About The CAN/Do Project

CAN/Do is the Child Abuse and Neglect Disabilities Outreach Project. Under funding from the California Governor's Office on Criminal Justice Planning (OCJP), CAN/Do is pursuing three critical objectives:

• Statewide collaboration through meetings of a multi-agency Think Tank. The CAN/Do project works to compile and disseminate "best practices" so that agencies and organizations can succeed in the mission of preventing the abuse of children with disabilities.
• Improvement in data-gathering. Those who work with children with disabilities, and are concerned about child abuse, need to know the size and scope of the problem. CAN/Do works with state agencies (such at Child Protective Services and the Department of Justice) to see how reporting systems can gather and document cases of abuse of children with disabilities. Success will come when we have accurate data being gathered every year so we can track our progress in preventing the abuse of children with disabilities.
• State-of-the-art training. The CAN/Do project is conducting a statewide, nationwide, and international search to identify the best training technologies on child abuse and children with disabilites. When state-of-the-art training systems are assembled and customized to the needs of California, we will be able to be disseminate the training throughout the state. A well trained workforce can assure that abused children with disabilities will receive the care and treatment they need, and that prevention efforts can be implemented so that such children will not be abused in the first place.

CAN/Do is administered through ARC Riverside, under the direction of Jim Stream, Executive Director. Leading the project is Nora Baladerian, Ph.D., who has over 20 years of practice and experience in the treatment and prevention of the abuse of children with disabilities. Tom Hanna serves as the project's information technology specialist, and also directs the Child Abuse Prevention Network.

CAN/Do is also the organizer of the 8th National/1st International Conference on the Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities, February 24-27, 2002, Riverside, California.