Greg Nickels, Mayor  SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT R. Gil Kerlikowske, Chief of Police

March 19 , 2007

ACAP (Auburn Christian Action Program)
Child & Family Services
37th Anniversary Breakfast and Fundraiser

Good morning. It is my pleasure and honor to be here today.

I want to thank Greg Wood, your Board President for his introduction, Executive Director Deanna Briese for her invitation, and acknowledge Chief of Police Jim Kelly.

I want to also thank the individuals who have worked hard in putting this morning's event, and congratulate ACAP Child & Family Services, on your 37th anniversary. Thirty-seven years of serving the act of commitment, compassion and care for others - deserve a big round of applause.

Congratulations, and thank you for the work you do.

This morning, I have been asked to speak about the relationship between communities that value children and youth and associated crime levels, including the need for prevention programs and impacts those programs have on public safety.

Before I do … I want to first thank Laura Wells, the WA director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, who is in the audience this morning, for her leadership and outstanding performance in directing the state's agency.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, for those who may not know, is a state-wide, bipartisan organization of more than 125 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys, other law enforcement leaders, and violence survivors who are dedicated to preventing crime by investing in proven programs that get kids started on the right path.

Like ACAP, we have very similar goals. Together - we can make a difference in supporting families and children as early as possible to build healthy communities.

I know that. You know that. Sadly, there are others who don't.

I understand Deanna remembered the time when I was quoted in the paper about the importance of early childhood education in 2004 - the same year she took over as the new executive director for ACAP.

Moving on, let me share a couple of stories that speak to why I'm here today and illustrate to you the "cycle of violence" - as I see and know it - based on my 35 years of law enforcement experience.

At the Seattle Police Department, our detectives received 461 cases of physical and sexual abuse of children last year.

Not only is child abuse a crime, it may launch a cycle of violence that extends into the next generation. Being abuse or neglected sharply increases the risk that children will grow up to be arrested for a violent crime.

One study showed that mothers with minimal income and who had been abused or neglected as a child were 13 times more likely to abuse or neglect their children than similar mothers who were not themselves maltreated.

Abused and neglected children were also 29 percent less likely to be employed and a third less likely to have stable marriages.

Children are often the product of what they learn at home.

The US Department of Justice estimates that child abuse and neglect cost our state - you and I - $2 billion every year.

In WA, of the nearly 6,700 children abused or neglected in 2004, more than 270 will become violent criminals as adults because of the abuse and neglect they suffered as children.

That's a conservative calculation, but it's a significant toll of future crime and violence that we together need to address.

The good news is that a great deal of child abuse and neglect can be prevented. And we know what works to prevent child abuse and neglect, and prevent more crime.

Last January 25, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, released a report "Protecting Kids, Reducing Crime, Saving Money: Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect in WA by Supporting Home Visiting."

The report discusses child abuse and neglect in our state and presents research that supports successful methods to prevent these crimes early, and help more of our state's most at-risk children be successful in school and in life with home visiting programs, that I'll discuss shortly.

Also that same day, Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart, Sumner Police Chief Colleen Wilson, and I testified before the House Early Learning and Children's Services Committee in support of a home visiting bill, introduced by Rep. Ruth Kagi and Rep. Maureen Walsh.

So what's the home visiting programs we're advocating?

Home visiting programs strengthen families by coaching at-risk parents so they raise healthy children, who will succeed in school and in life. They are voluntary.

Typically, these programs send trained personnel to the home to understand the health and nutrition needs of infants, learn to identify the signs of problems with their child, promote the child's development, make their home child-safe, and find the resources in their neighborhoods such as doctors and other child care help.

The City of Seattle invests more than $15 million per year in family support, child nutrition, childcare, pre-school education, and after school programs, including various types of home visiting programs such as the Early Childhood & Education Assistance Program. This program, alone, reaches about 600 children.

The source of our funding is a combination of City revenues, a Families and Education Levy, state and federal dollars, including private foundation funds.

Intensive home visiting programs support at-risk parents as their children's first and best teacher, dramatically reduce child abuse and neglect, and ensure that children enter kindergarten ready to learn.

The most thoroughly researched and often-cited example of an effective home visiting program, studied by the WA Institute of Public Policy, is the Nurse-Family Partnership.

It offers first-time, low-income parents' weekly visits during the mother's pregnancy, continuing until the child's second birthday.

Long-term studies of the Nurse-Family Partnership show that children of mothers who participated in the program were half as likely to be abused and neglected than children whose mothers were left out of the program.

Also, as they grew up, the children of mothers who received home visits had half as many arrests as the children of mothers who did not receive home visits.

The Nurse-Family Partnership, a home visiting program, reduced crime so effectively that it saved over $27,000 per family.

With that said, we have asked an additional state appropriation of $14 million over the next two years. This would mean that 3,500 more at-risk families would have access to the support they need to reduce child abuse and neglect and ensure that children enter school, ready to learn.

The bottom line: investing in kids saves lives and money.

I understand ACAP has a head start program, in which home visits are a component within that program. I encourage you to keep it up and continue to work together in partnership with different agencies - including the City of Auburn, as we do in the City of Seattle.

I want to again thank Greg and Deanna, and congratulations on your 37th anniversary!

Thank you.

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