Dear Sir or Madam:

Child abuse is a growing problem within the United States and is harming many. Many children have been lucky enough to grow up up in a safe and nurturing home with a loving family. However, some children don’t get this and are constantly mentally and physically hurt in their own homes by their own family members. Imagine if you were a young child who believed everything you heard and trusted everyone close to you, but then they betrayed and hurt you. We need to make more facilities to help families in need of support, so their feelings don’t result in child abuse.

Child abuse is a topic that is often glazed over. According to the Centers for disease control and prevention (CDC), “1 in 4 children are abused.” That might not seem like that’s a lot out of our 300,000,000 people in the U.S.A. However imagine that one child was close to you and you had no knowledge of them being abused because they were too scared to speak up. Many individuals that have been abused or neglected, and suffer from long term health consequences. In the article, “Victims of Child Abuse Suffer Long-Term Consequences” by Family Violence, “after being abused or neglected many people develop medical conditions.” When there are many adults that have severe health issues from being abused or neglected it takes a toll on the economy. The work force is built up of many adults from different backgrounds. But, do you ever meet an adult that has a great life that had been abused or neglected as a child? If we can prevent child abuse from happening less innocent people will not have health issues that make them incapable of being in a work environment. Don’t you want people that have been through something as horrible as being abused and have survived to live a good adult life? Being abused sometimes results in a bad outcome for the the family that comes. In the article, “Victims of Child Abuse suffer Long-Term Consequences” by Family Violence it states that “Approximately one third of abused or neglected children will eventually victimize their own children.” When this happens more children become abused because of their parents misery and hard times as a child. We need to help to stop abuse so the chain of events doesn’t keep happening, because if it does there is going to be an even bigger problem.

A lot of people have knowledge about child abuse and they think since it’s not happening to them or anyone they know there is nothing they can do about it. Even if the child abuse hasn’t happened to someone or anyone they are close with there are still things people can do. Facilities that help families going through a crisis can greatly decrease the amount of abuse that occurs. When families are going through a bad period within their lives many will turn to neglecting their child or abusing them. According to the article, “Individuals can help reduce child abuse and neglect” by The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect the most common things that can put families in a rough patch are poverty, divorce, or stress. If there is a family with a single parent or a family with a mom and dad with many children they may be put under stress to have the best for their kids. However, at some point some people can’t handle everything and turn to the worst. Poverty can also take a toll on a family no matter the size. Imagine if you were living in poverty as a family and you had lost your job. You only had enough money to feed them and keep a roof over your head. I bet you would be angry sometimes not at your kids per say but you might take it out on them. We need to make facilities to not only help families talk through things but to also provide families that are stressed help with children, or give families that are in poverty food and help their parents receive jobs.

While child abuse is an important issue and some children do actually need to be placed in foster care, some think foster care rips apart families. Foster care is a place where children are put when their families aren’t working out or, if a child’s parents have passed or do not feel that they can take care of them. Child Protection Services (CPS) is part of the government and the people within CPS are responsible to provide a safe place for children being abused, neglected, or children without parents. In the article, “Child Protective Services” hurt Families by the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform they say CPS puts kids in foster care when they don’t know what to do with them because there are no places that can help the children and families. When you put children in a foster home that don’t need to be there you are just simply breaking apart a family. Families might have a stable home and the children have never been abused once but something tragic might have happened in there family. For example a divorce might have just happened and the parents are very stressed and seem like they are in a bad place when really the CPS has only seen them in this state and not their everyday life. The national Coalition for Child Protection Reform also say, families have rights to and the CPS needs to take more time with the families then just going on their first instinct and breaking the family apart. Of course if we become more lenient within the CPS some children that are being abused or neglected won’t be saved and their parents will go free. The Child Protective Services should take more time within the families if it doesn’t seem like abuse occurred but, if it did they should immediately act upon it and help save the child.

Child abuse isn’t just a problem within families, child abuse can also result in problems in the government as well. In the article “Child Abuse and Neglect: Consequences” by Centers for disease control, they say “In the U.S.A in 2008 approximately $124 billion went to health problems physical/mental of abused and neglected children.” This is a lot of money that the government needs to pay to help people who have been abused get their life back on track and cover any medical expenses. These billions of dollars could be used for a better cause like to help prevent child abuse. To have a safe and nurturing home is really not that hard. You just have to know how to love and care for your children and make sure to have time for them. If the president decides to build more facilities to help teach parents that it’s not so hard and to help the whole family through something we can slowly but surely stop child abuse. If parents do abuse their children they should not get off with a warning and they should be punished. Some children and family members might be too afraid to speak up and say they or someone they know is being abused or neglected but we should make sure no one is afraid. Having facilities that help families will decrease the rate of child abuse and neglect greatly over time.

Child abuse and neglect will keep happening if we don’t make changes soon. Adults that were abused as children may have long term health problems and they may victimize their own children. Health issues of abused or neglected children also cost billions of dollars per year for the government to pay for. Creating more facilities will make a great impact in saving many children and families from being abused or abusing someone.

Thank you for reading my letter. I know you have a very important job and it is hard to find free time to read all the letters that are sent to you. But I greatly appreciate you reading through mine and understanding how big of an issue child abuse is,thank you very much.

Sincerely, Anya