One Brooklyn
December 2, 2016
BROOKLYN, NY, December 2, 2016: Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and Ama Dwimoh, founder and former chief of the Crimes Against Children Bureau in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, launched Operation C.A.R.E. (Child Abuse Response and Engagement), an aggressive multilingual outreach campaign to educate and empower residents across Brooklyn on identifying the signs of child abuse and neglect in their communities. The announcement came in the wake of three-year-old Jaden Jordan of Gravesend having been found not breathing, badly beaten, and covered in feces; the child suffered a severe brain injury and is currently in a coma at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia. In response to this tragedy, and similarly horrific abuse suffered by children such as six-year-old Zymere Perkins of Harlem, Borough President Adams stood with advocates of child abuse survivors, including representatives of Safe Horizon and Social Services Employees Union (SSEU) Local 371, as they outlined the imperative of engaging every New Yorker in guarding the welfare of children.
“Nothing can be more basic to the function of a society than protecting the welfare of its most vulnerable, our children; we have no future if our children can’t see tomorrow,” said Borough President Adams. “We are bringing an expert eye, ear, and voice to the crisis of child abuse, and we will educate and empower as many Brooklynites and New Yorkers as we can to be effective community guardians of our children. Child welfare can never be the sole responsibility of one person, one organization, one agency. Every single one of us needs to look inward. I am responsible. You are responsible. We are responsible. We are all part of C.A.R.E.”
“We, each and every one of us, has a call to action; the action is we must remain vigilant in protecting our children,” said Dwimoh. “When you’re five years old, who do you call out for when things aren’t right, when you’re scared? They yell out for the names of the people who are meant to protect them. We know, sadly enough, that that’s just not enough. We cannot play the blame game, that’s too easy. The lives of our children rely on each and every one of us to do our part. Children have to come first; there’s no second, third, or fourth. We’ve got children who are living in home-grown terrorism within their homes, where they sleep at night. I ask everyone: See something, say something.”
According to the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), between July and September of this year, there were 10,056 total reports to the New York State Central Register (SCR) of suspected child abuse and/or neglect citywide. 3,042 of those reports were from Brooklyn, 30 percent of the total figure. At least one-third of the reports had one prior report connected to them.
“Child abuse cases tear at our heartstrings,” said Michael Polenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for Safe Horizon. “In the last year, Safe Horizon helped nearly 6,500 child victims here in New York City, across all five boroughs. We’re very grateful to Borough President Adams for doing this public awareness campaign, making sure the message is clear that this is all of our responsibility.”
Borough President Adams highlighted a number of signs of child abuse for individuals to look out for in their communities; the list included aggressive behavior, behavioral extremes, constant hunger, depressed or listless behavior, eating disorders, failure to thrive, fear of going home, inappropriate dress, loss of interest, poor hygiene, poor peer relationships, sexually inappropriate behavior, sleep disturbances, and unexplained absences from home. He urged Brooklynites to call 911 and/or the SCR’s public hotline at (800) 342-3720 if they observe any of these conditions, and reminded mandated reporters of their hotline number at (800) 635-1522. Additionally, he asked anyone interested in receiving an Operation C.A.R.E. presentation — including civic organizations, houses of worship, schools, and senior centers — to call his office at (718) 802-4042.
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