Being a Mandated Suppor ter
Resources for families, building protective factors and how
communities can prevent child maltreatment.
Jim McKay
State Coordinator
Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia

Objectives
Inspire
• Inspire community
responsibility to support
families, rather than
solely to report child
abuse
01
Review
• Review opportunities to
shift from a culture of
surveillance of families to
a culture of support for
families
02
Explore
• Explore strategies and
approaches that build
protective factors which
help prevent abuse and
neglect from occurring
03

the pandemic & child abuse
We know how to report child abuse.
Do we know how to prevent it?

REFLECTIONS ON MORNING PRESENTATIONS
What stood out to you?
How does the information shared change your perspective or approach to your work?

Goal: inspire community responsibility to support families, rather than solely to report child abuse
Mandated Supporters vs. Mandated Reporters
Culture of surveillance  Culture of support

How do we
keep children
safe in and
around the
water?

5 steps to keeping kids safe in and around water
• Step 1: Learn the facts.
• Step 2: Minimize opportunity for risk.
• Step 3: Talk about it.
• Step 4: Recognize the signs that there’s a concern.
• Step 5: React quickly and responsibly.

5 steps to keeping kids safe in and around water
• Step 1: Learn the facts.
• Step 2: Minimize opportunity for risk.
• Step 3: Talk about it.
• Step 4: Recognize the signs that there’s a concern.
• Step 5: React quickly and responsibly.
Also, the 5 steps to keep children
safe from child sexual abuse.

Concerns with focus on mandated reporting
• A culture of surveillance discourages people from seeking help. With help
comes consequences.
• Reporting is subject to racial bias. Nationally, 53% of children in Black
families will be subject to a CPS investigation prior to their 18th birthday.
• No evidence of correlation between children being safer in jurisdictions
with stricter mandated reporter laws than others.
• Reporting creates an adversarial relationship that undermines trust.
• Most reports are screened out because they are not abuse or neglect.

What would Mandated Supporting look like?
• Lens-shift to uplift and support parents.
• Listening. Empathy. Affirmation. Non-Judgement.
• Availability of other pathways to obtain help for families may
decrease unwarranted maltreatment reports.

A note about brain science.

What do
you see
happening
in this
illustration?

Goal: inspire community responsibility to support families, rather than solely to report child abuse
Mandated Supporters vs. Mandated Reporters
Culture of surveillance  Culture of support

Prevent Child Abuse Arizona
Mandated Supporter Toolkit
Why
• “The children can’t survive if the parents aren’t
surviving. For parents to survive, the community
needs to support them, and we’re all part of that
community.”
What
• Lens-shift: uplift and support parents
How (tips and tools)
• Listening. Empathy. Affirmation. Non-Judgement.

“I had a neighbor call the cops on me. My daughter had just
come back from foster care, and the transition was hard for
her. She was having a meltdown. I explained this to the cop.
He said, “I understand. You’re doing a good job.’ And he left.
I went to my neighbor and explained the situation to her,
too. She apologized. I asked her to please ask me if I needed
help before calling the authorities on me again.”
“In our town, a member of the town council
holds an “exercise boot camp” for families. It’s
a way for them to engage and stay healthy.
Through the program, you can see children
improve behaviorally and physically.”
“I met a family who yelled whenever they
talked to each other. At first glance, I was
concerned, but through further observation, I
recognized that there was love and safety in
this family. They were loud, but the yelling was
not abusive- it was cultural. Through a
parenting class, the grandmother learned tools
to use a gentler approach, if she wished.”
“Listening is one of the best gifts we can provide to anyone. I’ve noticed,
during the pandemic, that we’re going through situations that we’ve never
gone through before. Make sure they feel like they aren’t the only ones. I tell
them: you aren’t the first one who doesn’t know how to get through this.”
“When I became a teacher, I
realized that some teachers
judge parents a lot. I’m a
mother of a special needs child,
and when I heard other
teachers making judgments on
things like dirty shirts, I
wondered what teachers had
been saying about my child and
my parenting. Instead of
judging, we should be asking
ourselves how you can help.”
“Once, an older couple walked
up to me while my four-year old
son was melting down, and said,
“you’re doing great.” I felt so
supported, I was walking on air.”

What are the conditions that help
families and children thrive?

Dr. Carl Bell, University of Illinois
Risk factors
are not
predictive factors
because of
protective factors

Protective
Factors
• Parental resilience: Managing stress and functioning well
when faced with challenges, adversity and trauma.
• Social connections: Positive relationships that provide
emotional, informational, instrumental and spiritual support.
• Knowledge of parenting and child development:
Understanding child development and parenting strategies
that support physical, cognitive, language, social and
emotional development.
• Concrete support in times of need: Access to concrete
support and services that address a family’s needs and help
minimize stress caused by challenges.
• Social and emotional competence of children: Family and
child interactions that help children develop the ability to
communicate clearly, recognize and regulate their emotions,
and establish and maintain relationships.

teamwv.org
CARING FOR YOUR FAMILY DURING
THE COVID-
1
9 CRISIS
W est Virginia Resource Guide
For Caregivers

Everyday Actions
that Help Build Parental Resilience
1. Demonstrate in multiple ways that parents are valued
2. Honor each family’s race, language, culture, history and
approach to parenting
3. Encourage parents to manage stress effectively
4. Support parents as decision-makers and help build decision-
making and leadership skills
5. Help parents understand how to buffer their child during
stressful times
Parental Resilience
The ability to recover from difficult life experiences, and often to be
strengthened by and even transformed by those experiences.

Questions
Relating to
Parental
Resilience
• What are some ways parents in your
community are being valued during this
crisis?
• What is one of the kindest things
someone in your community has done
for you or for others during the current
COVID-19 pandemic?

Everyday Actions
that Help Build Concrete Support in Times of Need
1. Respond immediately when families are in crisis
2. Provide information and connections to other services in the
community
3. Help families to develop skills and tools they need to identify
their needs and connect to supports
Concrete Support in Times of Need
Access to supports and services that reduce stress and help to make
families stronger.

Questions
Relating to
Concrete
Support
in Times of
Need
• What are the top three things your
community needs right now?
• What are some of the concrete supports you
have and what more do you need?
• What are you learning about what it takes to
handle a crisis?
• As an individual?
• In your family?
• As a community?

Everyday Actions
that Help Build Social Connections
1. Help families value, build, sustain and use social connections
2. Create an inclusive environment
3. Facilitate mutual support around parenting and other issues
4. Promote engagement in the community and participation in
community activities
Social Connections
The ability and opportunity to develop positive relationships that lessen
stress and isolation and help to build a supportive network.

Questions
Relating to
Social
Connections
• How is your community rising
to the occasion in the COVID-
19 crisis in a positive manner?
• What has your community,
family and friends done to
ensure you’re connected to
virtual conversations and
spaces to learn from others?
• How is this working for those
who cannot connect virtually?

Everyday Actions that Help Build Knowledge
of Parenting and Child Development
1. Model developmentally appropriate interactions with children
2. Provide opportunities to try out new parenting strategies
3. Provide information and resources on parenting and child
development
4. Encourage exploration of parenting issues or concerns
5. Address parenting issues from a strength-based perspective
Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development
The ability to exercise effective parenting strategies to guide and know
what to expect as children develop in multiple domains (physical,
cognitive, language and social and emotional).

Questions
Relating to
Knowledge of
Parenting
and Child
Development
• What are some of the things your
community is doing to support children’s
learning during this crisis?
• How are you helping families address
parenting concerns and to remain strong
during this crisis?
• What ways are you letting other parents
know how strong they are?

Everyday Actions that Help Build Social
and Emotional Competence of Children
1. Help parents foster their child’s social emotional development
2. Model nurturing support to children
3. Include children’s social and emotional development activities
in programming
4. Help children develop a positive cultural identity and interact
in a diverse society
5. Respond proactively when social or emotional development
seems to need support
Social and Emotional Competence of Children
Family and child interactions that help children develop the ability to
communicate clearly, recognize and regulate their emotions and establish
and maintain relationships.

Questions
Relating to Social
and Emotional
Competence of
Children
• Can you share any tools or
activities you are using during this
crisis that you use for helping
families talk to children about their
emotions?
• What strategies are you using in
your own families?
• What are some of the activities
your community has set up to
keep families engaged and feel
connected during this period of
social isolation?

Community conditions make a big difference
•“Economic stressors likely pose a greater risk for
family and child well-being than children’s lack of
proximity to all mandatory reporters.”
Weiner, D., Heaton, L., Stiehl, M., Chor, B., Kim, K., Heisler, K., Foltz, R., & Farrell, A. (2020). Chapin Hall issue
brief: COVID-19 and child welfare: Using data to understand trends in maltreatment and response. Chicago, IL:
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

Sarah Watamura, Ph.D.
“Social Determinants
of Health” are actually
“health consequences
of structurally
embedded inequities”
The unequal allocation of power and resources and
structural inequities that organize the distribution of
power and resources differentially across lines of race,
gender, class, sexual orientation, gender expression, and
other dimensions of individual and group identity.

Assuring
For All Children

Promote social norms that
protect against violence and
adversity
• Public education campaigns
• Legislative approaches to reduce
corporal punishment
• Bystander approaches
• Men and boys as allies in
prevention
Ensure a strong start for
children
• Early childhood home
visitation
• High-quality child care
• Preschool enrichment with
family engagement
Strengthen economic
supports for families
• Strengthening
household
financial security
• Family-friendly work
policies
Teach skills
• Social-emotional
learning
• Safe dating and healthy
relationship skill
programs
• Parenting skills and
family relationship
approaches
Lessen harms
and prevent future risk
• Enhanced primary care
• Victim-centered services
• Treatment to lessen the harms of
ACEs
• Treatment to prevent problem
behavior
and future involvement in violence
• Family-centered treatment for
substance use disorders
6 Strategies to Prevent ACEs
Connect youth to
caring adults and
activities
• Mentoring programs
• After-school
programs

Prevention Happens in Partnership

teamwv.org
CARING FOR YOUR FAMILY DURING
THE COVID-
1
9 CRISIS
W est Virginia Resource Guide
For Caregivers

HELP 304 -
WV’s Emotional Strengthline

What to do when a child or adult discloses
suspected abuse or neglect?

HARVEST TIME
What stood out to you during
our conversation today?

Jim McKay
Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia
jim@teamwv.org
(304) 617-0099
preventchildabusewv.org
Thank you!