shores, we mean from infants up to age 18.

Along with implementing proven policies and practices that keep children safe, understanding children — their development, behaviors, and needs — is paramount for prevention. By knowing key facts about child development, whether as parents, policymakers, teachers, youth-serving professionals, or volunteers, we pave the way for a safer world.

This year’s theme for the month, “Building A Hopeful Future for Children, Together,” underscores the importance of prioritizing children amid the world’s chaos. Prioritizing kids includes ensuring positive childhood experiences for all children, and families receiving the resources and support they need to thrive.

Equally crucial to preventing child abuse is adults’ understanding ourselves — our childhoods, our emotions — so we can effectively manage how we care for and interact with children. 

Whether you have direct contact with children each day or not, you can be sure that children’s outcomes affect us all. We only have to look around us to see the devastation that results from not adequately investing in caring for and protecting children. 

So, during Child Abuse Prevention Month and beyond, do something to prevent child abuse. Educate yourself, advocate, volunteer, attend one of the free prevention trainings Safe Shores offers; sign up for our free April 9th webinar on the “building blocks of childhood”; donate toward our mission — Listen. Really listen to children.

This April, you can do something to help make sure every child is and feels safe, seen, supported, and has what they need to thrive. Together, we can build a hopeful future and give children the hope they need and deserve for their future.