Ready to read in 2017? SCAN staff members are! We’ve come up with a fresh list of books to recommend for child welfare professionals, advocates and parents you know. What are you reading this winter? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below! “The Resilient Parent” by Mantu Joshi is a collection of essays […]
On October 5, SCAN—with support from LAWS (Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter) and its Loudoun Child Advocacy Center—brought together 129 local human service providers to hear Dr. Chris Wilson talk about The Neurobiology of Trauma. This relatively new approach allows those of us who work with children (including law enforcement, school staff, social workers and foster parents) to […]
The average child spends LESS THAN 10 MINUTES each day outside for unstructured playtime. At the same time, we watch as the children we serve face increased stress levels, mental health issues, rising levels of obesity and huge amounts of time spent on computers and other devices. Nature Deprivation happens when children (and adults, too!) aren’t […]
Being the wealthiest county in the United States might sound like a great thing, but for the vulnerable children and families living in Loudoun County, it simply isn’t. During 2016, SCAN will be helping agencies who serve children and families in Loudoun County to determine where gaps in services exist, explore what obstacles children and families […]
Every January, the Virginia General Assembly convenes, and this year children’s issues are once again at the forefront of many discussions. The three main agenda items SCAN will be focusing on in 2016 are early education, foster care and youth, and kinship care. A significant development this year that has the potential to greatly impact […]
The family reunification experience is a growing challenge for child welfare advocates, school districts and other service providers here in Northern Virginia and across the country. In the United States, 20% of children are growing up in immigrant homes and a large number of these children joined their parents after years of separation. They come to escape gangs, […]
This past week, SCAN’s Allies in Prevention Coalition hosted a Darkness to Light supplemental training and panel discussion at Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Central Library in Alexandria. More than 40 service providers came from around Northern Virginia for the meeting. What subject drew so many people? The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. The short video training from Darkness […]
We’re on the hunt for your favorite websites, online libraries, resource centers and more that can help child and family welfare advocates. We’ve dedicated a page here on the blog for collecting links to these valuable online resources, and readers can continue to share their finds in the comments section so we can add them to […]
Imagine a preschool child who has great fun on the school playground but every time he hears the teacher say it is time to go back inside, he tends to go the other direction. He’s hard to “corral” back into the building and then has trouble concentrating or focusing on the next activity. His teachers […]
Start your weekend off right with a hilarious video about fatherhood. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTIzjVxvV2U] Stressing fatherhood involvement is more important than ever. The number of children living without fathers has more than doubled in the last 50 years, according to research recently released from the Pew Research Center. Studies show that fathers play a major role in every aspect of […]
Today’s the day! (Yes, it’s National Hot Fudge Sundae Day and National Merry-Go-Round Day, but that’s not what we’re talking about.) It’s the first day of registration for ABCs of Parenting Class! And in honor of that day, seven SCAN staff members took on the entire alphabet to bring you 26 tips and pieces of advice […]
Even though I’ve taken my fair share of Spanish classes, I would be lucky if I could ask someone for directions to the nearest supermercado in Spanish. (Sorry, former Spanish teachers!) Fortunately, I didn’t have to understand subjunctive verb conjugations to get a sense of the accomplishment that graduates of our ABCs of Parenting In Spanish […]