Creative Service Proposal

I.

Overview and Rationale

Through our Students Against Child Abuse non-profit, we hope to help end child
abuse. If our foundation is able to help one child, then we have done more than
enough. We are a small organization and we cannot save everyone from abuse, but
we hope to make a difference in some local families lives. Preventing children from
being abused is such an important cause. I feel like this is such an important cause,
and when you look into the face of a child and think about an adult hurting them, I
think anyone would feel that way. There are so many non-profits who need attention
and support, but I feel like ours would be one of the most vital to a healthy society. If
these children are abused they do not grow up to be productive adults. They have
their innocence stripped from that far too early, and most of them never fully recover.
Not only is it painful and unfair to have children being abused in any way, but society
suffers as these children often times do not grow up into productive adults. Through
no fault of their own, they have a small chance of living a healthy and normal life as
children or as adults. It is a basic human right to not be subjected to degrading
treatment or punishment. We at SACA work to defend this basic human right.

II.

Detailed Description of Existing Issue

Child abuse is a societal epidemic. It transcends borders and cultures and effects
children everywhere. In the United States alone, over three million reports of childe
abuse are filed annually. This number shows over six million children that are being
abused each year, as most reports include more than one child. These are only the
reported cases. There is no way to know exactly how many children are actually
abused each year, but it is safe to say the real number would be much higher. Many
children are too young to report and the signs of abuse are not noticed by adults.
There are 4 kinds of child abuse- emotional, physical, sexual, and neglect. Physical
abuse is the most prevalent, although that could be because the other three are harder
to pinpoint and report. Physical abuse is any non-accidental harming of someone
under the age of 18. Emotional abuse is harder to identify, but consists of a caretaker
exhibiting a pattern of behavior that impairs a childs emotional development or selfworth. Neglect is the failure of a caregiver to provide a childs most basic needs.
Lastly, sexual abuse is anything done with a child for sexual gratification of an adult.
Child abuse can lead to major mental health issues in victims. The damage is long
lasting and can lead adults to be violent and unproductive members of society. Child
abuse costs the United States $124 billion annually which could send 1.7 million
people to college. So not only is it a cultural thorn in our societies side, it is a
financial burden as well. This issue merits work because we have a responsibility to
speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Children are too young or lack the
power to protect themselves. As adults we have a responsibility to do everything in
our power to defend the defenseless. The first relationship that children have is with
their parents/caregiver. When that relationship is abusive and toxic, these children
struggle to live normal lives. They do not know what a healthy relationship is. When
your first experiences in life are so negative, long lasting mental health issues will
develop in most cases.

III.

Detailed Description of Project

We will use our organization, Students Against Child Abuse (SACA), to raise money
and raise awareness for child abuse. The money that we raise will be donated to
Prevent Child Abuse Utah. They are a local chapter of a national charity. They work
to raise money and educate children and parents on what child abuse is, how to see
the signs, and to prevent it from happening in the families in their communities. We
will give the money raised to Prevent Child Abuse Utah because SACA as an
organization is too small to use the money as effectively as Prevent Child Abuse
Utah.
SACA will host a charitable week in September of next year. We will have three
events on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Thursday September 8, 2016 we will
have a 5k at Sugarhouse Park. We will call it Trot for Tots. Their will be a $20
registration fee. We will also encourage people to find sponsors in their families and
workplaces to donate money to the cause if they finish the 5k. We will have a shirt
included for each participant and will get companies to donate by getting their logo
on the back of the shirt and other publicity opportunities at the 5k. Our next day of
SACA week will be a booth at the Union. We will be there from 10 am to 4 pm
educating people on the horrors of child abuse. It is a hard subject to talk about but
ignoring it will do nothing but make the problem worse. At our booth we will hand
out educational pamphlets, candy, and encourage people to stop by having games. We
will also hand out blue ribbons and have a pinwheel field. Each pinwheel represents a
victim of child abuse in Utah that month or year. The final, and hopefully most
profitable day of SACA week will be on Saturday September 10, 2106. We will
partner with the University of Utah and BYU football programs to raise money for
child abuse prevention. For each SACK that is made in the Utah vs. BYU football
game, fans will donate money to SACA. We will get in touch with donors through the
Crimson Club and the Cougar Club. If BYU gets a SACK, BYU fans pay pledge
amount. If Utah gets a SACK, Utah fans pay pledge amount. We will also put
pinwheels in the MUSS and have a moment of silence for victims of child abuse at
half time.
We will have 4 of us working directly on the project, Dalton, Alex, Ashleigh, and
myself. We will also look for student volunteers who want to get involved. We will
all be working on a volunteer basis. This will not be a full time commitment for
anyone, except for the week leading up to SACA Week. As far as resources go, our
costs should be pretty low. We estimate that our total costs would be well under
$1,000 dollars. We would hope to get donations from local businesses and would be
willing to contribute personal funds to a cause we all believe in. No training would be
required, the main thing that volunteers would be used for would be to find donors
through local businesses, the Cougar Club, and the Crimson Club. All of our events
would be taking place on or near campus, so transportation would not be an issue.
Three out of the four founders of SACA have cars and we would be willing to help
with transportation. The project overall is not overly ambitious and could be
realistically accomplished even with our small funding. Students are a demographic
that are not targeted when it comes to child abuse awareness and we hope to change
that.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

Risk Analysis
A set-back that could happen would be if there are no sacks in the game. This would
be the most detrimental setback to our fundraising. If this were to happen, we would
open up a donation link and have Utah an BYU fans compete against each other to
raise the most money to prevent child abuse. Another setback that could happen
would be if no one came to our Union Booth. If that happened we would have a flyer
created that we would post all over campus explaining how prevalent child abuse is
and how you can learn more about it. We would also have candy and a game at the
booth so we think we could easily draw people in. A final setback that we anticipate
is a lack of donors coming forward. If this were to happen we would have to expand
our circle of potential donors to anyone we could get in touch with. No donation is
too small!
If our project does not succeed, we will of course be very disappointed. However,
there will be no major consequences. What we are trying to do is support a local
charity. They already have funding, ours would just be to help their cause. Even
without our contribution they would still be able to run their events and educational
programs.
Benefit Analysis:
The ideal outcome of our project would look like us giving a sizable donation to
Prevent Child Abuse Utah. We do not have an exact monetary goal, but we hope to
raise several thousand dollars to help Prevent Child Abuse Utah reach their goals. In
addition to this monetary goal, we would love to see our blue ribbons all over campus
and continue to work with students to educate them about child abuse. If our original
SACA week was successful we would make it an annual event, and host smaller
events a couple other times throughout the year.
The benefits of our work on the community would be immense. We would be
opening up communication channels for victims of child abuse, and we would also
have the issue on peoples radars. As adults we all have a responsibility to do our part
to help. Volunteers would gain a sense of accomplishment for helping children who
cannot help themselves.
Conclusions: Child abuse will probably always be a part of our society, but if we can
educate people more about it and lessen the problem we will have done our job. The
problem will never disappear but the more fundraising we do for it the more we can
prevent it. Children should not have their innocence taken away from them by the
very adults who are supposed to protect them. Every child should have a home with
parents who protect and support them.
References
Child Abuse Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2015, from
https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse-statistics/
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations. (n.d.). Retrieved
December 11, 2015, from http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/