Program for June 20, 2024 — Nathan Fink, New Hampshire Children’s Trust

by | Jun 21, 2024 | News

Our speaker today was Nathan Fink, Nathan Fink, Senior Director of Advancement, Children’s Trust

Nathan began his talk talking about the challenges parents face as they work to raise children, reflecting on the challenges of being a parent to a 6 and 8 year old. He went back in time and reflected on how the challenges were even more intense during covid.  His experiences reminds him that everyone needs to develop skill and use tools to help deal with the stresses of being a parent or guardian.

The mission of the NH Children’s Trust is to find solutions to eliminate—yes, eliminate—child abuse and neglect in New Hampshire

By creating opportunities for collaboration, advocating for family-friendly policies, promoting positive social norms, and strengthening the proficiency and accessibility of the family support and strengthening field, New Hampshire Children’s Trust works to ensure kids across the Granite State grow up in safe, nurturing environments.

Too often some of the work to prevent child abuse comes too far “downstream”.  The New Hampshire Trust works hard to find “upstream” safeguards in place to help protect children by giving parents and others the tools they may need that can support them through the various circumstances that can make child rearing stressful and complicated.

He shared an answer he received from a pediatric forensic pathology.  When he asked her in her 20 years of being a pediatric forensic pathologist how many cases she investigated were due to a deliberate desire to abuse a child, she took a few moments to reflect on her answer and she replied only one.  This reminds him daily that child abuse should be preventable.

Food, utilities, rent/mortgage, transportation, household items, childcare, and medical expenses, all basic needs, can be the drivers of stress that in turn can lead to child abuse.

He discussed PROTECTIVE FACTORs

When we build our communities to meet the needs of children and their caregivers, we help families develop protective factors that foster safe, stable, and nurturing environments, in which good things happen!

  1. Parental Resilience
  2. Social Connections
  3. Concrete Support in Times of Need
  4. Social and Emotional Competence of Children
  5. Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development

When these factors are present and robust at the individual, relational, community, and society levels, we can begin to see a future where families are their strongest and all children grow up in safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments.

The New Hampshire Children’s Trust works in partnership with 15 state-wide Family Resources Centers. They help build hopeful futures for children and families. These are some of the services provided by NH Family Resource Centers
• Parenting classes
• Parent-child playgroups
• Support groups
• Home visiting
• Educational workshops
• Family events and activities
• Resource Navigation
• Fuel assistance
• Tax prep and other financial services
• Guidance with benefits and eligibility
• Connection to other resources
In closing, Nathan reminded us that PREVENTION is a verb.  We can prevent child abuse.
Free resources can be found by clicking here.
New Hampshire Children’s Trust is the Governor’s designated statewide community-based child abuse prevention agency, the New Hampshire chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America, and a member of the National Alliance of Children’s Trust & Prevention Funds.​​

By creating moments of joy, we decrease stressors and resilience increases. And the best part: joy can start anywhere. So let’s see if we can’t spread a little to a family in our neighborhood today.

Founded in 1986 as “New Hampshire Children’s Trust Fund,” a quasi-governmental organization, the agency transitioned to “New Hampshire Children’s Trust, Inc.,” a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in 2011. We are a public charity and donations are tax-deductible.