Our Vision
A world free from child abuse and neglect
Our strategy
We bring together partners and resources to advance understanding of child abuse and neglect that strengthens its position as an impactful, addressable area of public health. By connecting the dots between abuse and public health, we reduce stigma, increase accessibility, and improve systems of prevention and care.
Our priorities
• Raise Awareness • Build Community • Raise Funds •
Our investment pillars
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Prevention
Take a proactive—rather than reactive—approach to child abuse and neglect.
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Education & Training
Give people whose work interacts with child abuse and neglect the tools to be part of the solution.
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Research
Expand opportunities to understand the lifelong impacts faced by survivors and the limitations of existing interventions.
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Advocacy
Reduce stigma surrounding child abuse and neglect to drive positive change.
How we get there
This cycle does not exist today. There’s so much opportunity for us to better address the needs of survivors—and the interrelation of issues they face—and go beyond an approach that’s reactive and reliant on criminal justice. If we instead recognize these needs as a cycle and make abuse an addressable area of public health for all—one with interventions and health-focused frames of reference—abuse becomes something we can prevent, rather than just react to.
This work is hard, but it’s worth it. Here’s how we’re working to reform a broken, linear system into a cycle of well-being and prevention:
Create belonging
The gap today
Child abuse and neglect is a challenging topic—but the stigmatized approach we’ve taken to it only serves to isolate survivors. Like every human being, each survivor has a unique story that informs who they are. Those stories matter, and we create safe spaces to share them.
Why it matters
If we don’t break the stigma surrounding child abuse and neglect, we keep ourselves from the possibility of a future free from it. We must create community from isolation and welcoming spaces for those affected by abuse and neglect.
What we’re doing
We nurture an online community where more than 1,500 survivors can connect and share anonymously. Through annual walks, we challenge the stigma of child abuse and neglect, and our Louder than Silence and Beyond the Jargon podcasts make the challenging topic of abuse tangible and engaging.
Strengthen collaboration
The gap today
There aren’t clear venues for interdisciplinary sharing in the child abuse and neglect space. We know that our field is missing connections, and that if we want to see better, we must be better—holding one another accountable, modeling the future we believe in, and collaborating with kindness and respect.
Why it matters
Many hands make light work. When we work together to address gaps in the cycle of well-being and prevention, we can actually manifest solutions. Without leadership and collaboration, we simply cannot make the global-scale impact that we’re determined to make—so we invest wholeheartedly in one another and our partnerships.
What we’re doing
We partner with comorbid organizations and advocates to build community, create belonging, improve care, and reform a fractured system. The EndCAN team travels both nationally and internationally to learn from and partner with organizations large and small—from grassroots efforts, to front-line workers, to co-morbid organizations. In 2018, we created the CAN Collaborative, which has grown to more than 50 organizations partnering to create global change.
Deepen research
The gap today
In the United States, more children die every year from child abuse and neglect than they do from cancer. But because of the deeply entrenched stigma surrounding abuse, families affected by childhood cancer—and other threats to children like school shootings—are much more likely to raise their voices than families affected by abuse. As a result, dangers like cancer and shootings are more thoroughly researched. In 2022, the United States spent $40 million on childhood abuse and neglect research and $651 million on childhood cancer research—16 times more funding. It’s clear that incredible resources can be generated when we engage with an issue without stigma, and with belief that it can be addressed.
Why it matters
We can only change what we understand. When we understand, we become more open—and, in turn, we can grow and change. EndCAN values best-practice knowing, and funds research to demonstrate that child abuse and neglect is a public health issue directly responsible for comorbidities and long-term health outcomes.
What we’re doing
EndCAN funds research through fellowships and partnerships with institutions like Seattle Children’s Hospital, The Hospital for Sick Kids at the University of Toronto, and UNC Chapel Hill. We’ve funded studies that explore the link between the lack of paid parental leave and child maltreatment, mental illness following childhood physical assault, and many more. By working with organizations who publish data, produce journals, and educate through fact-based information, we set best-practice models for our funders and the field around outcomes and data collection.
Improve care
The gap today
When something is broken in our lives, we work to fix it. But the stigma surrounding child abuse and neglect has led us to miss the particular kind of break that happens when our bodies are consistently stressed in childhood: our ability to build strong immune systems, coping skills, internal securities, and safety measures is dramatically impaired. Later in life, this leads to comorbidities like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, poor coping skills, mis-managed relationships, emotional turmoil, and more.
Why it matters
By building the connection between child abuse and comorbidities, we open the door to more funding and resources that create better outcomes and quality of life. Investing in lifespan prevention leads to change.
What we’re doing
Founded on and driven by the lived experience of survivors, we see the existing care gaps and opportunities clearly. We normalize treatment and support for people with risk factors for offense or experiencing abuse, preventing potential harm and building skills for healthy, safe relationships that foster well-being. Through partnerships, communication, and funding we expand care for those impacted by abuse, educate those who are not, and bridge the healing gap for all in between.
Inform policy
The gap today
EndCAN identifies the value of a collective whole and working in tandem, in partnership and in collaboration with other thought leaders and experts in the field to advance policy initiatives collectively will create the necessary change that will catch law up with the ever-adaptations and needs of culture
Why it matters
When we strengthen child abuse and neglect as a policy priority, we can craft meaningful policy that addresses it head-on. Without policy, we don’t have guidelines to direct improvement—and we miss opportunities for change.
What we’re doing
We’re working to make child abuse and neglect a priority for policy-makers by bringing forward evidence that inspires policy change and expands funding. We invest in educating decision-makers through the highest-impact, lowest-ask channels—helping them understand what models will improve their work, allowing them to design the best reach and impact for their constituents, and trusting them to create the necessary changes to flow funds effectively into organizations focused on key advancements and growth over personal gain and competition.
Increase funding
The gap today
The comorbidities of child abuse and neglect that manifest later in life— heart disease, cancers, diabetes, and so on—are costly. And fixing them is both imperative and a matter of life and death. Trillions of dollars have been invested in these comorbid diseases, and yet, pennies on the hundreds are invested in preventing them in the first place.
Why it matters
Funding enables us to continue our work toward building a cycle of well-being and prevention. Backed by adequate funds, EndCAN can invest in research and policy to elevate child abuse and neglect as a priority issue, expand effective, impactful prevention models to make them more universally accessible, host advocacy events, and continue the important work of creating community for survivors.
What we’re doing
Generating funds to fight child abuse and neglect starts with demonstrating that it’s an addressable area of public health—and everything we do is in service of that goal. From our policy work, to our grantmaking, to our media exposure, the EndCAN team works tirelessly to inform and educate about child abuse and neglect in service of combatting the stigma, spreading the word, and drawing more resources toward well-being.
How we work
We take a systemic approach to addressing abuse through fundraising, grantmaking, public messaging, community engagement, and partnership. When we directly confront the realities of child abuse and neglect—together—we have the power not just to manage it, but to reform it. To eliminate it.