KCSL Adoption Booklet

Parent Culture
by Dona Booe, KCSL President/CEO, 2013
Nearly 100 years ago my predecessor,
George Lewis Hosford, wrote powerful words
about a child culture that remain true to the
mission of KCSL today and define the core values
we still integrate into all of our work with
children and families. A culture that encourages
healthy child development, so that our
country can thrive, will only be accomplished
when all parents have the skills and emotional
capacity needed for good parenting. We
are truly positioned as an organization for
the future to prevent child abuse through our
services. There are few resources, like KCSL,
where parents can voluntarily reach out for
help and education without any fear of threat,
embarrassment, or reprisal.
Kids don’t come with instructions. So parents
come to KCSL. They come to break the cycle
of generations of poor parenting practices; to
understand their child’s needs and behaviors;
to navigate complicated systems of education
and health care; to become a family for a
child who has none. They come because they
want a better life for their child than perhaps
they experienced themselves. We are not
so different, any of us, in this regard. After
all, there are likely few parents who have not
reached out for the experience and wisdom of
a trusted friend or family member when raising
a child.
More than sixty years of research and evidence
confirms that child abuse is preventable
if we open our doors and hearts to parents
early, before bad habits are formed, when the
joy of parenting for the first time is fresh and
new. Despite the overwhelming challenges
that brought them to us, together with parents
we celebrate each milestone of change and
accountability achieved. And with enthusiasm
we encourage parents to dream even bigger
for their children’s future. Because we know
that as a country, we all do better when children
and families thrive.
If Mr. Hosford was correct all those years
ago that “the greatest need of society is that
culture which will fully qualify men and women
for parenthood,” how long then will we continue
to invest the most in those interventions
that come too late for both children and their
parents? When then can we hope to see the
needed level of commitment to this more positive
and less costly path of child abuse prevention
adopted?
Let it be before another 120 years pass.
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