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Project Child Services

Project Child is a community coalition with the mission of preventing child abuse and neglect in the Lehigh Valley. A list of the coalition's services and activities are shown below. You can also check out the Project Child website for more information.

Many of these activities welcome volunteers to help in the fulfillment of their mission. Call Project Child Coordinator Rochelle Freedman at 610-954-9561, extension 40, or Carol Haislip at extension 37, for details.

Parent Line - Listening and service linkage available 24 hours a day. Answered by trained volunteers, it offers anonymous but person-to-person help, information, and referral.

Friendly Caller - A listening and referral service as well, but provided to parents who have expressed the need for a friendly caller on a regular basis.

Speaker's Bureau - Provides speakers upon request to churches, child care centers, schools, and volunteer agencies and businesses.

Task Forces - Action teams formed as needed to plan, pursue, and assess Project Child initiatives.

CARE (Creating a Respectful Environment) - A training program provided in stores, restaurants, and other public places to teach appropriate intervention when interaction between a caretaker and a child becomes tense and potentially unsafe.
Child Friendly Valley - Promoting recognition and respect for children by encouraging the development of child-focused and family-friendly public places and spaces.
Fundraising - Creates excitement and raises money via such means as a Film Fest, 5K Run/Walk, or Basket Bingo to fund child abuse prevention initiatives.
Health Care - This team of experts created a concise, information, and critically needed Child Abuse Primer for Health Care Professionals, which is being distributed to health care provider in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. The group's goal is to develop additional educational materials and presentations to be used in conjunction with the primer.
Parenting Education - Focuses on curriculum, child protection, advocating with the medial, reaching beyond the barriers, working with special and multi-needs clients, and more to strengthen what resources the community can offer children and families.
Sunday School - Prompted by a minister's request, this well-resourced task force is developing a four-part Sunday School series, Recognizing and Responding to Child Abuse. It will be presented locally, after which the template will be made available to all congregations.

Child Abuse Primer for Pre-School and Elementary Educators and Child Abuse Primer for Secondary Educators - Indispensable booklets of child abuse information which are distributed to public and private schools throughout the Lehigh Valley.

Educating Children for Parenting® - An innovative program where kindergarten and first grade teachers use a curriculum-based approach to teach young students empathy, child development, and basic academic skills. Central to the integrated program is the parent-child interaction provided by volunteer parents and their infants or toddlers who visit the classroom on a regular basis.

Lehigh County Prison Parenting - This program teaches parenting skills to incarcerated mothers and fathers who are scheduled to return to their families and communities. Teaching is facilitated by Family and Counseling Services of the Lehigh Valley.

Parent Network - A United Way initiative created to support families in meeting their children's needs and to provide a unified voice for families whose children receive services from local youth-serving systems.

Parents Anonymous® - Ongoing support groups for parents in the Slate Belt and Monroe County, providing services to treat and prevent child abuse by strengthening families through peer-led, professionally facilitated self-help groups for parents and supervised programs for children.

Youth Help Card - The Youth Help Card provides information to youths on where to turn for help when they need to look somewhere other than to their parents. Cards are available at no cost by calling 610-954-9561, extension 40,.

Project Child Conference - Each April, Project Child presents an annual conference to educate professionals who work with children about the dimensions of child abuse and strategies for its prevention, and features nationally-known authorities on the subject.

Tortoise and Hare 5K Race and Walk - This year's race was held May 8th in Wind Gap. All proceeds benefited Project Child! For information on next year's event, contact Project Child at 610-954-9561, extension 40, or www.tortoiseharerace.org.

Family Project - An article pertaining to parenting issues is published each Monday in the Morning Call . You can see all the archived articles here.

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