mission family. their daughter london was born premature at 25 weeks. we are very, very happy to have you here today. and you and i -- we're both fans of the march of dimes, so tell us a little bit about that. >> sure. the march of dimes is a leading organization that is trying to fight the battle against prematurity. as you mentioned, 1 in 10 babies is born premature. my daughter london was born premature, as well. >> a mircopreemie, right? >> right, she was a mircopreemie. she was born under two pounds. i had a really easy pregnancy, and then all of a sudden at 23 weeks, which is roughly halfway through your pregnancy, my water broke. we were stunned. cheryl, we didn't realize that babies could come that early, much less survive. >> and she's so tiny there. >> and so -- you said something about "much less survive" -- the doctors didn't really offer you much hope in the beginning. >> they didn't. in the beginning, they recommended that we induce labor and provide comfort care and let london die in our arms. the statistics just were not in our favor, and we called all our family in from the east coast to have an opportunity to meet our daughter. >> and then, so what happened? how did go forward, turn into such a positive thing? >> well, we decided that we were going to move forward with the pregnancy and... >> no matter what. >> ...love london no matter whatno matter what disability she might face -- that we wanted to give her a chance. and when i was 25 weeks pregnant, we had exhausted all our options. she was born 25 weeks. she weighed 1 pound, 15 ounces. >> wow. >> she was about the length of a ruler. she was just this tiny, tiny little thing that didn't even look like a human baby. >> now, you have a little doll here... >> i do. >> ...that's sort of a sample of what she might have looked like back then? >> this is pretty close to what london looked like when she was born. in fact, this my ring. we put this on london when she was about a week old. it fit over her arm. it also fit over her leg. so that's just to give you a sense of scale of how tiny she truly was. >> so she was in the hospital for more than three months. i mean, that alone must have been terrifying, because you couldn't even see her, and then you finally got her home, and so that was another journey. >> right, exactly, cheryl. she was in the hospital for 102 days. we call her the "million dollar" baby. the medical bills were in excess of $1 million for her nicu stay. but when we got home, the second part of our journey started. she was in isolation for the first year. we had to make sure that her lungs had the chance to fully heal and fully develop. she had countless hours of therapy. it started with physical therapy to literally teach her how to roll over. we moved on to speech therapy, as well as occupational therapy. so that's hundreds of hours of therapy that she needed just to catch up to her peers that were born full term and healthy. >> i got a chance to meet her before the show started. >> she's adorable. she looks fantastic. how is she doing now? >> she doing great. she's four and a half. she's super spunky. she's very feisty. the nurses told us the second she was born -- they said, "you know, we have a good feeling about her. she came out and she's just feisty right off the bat. she loves life. she has this joy for life that is just contagious, and i attribute it to her early start. she chose to be here, she fought to be here. >> and you got a lot of support form the march of dimes through this. >> we had a lot of support from the march of dimes, cheryl. they funded the development of a drug called surfactant, which was administered to london shortly after she was born, and it enabled her lungs to develop. and it helped get us off the ventilator as quickly as possible, and i think that is the reason why she has healthy lungs today. >> it's a miracle. >> truly is a miracle. >> but a lot of science behind it, as well. >> there is. >> well, congratulations. i know you have a second child, as well, and that child is healthy, and thank you for being the parent who is sharing this message, you and your husband both. >> oh, thank you for having us. we appreciate it. >> all right. we do have to take a little bit of a break right now. when we come back, we're going to learn about some of the specific medical breakthroughs that have helped save countless infant lives. so stay with us. infant lives. so stay with us. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ isaac hou has mastered gravity defying moves to amaze his audience. great show. here you go. now he's added a new routine. making depositing a check seem so effortless. easy to use chase technology, for whatever you're trying to master. isaac, are you ready? yeah. chase. so you can. >> welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we are talking about healthy babies and the dangerous risks of preterm birth. one of the world's smallest surviving premature babies was able to go home after many months in the intensive care. baby e'layah faith was born 14 weeks early at just 10 ounces. she was born in november 2015. now that is lighter than a can of soda. she faced months of blood transfusions and a very careful diet and was up to nearly six pounds when she left the hospital. doctors aren't sure what health problems she may face down the road, but they said that getting to this point was nothing short of a miracle. joining in the studio right now from santa clara valley medical center is dr. balaji govindaswami. he is the chief of neonatology and director of neonatal intensive care unit and a volunteer with the march of dimes. and we're here to thank the march of dimes for all the good work they're doing. and you've helped be a leader in that field, as well. some of the history, first. i don't think people realize march of dimes has been around for a long time. >> as you probably have heard, cheryl, march of dimes was founded by president roosevelt to conquer the disease of polio, and that was eradicated a few decades ago. and then the march of dimes went on to fighting for the cause of birth defects and preventing birth defects in newborns by a variety of interventions in including folic acid supplementation and the national food and grain supply and in florida orange juice and more recently in bean flour. and in the last couple of decades, there's been a greater and growing focus on the health of pregnant women and the outcomes for infants at birth, healthy babies at birth and preventing the epidemic of babies born too soon. >> the preterm birthrate -- we read some of the numbers earlier, and i just can't believe they're so high. i mean, it's shocking to think that in this day and age, with all the modern medicine we have, that it's still so high. >> yeah, it's almost 10% nationwide and recently, for the first time in eight years, we've seen a slight uptick of the preterm birthrate from 9.57% to 9.63%. this means 2,000 more babies were affected by being born too soon at a tremendous cost to babies, their families, and to society. nationally, we estimate that about $26 billion a year is spent on the medical and the societal costs of taking care of babies born too soon. >> we had heard that -- wendy was concerned that there might be some sort of disability, and the disabilities are really severe. >> sure, the major groups are cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, and learning disability at school age. and luckily there is some preliminary data that may be -- not just are preterm births declining overall compared to prior decades, but some of these disabilities are on the decline, as well. >> well, that's the good news. >> that is, indeed. >> what are some of the risk factors and some preventive measures that mothers can take? >> so, we usually worry about -- the majority of women who have babies born too soon have done nothing wrong and are -- it's just a biological phenomenon that's little understood in the majority of cases. but risk factors include extremes of body weight. if women are too skinny preconception or too overweight, they might have a higher risk of preterm birth. also smoking may result in higher risk. and of course, multiple gestation's a risk factor for preterm birth. the world health organization recommends a three-year interpregnancy interval, so that's generally healthy for the mother to recover. it's also healthy for future babies. >> we heard a little bit from wendy about how horrible her journey was and how scary that was for her. what is it like from your vantage point, and you see this all the time, unfortunately for those parents. >> yeah. luckily, i think we've become better at having more support for families such as wendy's in the neonatal icu. we usually have parent advocates that have often gone through the same issues themselves and have walked a mile in their shoes. >> mm. >> so, at our hospital, we have two mothers who have had babies in the nicu that are around to support the families in addition to all the staff, physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists that these babies and families need. so, a lot of it is sort of expectations management. >> now, you're deeply involved with the march of dimes. so what is your role, and what do you want people to know about it? >> well, what i want to know is it's important to support the march of dimes because we are an organization that truly has invested a lot of dollars in the prevention of prematurity and research for the betterment of health of women and children. and we're the only organization to have conquered the initial mission that was set out, which was the polio. and most foundations are still battling or trying to conquer the disease that they were established. so, the march of dimes has a great track record of success in fulfilling its mission, and i'm hoping that with more support from the public and awareness we can make things better for women and children. >> well said. thank you for all your good work. i appreciate it, doctor. >> thank you, cheryl. >> all right, we do have to take another break. when we come back, we're gonna learn about some of the exciting research that is helping to reduce preterm birth, so stay with us. we'll be right back. >> welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we've been talking about reducing premature births and increasing the number of healthy babies. in a wellness report on abc7 news, every day in the womb boosts a baby's brain development. here's a message from jane king. >> carrying a baby as close to full term as possible is better for the baby's brain development. researchers at the children's national health system say in the final trimester of pregnancy, the fetal brain grows exponentially. the brain increases four-fold in size during that time. >> carrying a pregnancy to full term is ideal, of course. but unfortunately, it just isn't possible for many people. joining us now to talk about her research at stanford university is dr. virginia winn. she is associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, and director of perinatal biology research. [ chuckles ] lots of hats that you're wearing there. >> yes. >> so, dr. winn, the work is transdisciplinary, and we heard that word earlier. what is does that mean? >> mm-hmm. so the march of dimes has done a tremendous job in pioneering, funding, these transdisciplinary research centers. and stanford was the first one, which was established in 2011. "transdisciplinary" means taking specialists and people with different perspectives and bringing them together to tackle a problem, a common problem. and so, the march of dimes has provided the ability to take the brilliant minds at stanford and the technologies that are being developed at stanford, and bringing that to the problem of understanding preterm birth. >> i think when we talked earlier before we started this segment -- you talk about how we just don't know that much, which is really fascinating. >> right, right. >> you think we have all the answers, and we don't. >> no, no. it's amazing how little we know about labor, about preterm labor. there's certain things we certainly do know but clearly we don't know enough to be able to fully prevent all preterm births. >> i want to talk about your research. it deals with the placenta. now, that, of course, for people who don't know this, it's the organ that nourishes the fetus, and along with that comes something called preeclampsia. >> yeah. so, every pregnancy has a placenta, and the placenta does really sustain the pregnancy and provide for the growth and nourishment of the baby. sometimes when that placenta develops abnormally, women can develop conditions, one of which is preeclampsia. and my interest in preeclampsia is because it accounts for 15% to 20% of all preterm births. so it's one of the reasons we know that leads to preterm birth, because once a woman develops preeclampsia, really, the only cure is to deliver. and so if they develop preeclampsia in the preterm period, that will lead to a preterm birth. >> can you explain what preeclampsia is, please? >> yeah. so preeclampsia is where the woman develops an increase in the blood pressure and spills protein in her urine. it can also affect other end organs like the brain, the kidney, the liver, and her ability of her blood to clot. and so if these things start to develop, it's really important to deliver, because the placenta is what's driving the disease, so you have to get rid of the placenta for the disease to go away. >> now, we talked about some of the risk factors and things that women can do to from dr. govindaswami. are there some things you'd like to add to that? >> so, in terms of preeclampsia, there's very little that we know prevents it. in some very high-risk women, a baby aspirin has been shown to decrease the risk to some extent but not nearly to the extent that, you know, you would hope as an obstetrician to be able to provide to your patients. >> right. >> so we really need to understand not only preeclampsia but what causes just pre-term labor, so that we can develop strategies and better preventative and therapeutic measures. >> so, you're doing that at these centers. we have a graphic that we want to show folks where they are. and so what is your hope -- what is being worked on right now? so, what's being worked on now -- there's actually a lot of areas that are being worked on. what's great about a transdisciplinary center is that projects that are looking at the microbiome or the bacteria that are on our bodies, projects that are looking at molecules in the bloodstream that may give a clue as to what's happening at the placenta and other parts of the body, work that's working on taking the huge california databases and understanding risk factors that can be impacted there and putting those all together and seeing how they interplay, to truly get to, hopefully, being able to really make headways in decreasing preterm birth. >> and i hope that all of that works very quickly. thank you so much. >> yes. >> appreciate your time here. unfortunately, we have to take another break. we could talk all day about this. and we're gonna talk a little bit more about some of the research. we're gonna learn about how some communities struggle with higher rates of preterm birth, so stay with us. rates of preterm birth, so stay with us. we'll be right back. have to travel from its source to the bottle? a hundred miles? a thousand miles? how about less than a mile and a half? crystal geyser always bottled at the mountain source. yonow invest in your profile. diminish the double chin with kybella. kybella is the only injectable treatment for adults that permanently destroys fat cells under the chin... to reduce moderate to severe fullness, for a gradually improved chin profile. don't receive kybella if you have an infection in the treatment area. kybella can cause nerve injury in the jaw resulting in an uneven smile or facial muscle weakness and trouble swallowing. tell your doctor about all medical conditions. including if you have had or plan to have surgery or cosmetic treatments on your face, neck or chin,... have had or have medical conditions in or near your neck, or have bleeding problems tell your doctor about all medicines you take. the most common side effects are swelling, bruising, pain, numbness, redness and areas of hardness in the treatment area. diminish the double chin. improve your profile. find a specialist at mykybella.com how fafrom its sourcelpine spring to the bottle?avel ♪ how about less than a mile and a half? crystal geyser is the only major us spring water bottled at the mountain source. >> welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we've been talking about the risks of preterm birth and what is being done to help mothers have healthy babies. a prenatal program at oakland's highland hospital is credited with reducing premature births by more than a third. abc7 news reporter laura anthony filed this story in august. >> it's a program that's proving the value of shared experience -- moms-to-be at oakland's highland hospital undergoing their prenatal care together. it's called centering, and it's credited with reducing preterm deliveries by 33% to 47%. >> when babies are newly born, do they have a lot of head support? >> in centering, you bring it all out in the open. everyone gets to share their experiences and their fears and their hopes, and they learn that they're not alone, that everybody's having similar experiences or, if they're having different experiences, they can determine what's normal, what's of concern. >> besides the usual blood pressure and weight checks, centering includes group sessions in the late stages of pregnancy -- 8 to 12 women with similar due dates. >> they said that the milk is -- for the first six months -- is the best. >> elicia alvarez is expecting her third child but is getting valuable, new information this time. >> i was a lot younger when i had my first son, so now it's just different learning, like, the techniques to better breastfeed and better care for the baby. >> of course, the ultimate goal of the centering prenatal program is this -- a healthy, full-term baby and healthy, happy mom. besides all the health risks, the cost of a premature delivery ranges from $22,000 to $55,000, an added expense the centering program seeks to avoid. in oakland, laura anthony, abc7 news. >> right now, we have a satellite-remote interview with erica alexander. she is march of dimes maternal child health program impact leader, and she's talking to us from our sister station kfsn in fresno. erica, thank you so much for being with us. tell us about your community programs. >> so, we have a couple of community programs. one is looking at quality improvement. so we work with local hospitals on antenatal corticosteroid implementation for women who are gonna deliver preterm and helping that baby survive by doing the steroid injections to help survivability after that baby is born. we also work with hospitals in doing the preterm labor assessment tool kit, a way of assessing women and implementing interventions to help them when they're coming into the hospital with preterm labor. the other part of our community programs is looking at reducing racial and ethnic disparities. so we have our healthy babies are worth the wait program, which is a multidimensional intervention -- that communities with high preterm birthrates can look at certain interventions that will help in their community, and it takes the whole, entire community to implement. >> erica, you talked about some of the risk factors. i'm talking racial groups, native and african-american populations with higher rates of preterm birth. can you talk a little bit about that, please? >> we know that african -- the preterm birthrates in african-american communities are nearly 48% higher and an american-indian, alaska-native populations for women, it's about 15% higher than whites. so we really have to do -- we've done a great job so far, but we really have to start implementing more interventions across the country and across california so every baby has a fair chance of surviving. >> erica, i'm looking at some numbers that say that you want to get to 8.1% by 2020 of the preterm birthrate, and 5.5% by 2030. that's a very ambitious goal. >> yes, it is, but knowing these road-map interventions and some of the community work, we can get down to 8.1% by 2020, definitely. >> and can you talk a little bit about the road map, please. >> so these are eight emerging interventions that if you bundle them together or even separately, we're looking at reducing preterm birthrates across all jurisdictions, across all population groups. one of them starts with reducing a nonmedically indicated delivery. so women who aren't induced or given cesarean sections without a medical reason before 39 weeks. also, the increasing use of 17p, or progesterone, which is ideal for women who have had a history of or a preterm delivery beforehand. the other thing is also reducing tobacco use among pregnant women, but also encouraging women to birth space. so we know that having pregnancies too close together increases her chances of having a preterm birth. also expanding group prenatal care. so, one of the things that we do is community grants, and one of them is in alameda county. we have two. the alameda health system is actually implementing centering, which is supported by the march of dimes. and then alameda county department of public health is actually doing a project to reduce preterm birth with pacific islanders in alameda county. so, we talked about earlier expanding group prenatal care, and then, of course, increasing the use of low-dose aspirin for preeclampsia. we know that the only way to cure preeclampsia is by delivering the baby, so if we can get women started on low-dose aspirin, it might help reduce -- studies have shown it'll help reduce preterm birth. and then advancing some of the interventions for women with a short cervix, which can include cerclages or 17p. and then reducing multiple births through assisted reproductive technology. so we know if you're carrying multiple babies, it increases your risk. this data right here, these interventions are some effective strategies to reduce preterm birthrates across all our geographic and racial-ethnic groups. >> erica alexander, thank you so much for all of your work and all of your knowledge. and for people who want to know more about all the things that we learned about on this program today, you can go to the march of dimes website. you can also go to our website, abc7news.com/community. we're on facebook at abc7communityaffairs as well as cherylabc7, and you can follow me on twitter @cherylabc7. thanks so much for joining us. have a great week. we'll see you next time. more people are choosing nissan. ♪ ♪ it's america's best sales event at nissan the fastest-growing auto brand in the u.s.a. take on every day get 0% for up to 72 months on 13 models. ♪ at enterprise, we guarantee it. next vehicle purchase? head to your neighborhood enterprise car sales and let the people who buy more vehicles than anyone... change your thinking about buying your next one. >> welcome to "beyond the headlines." i'm cheryl jennings. our goal today is to raise awareness about child abuse and how to prevent it. child abuse, sadly, is a year-round problem, and the effects of child abuse can last a lifetime and can happen to anyone. the perpetrators may be people you know. one of the important things to consider is what will you do if you find out about the abuse? what should you do? abc7 news reporter tiffany wilson talked recently with a woman who is suing an easy bay school district, accusing them of not doing anything about the abuse she says she suffered from a coach she trusted. >> newspaper clippings capture sherinne wilson on the court, but her memories of high school are buried in these journals. >> i lived with shame. i thought it was my fault. >> wilson says her basketball coach, leland sandler, started a sexual relationship with her when she was 16, often giving her drugs and writing notes like this to excuse her from class. >> he was a person in authority, and we're still taught, you know, that you listen to people in authority and you respect them, and that's what i did. >> eventually, wilson says her parents discovered the illicit relationship and confronted the principal at san ramon valley high school. >> the principal came up with -- told my parents that my four younger siblings would have to go to a different school if this came out, and it would just be better for everybody if it didn't come out. >> so nobody ever contacted police. wilson says her coach was allowed to stay on the condition he stop any physical relationship with her. what allegedly happened next still brings wilson to tears 30 years later. she says, the principal, james henderson, walked in on sandler having sex with her again. >> i just remember our eyes meeting, and i remember thinking, "he's gonna tell. he's gonna do something. he's gonna call the police now. this is gonna be over." and i remember like a sense of relief, and he -- basically, he turned around [voice breaking] and he locked the door. and he never said a word. >> in february, wilson filed a $15-million lawsuit against the school district and her former principal. neither the school district, principal, nor former coach have returned multiple requests for comment. >> we believe the court will rule in sherinne's favor because what happened here can't possibly be supported. >> wilson only came forward after reading about kristen cunnane's similar experience with a middle-school coach in moraga. that coach was convicted. wilson hopes to empower other victims by sharing her story. >> it takes courage to talk about it, and, you know, if i could -- if i could help others do the same, they're gonna become stronger, and they're gonna take control of their lives back. >> she also wants her story to serve as a cautionary tale for today's teens, who she feels are especially at risk because of social media and smartphones. in santa rosa, tiffany wilson, abc7 news. >> it took her so many years to find her voice, so i want to thank sherinne for having the courage to talk with us about this, and joining me in the studio right now is a woman who wants to stop that kind of abuse forever. she is executive director of the san francisco child abuse prevention center -- katie albright, and we have worked together for many years in this fight. now, you have two locations -- one is the firehouse on waller street and, of course, the children's advocacy center out in the bayview. >> first, cheryl, thank you so much for having me here today and shining the light. we all have a role to play in preventing child abuse, and thank you for being such a champion in this effort. >> it is a team effort. you know, it takes all of us to do this, and one of the things that you were sharing with me before we started the program is that the numbers just don't go down, sadly. >> no, in fact, in san francisco, there are more than 5,000 reports of child abuse each year, and the research shows that actually there's about 40% of cases that are never even reported. it's tragic. >> you have a place now that's just beautiful. i got to tour it last year, and i want to show people an update of the children's advocacy center. advocacy center in the bayview is just beautiful. it's a nice, safe place where kids who have been abused can share their stores one time. >> it's an incredible partnership that we have with the city and county of san francisco, where, as you said, children can come in and share their story one time with all the excellent and expert professionals that need to hear that child's story so that we can really help that family find justice and help that child on a path to healing. it's incredible. in fact, since we started this work in 2008, we see a 76% increase in the number of these best practices interviews. we're thrilled to have just gotten national accreditation earlier this month, and so really have just been very proud of our partnership that we can do to make sure that all kids in our city are safe. >> i was reading on your website about something that just stunned me. you believe that we can actually end the cycle of violence in families. you have a new program. you wrote an essay about this. >> it's -- we have been saying for years that we are going to prevent abuse, reduce it, but now i really believe, we really believe we can actually end it in our generation. we have a terrific program where we provide support for families in crisis. we focus on five protective factors, and these are things that people have researched and defined that families need in order to keep their kids safe. so parent resiliency -- whether or not a parent can weather the ups and downs of life at any time in any crisis. a child's resiliency, or social/emotional competencies. whether or not a parent understands age-appropriate behavior, and whether or not a family has social connections, or are they so deeply isolated maybe because of violence or mental-health issues that they can't seek help, and finally we look at concrete support, so basic family needs -- food, clothing, shelter. these things together help keep kids safe, and we have a fantastic program that we're providing kids with the support and families with the support. we do it through our 24/7 phone support line, our talk line, as well as counseling services, playroom, other child care, other kinds of group activities for parents to really engage and get the support that they need to keep their kids safe and break generational cycles of violence. >> i was reading about how you think two generations it can be done. you did something with the aspen institute about this area. >> we just published an article with the aspen institute earlier this week, and we do believe that working with parents and children together, in two generations, that we can really focus on moving families out of generational cycles of violence, and we have the results to show it. about 76% of our families are showing improvement in their protective factors, which means improvement in their ability to keep their kids safe against all odds, against all the risks, against all their own generational cycles of violence that they may be coming through. so we're very excited about this program. >> katie, we have about 10 seconds left. most important thought you have you want to leave people with? >> parenting is tough, and if you need support and you need help, call our phone support line 24/7. it's 415-441-kids. and, as we said in the beginning, it's gonna take all of us working together to prevent abuse, but we can. >> katie, thank you so much. we appreciate it so much. and we had the talk line on the screen for everybody, and we will have that on our website, as well. now, when we come, you're going to learn about an educational organization that offers free material to raise awareness about child abuse prevention. stay with us. you don't want to miss it. we'll be right back. >> welcome back to our program on how to prevent child abuse. we're joined by two women who have been longtime partners in the fight against abuse. patty shimek is a founder of a nonprofit grassroots organization called partners in prevention, and kathy baxter, who led the san francisco child abuse prevention council for decades, and she has been my mentor on child-abuse issues for three decades. i can't believe it's been that long. wow. so now you have a whole new venture. this is just such a nice supplement to the work that katie albright is doing. >> she's been my mentor, too. >> all right, so, patty, let me start with you. you founded this. kathy, you're the vice president. so what is partners in prevention and why did you do it? >> as you said, we are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization comprised of people who believe that prevention is the way to end child abuse in this country and in our communities. >> and you also have a lot of products that we're gonna talk about in a little while, right? >> yes, yes. >> but, kathy, why did you and patty decide to join forces on this? >> well, you know, cheryl, i'd worked in the field for so long, and i consider myself a civilian now, i've been saying. i'm retired. i wanted to do something that i felt could reach out and be able to give things to people. for a long time, all of our programs have struggled with limited budgets, not being able to develop materials, getting a message out there to the community about child abuse, and to say that we believe that child abuse can be prevented. as someone who's now reading the paper, watching tv, i was expecting to see so much this month on child abuse, this april, and other months throughout the year, and you realize that unless there's a sensational case, it's very hard to get the message out there, and we want the message to be 365 days a year. >> you're right. it is a year-round problem. so who are you working with and who is your audience? >> well, we are a diverse group of individuals from business, from civil society, from other organizations that work in this area -- experts -- and our audience is every adult. >> because it's a family affair. it's a family event. we all have to be involved. >> the responsibility is not for a child to be safe in their own childhood. the responsibility is in all adults -- not just the parent, but all adults. >> you're absolutely right. now, i received a packet of material, some of the things that you all distribute, and it was fantastic, and there was a hashtag in there for those folks who like to tweet, and i do, and it's called "how we do blue," and i love to show people that because it's part of a calendar that's year-round. >> yes. >> so we're gonna put that up on the screen right now so that you want to get involved, you want to wear a blue ribbon for the love of a child, but your hashtag is "how we do blue." >> how we do blue. how we do blue -- yes. how you do blue. >> i did this in honor of this particular and important story. so, you have been asked by many, many people all across the country and the world now for these materials. >> it's so exciting that -- to be a partner in prevention means simply to understand what the blue ribbon represents and to wear it or display it in your life as you go about your day, and through our website, through conferences, international conferences, people have contacted us from the bahamas, from other states -- fayetteville, north carolina, throughout the greater bay area, of course, and reached out and said, "how do i do this? what does it take?" it takes simply to be able to know what the blue ribbon represents and to be united in the belief that the best treatment for child abuse in adulthood is to have not have had it happen at all, to prevent it, so that is our mission -- preventing it from starting. >> we usually do the other way. we talk about the abuse and how horrible it is, but we don't talk about this piece of it. so, kathy, when the conversation starts, what do people say to you about getting these materials? >> well, they want to know how to get them, and part of it is we have this wonderful network of the 10 bay area child abuse councils that we've been working with for years. now i work as a volunteer with patty getting the materials out. patty is a great visual person and a great person looking at messaging, and she works with some other excellent people. so they've created wonderful materials, and it's really a pleasure to be able to say, "we can give you these materials. we can give you pins, bookmarks, posters, anything you need to spread the word," and people are just grabbing them and saying, "what else can we do? what else can we do?" and it's know what child abuse is. >> well, we're gonna talk a lot more about this in just a moment. we have to take a break. kathy and patty are going to stay with us for another segment. when we come back, what you can do to show your support in the fight against child abuse. have to travel from its source to the bottle? a hundred miles? a thousand miles? how about less than a mile and a half? crystal geyser always bottled at the mountain source. how fafrom its sourcelpine spring to the bottle?travel ♪ how about less than a mile and a half? crystal geyser is the only major us spring water bottled at the mountain source. >> we are back, talking about ways to prevent child abuse and how you can join that effort. our guests are patty shimek, the founder of partners in prevention, and kathy baxter, the vice president of partners in prevention, and both of them are longtime advocates for prevention, and we talked about what it means to be a partner in prevention. it's something we all need to get involved with, but you have so much great material here. so i want to start first with these dolls whom i got to see during a presentation at a school to help children learnd touches. >> mm-hmm. >> so, what are these guys' names here? >> harry and sally. >> [ chuckles ] they're so cute. now, their clothing is just -- it's covering strategic places. >> mm-hmm, right. they're bathing suits, right, on harry, and on sally, the two-piece bathing suit, which are very obvious, clear messages for children to identify these are your private areas. >> mm-hmm. all right, now you also have -- this goes in the schools to talk to kids about touches, and the message that you have for them is three easy rules. >> right. >> yes, yes. it's say no, get away, and tell someone, and keep telling until someone listens. the overarching message is one of empowerment -- i can. i can do these things. you can. it's safe and correct. >> and you also have a lot of material. this book is fascinating because it says, "enough. child sexual abuse. ten conversations." so, kathy, tell me about this. >> right. you know, a couple of years ago, the bay area coalition of child abuse council and several other groups merged and talked about child sex abuse, and this is the campaign they came up with. simple campaign -- enough. enough child sex abuse. and we want to make materials available to parents, to adults, and decided to print the "ten conversations," which were available online. many people can go online, but many of our parents and other people do not go online, so these booklets are available for people to read -- simple, 10 conversations. you can do one a day, one a week with your children and talk about preventing child sex abuse. >> you also have -- what i see here. you've got the calendar that we talked about earlier. you've got a big calendar, you have bookmarks. you have coloring books that are strategic in their message, too. patty, tell me about the coloring books. >> well, the coloring books are an activity that give children an opportunity to relax and share with their parent, caregiver, their friends, any adult what they're experiencing in life and hopefully it empowers them. they're treated as superheroes for themselves. it gives them a voice, gives them power. you are your own individual, and although we do not expect children to be responsible for their own safety in childhood, it is an opportunity for parents to speak and adults to speak to the children. >> you work with a lot of different agencies. we're gonna be talking about the contra costa agency in a minute. so, do they ask for advice, support materials, what? >> all of it. i think mostly materials. i think that is the biggest area where we need more, and i see us, partners in prevention, as a supplement to everyone who's doing the work out there. so anyone can call and say, "well, what do you have this year? what are you gonna make available?" pins, bookmarks, ten command-- ten commandments -- "ten conversations." >> they should be. >> they should be the ten commandments for parents to really know what to do with their kids. >> the program that you have, it's not just gonna be stagnant. i mean, you are constantly evolving. so you've got some future plans. >> yes, we do. well, mostly we're listening right now to adult survivors, to people who work in the field, and to children. we want to find the best messaging possible. we want to develop the best messaging possible to end child abuse. we, too, believe that it can be ended. we can stop it. >> i think that one of the things that people don't know is that they don't have to pay anything for these materials. >> right. >> there's no office because it's in your work office. >> right. we have no overhead expenses that most organizations find necessary, so, at this time, these last two years, we've been able to meet the requests of providing these materials at no charge. >> that's wonderful. thank you both so much for what you're doing and thanks for being here today. >> thank you. >> all right, and we do have to take a break. now, coming up next, we're gonna show you a program that has a very aggressive program to teach children how to protect themselves from child abuse, so please stay with us. we'll be right back. food. water. internet. we need it to live. but what we don't need are surprises, like extra monthly fees. i see you, fee, played by legendary actress anjelica huston. you got me, mark. we just want fast internet for one, simple rate. for all the streaming and the shopping and the newsing, but most of all... for the this. internet for one everyday simple price and no extra monthly fees. >> welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we are talking about how to prevent child abuse and what you can do to join the fight. right now our guest is carol carrillo with the child abuse prevention council of contra costa county, and, carol, thank you so much for being here today. you have a very comprehensive program, and i love this poster because it says -- if i can just hold this up here. it says, "child help. speak up. be safe. prevention education curriculum." and this is for 1 to 6th grade, and there are so many good little pieces of advice for children on here, so walk me through that. >> absolutely. our speak up be safe program is a comprehensive approach to child abuse prevention. we teach 1st-through-6th-grade students a curriculum on child abuse prevention, bullying prevention, and sexual harassment prevention. >> wow. so it's not just child abuse or child sexual abuse. bullying is a huge problem, too. >> yes, it is. absolutely. so it's very comprehensive. it really does touch on teaching kids about all those sort of issues and how to prevent those issues. >> i want to talk about something that -- i've been following the issue of child abuse, child abuse prevention my entire career because i'm very passionate about this. i was fortunate to have a good, safe childhood, and i believe every child should have that. >> yes, we do, too. >> we love the props here. so you have dolls that you use in your curriculum. so do these little critters have names? >> they -- we use sally and -- the same names that other programs use. >> yes, okay. >> and -- but really it's really designed to show our younger kids, our 1st-through-3rd-grade children their private body parts, and what's covered by a bathing suit is considered their private body parts, and that no one really should be touching those private body parts or showing you their private body parts unless, of course, it's a parent or a caretaker and they're touching your private body parts to keep you clean and safe or, of course, a doctor or a medical provider that's touching your private body parts to keep you healthy. other than that, there should never be games around or any sort of tricks around your private body parts because those are yours and not to be shown to other people. >> so how do you give the kids the language to say that's not okay, especially if they're already in a situation? >> well, what we do, particularly with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-graders is we play some really fun games. we talk about safe secrets and unsafe secrets, and we have kids stand up, and we give different scenarios, and we say, "if this is a safe secret, give a thumbs-up, if it's not a safe secret, thumbs-down." so we have different scenarios and different ways to present the material to kids at an age-appropriate level so they can understand and really get a sense of what's safe and what's unsafe. >> i know you got some good advice from the partners in prevention, and you modeled your program after the one they use in the schools in san francisco. >> absolutely. yes, we did. and we have bookmarks to sort of help reinforce the safety rules of telling someone, making sure that you keep telling your safe adult until that safe adult believes you and helps that abuse from happening. >> and i know that you're in a big county -- big county. >> yes. >> i mean, san francisco's big, and their numbers are large. >> yeah. well, last year we were looking at about 10,000 reports of suspected child abuse, and we look at about one-in-four cases daily that get investigated for -- so rises to the level of higher needs and being investigated. so it's definitely a problem. it's a problem in every community in contra costa county, and we are really working to spread the word and spread our prevention programs throughout the county. >> you have a great staff, a great crew. we have some pictures of the folks who work with you, and we wanted to show them and thank them for the work they're doing. they've got the dolls there, and, you know, the cohesiveness of a team like that -- like, everybody who's been on this program today, everybody works together. that's so impressive. >> yes, we really do. and it is a team approach. we all need to work together to prevent child abuse in our communities, and i think we're doing a really great job this month, every month of the year to make sure that our kids are kept safe and that are community can really rally around and learn about this issue and learn how they can help protect kids in our community. >> and i just want to reinforce the message that kids can take with them, for folks who are watching this, if they're in trouble, if they have to find that safe adult they keep telling, so the words on these bookmarks are? >> yeah, "stay away. i can -- i can keep myself safe and to tell a safe adult and to keep telling that adult until the abuse stops." >> and i think kids don't know that they can say no, that they have the power, the right to say no. >> that's right, that's right. and we're teaching them that they can, and they can help keep themselves safe. >> and how many kids do you have in your program now? >> well, last year, over the last two years, we trained 3,500 students. we work with their parents and the school staff, so it really is a team effort in keeping kids safe. >> oh, thank you so much for what you're doing, carol. >> thank you so much for your support. >> all right. for more information about today's program, go to our website -- abc7news.com/community, or on facebook at abc7communityaffairs. have a great day. narrator: today, when a vicious attack leaves a respected doctor dead and his wife of 18 years clinging to life, police hunt for clues to who would commit such a brutal attack.

Related Keywords

United States , Alameda County , California , North Carolina , Oakland , Bay School , Florida , Bayview , Bahamas , The , London , City Of , United Kingdom , San Francisco , Fayetteville , Stanford , Leicestershire , Erica Alexander , Laura Anthony , Kathy Baxter , Katie Albright , Tiffany Wilson , Cheryl Jennings , James Henderson , Santa Clara , Fresno Erica , Isaac Hou , Leland Sandler , Wendy Armstrong , Jane King ,