What is Promises for Parents?
What is Primary Prevention?
How Does the Campaign Work?
Mobilizing a Promises for Parents Campaign in Your Community

What is Promises for Parents?
Promises for parents is a pledge campaign that does not solicit money. Rather, it solicits promises, asking individuals to pledge to do something tangible to help, support or ease the job of parents.

Promises for Parents campaigns encourage everyone in our communities to take responsibility for providing the support and assistance that all parents need. These campaigns are a strategy for the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect.

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Promises for Parents campaigns accomplish primary prevention by raising awareness of one of the solutions to the problem of child abuse (supporting parents) and by mobilizing citizens to engage in that solution.

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Pledge cards can be used as an educational hand-out or pledges can be returned to a Promises for Parents campaign leader for counting and publicizing.

Example pledges

• Bake cookies once a month for the Mom next door.
• Provide amusement for children in a waiting area.
• Offer to baby-sit free of charge, so parents can get a break.
• Arrange an on-going weekly or bi-weekly meeting with another mother (or a small group of mothers) so that mothers can talk over experiences or problems, while children play together.
• If you are a grandparent, take care of a different grandchild each week to relieve tensions on their parents.
• If you are a supervisor, encourage and support flex and comp-time arrangements so parents may deal with day-to-day situations and children’s emergencies without the added stress of repercussions at work.
• When you see a stressed parent with a child at the supermarket, smile, acknowledge “it’s tough” and comment on how well they’re doing (in spite!).
• If you are a preschool teacher, establish informal monthly meetings for parents of young children to provide information on parenting and schooling.
• Canvas members of a social club and seek people available to provide babysitting for children under two years of age.
• Be a good listener for the parents you have contact with. Let them talk about their trials and triumphs.
• If you are a parent, take time to have a cup of tea and read an article from a magazine.
• If you are a doctor or work at a doctor's office, locate and distribute positive literature on children’s health issues and activities.
• Work with the PTO to bring a parenting class to school – offer babysitting for parents who may otherwise be unable to attend.
• Offer rides to neighborhood children's activities.
• Volunteer as a big brother or club leader to help out kids and allow parents some free time.

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• Enlist volunteers and sponsors
  • Recruit service organizations such as Kiwanis and Junior League.
  • Contact sororities such as Kappa Delta or Sigma Tau, whose charitable focus often includes children.
  • Seek campaign funds from banks, businesses, or civic organizations.
  • Ask members of civic organizations to volunteer their time stuffing envelopes, distributing collection boxes, or tallying promises.
  • If your organization is planning to mount a campaign, use interns to make presentations at colleges and other places where people gather.
• Publicize your campaign
  • Make a plan for raising awareness of your campaign. In all of your media coverage be sure to include information about how people can make a pledge.
  • If you have the resources, develop a public service announcement for radio, television, or newspapers. Pitch stories about the campaign to local reporters. Try to land media interviews with your campaign leaders. Don’t forget organization and company newsletters; these are important print media too.
  • Create a public display of the promises that have been made. This will create a strong visual for television and photograph cameras.
  • Persuade your local paper to print pledge forms and the promises that your campaign has solicited
• Give presentations wherever community members are gathered
  • Contact the people planning the meetings or gatherings and ask if you can make a 15-20 minute presentation that will include explaining the campaign and collecting pledges.
  • Make it known that you are available to speak.
  • Think of the possibilities: training workshops, staff meetings, youth groups, mother-daughter functions, church activities, local government meetings, and organizations’ programs.
• Utilize events to collect promises
  • Set up displays at health fairs and family days. Display promises as they are collected so people can see their variety and number.
  • Ask your county executive or mayor to declare a Promises Day and stage collection points at city hall. Invite the media.
  • Create a Wall of Promises at your local shopping center.
  • Set up collection boxes at local stores where promises can be collected at registers.
  • Wave a Promises for Parents banner at a parade.
  • Distribute and collect pledge forms at kids’ sporting events.
• Involve local businesses
  • Arrange to have campaign information printed on restaurant placemats, take-out menus, or pizza boxes.
  • Design a grocery bag that includes a clip-out pledge card or provide bag stuffers to supermarkets.
• Enlist corporations as partners
  • Ask corporations to distribute campaign information in their mailings.
  • Seek in-kind assistance. Maybe a corporation will pay for the printing of brochures or pledge cards.
  • Encourage corporations to adopt family-friendly policies for the workplace as their promise to parents. Examples include instituting flex time or comp time. These practices give parents the freedom to spend time with their kids when their kids need them, for example, dance recitals, soccer games, or family emergencies.
• Create a reward for people who make a promise and keep it
  • Design a button that says “I did it!” and a special day when everyone wears theirs.
  • Give blue ribbons, the symbol of child abuse prevention, to people who fulfill their promises.
• Ask everyone to join in continuing prevention efforts
  • Participate in the efforts and activities of your local child abuse task force or coalition.
  • Promote and distribute Prevent Child Abuse New York’s prevention materials.
  • Tell parents about the Prevention Information Resource Center’s Parent Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, from anywhere in New York State. The Helpline provides prevention information and referrals to parents, kids, survivors, professionals, and concerned citizens

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