Maggie Ioannacci, 2024 Chaucie’s Champion We are thrilled to share some wonderful news with our community! The Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse and Suicide, previously known as Chaucie's Place, is excited to announce Maggie Ioannacci, Director of Student Services for Zionsville Community School Corporation, as the 2024 Chaucie's Champion. This prestigious award honors individuals who show outstanding dedication to prevention education, leaving a lasting impact on their community. Maggie has been a driving force in promoting child safety and mental health awareness within Zionsvill ..read more

     Ensuring the safety and well-being of children is a shared responsibility that requires awareness, education, and vigilance. One crucial aspect of this is recognizing the warning signs of a potential child sexual abuse perpetrator. By understanding these signs, we empower ourselves to take preventive measures and protect the vulnerable. Here are some key indicators to be mindful of: Excessive Interest in Children: Perpetrators may display an unusually high level of interest in children, seeking out opportunities to be alone with them or engage in activities involving chi ..read more

     Hoosier girls are not okay.    That’s the word from the 2023 Indiana Girl Report, a joint initiative of the Indiana Youth Institute and the Girl Coalition of Indiana. Girls are not okay.    As the Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse & Suicide (ICPYAS) moves into 2024, we are thinking about girls.    According to the report, “among 7th to 12th grade girls in Indiana, 47.1% experienced depression in 2022 and nearly 1 in 4 girls seriously considered suicide. Of these, more than 6,000 girls in high school moved beyond considering suic ..read more

     From Indiana to Washington, DC., news headlines this week focused on Internet safety. On Capitol Hill, executives from Meta, X, TikTok and more answered lawmakers’ questions around safety and accountability for creating a safe environment.   Back at home in Indiana, Hoosier legislators heard Senate Bill 287 which oddly enough pairs mandated “cursive” instruction with requiring the Department of Education to develop age- appropriate Internet safety curriculum, and gives schools the freedom to adopt such curriculum with a target date of July 2025.   While both legi ..read more

     Be The One Youth suicide rates have been rising for the past two decades. Suicide rates for individuals aged 10-24 were stable from 2000 to 2007 but increased by nearly 60% between 2008 and 2018. In 2019, suicide was the 2nd leading cause of death among Hoosier youth ages 10-14 and the 3rd leading cause among Hoosier youth ages 15-19. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of treatment options for adolescents struggling with mood disorders and suicidal ideation. From 2012 to 2020, there was a 30% decline in residential treatment facilities that serve individuals under the age ..read more

 This month we are featuring former Board Member, Beth Stickles McDaniel. Her dedication and passion for our mission is unsurpassed. Thank you for your hard work, vision and leadership in support of our mission! How long have you been serving on the Board at ICPYAS and what is your role? I was on the Board from 2012-2022. I served as chair of the Development /Grants and Finance committees, Treasurer, and Liaison to the Honorary Board. How did you learn about ICPYAS and become involved? When Chaucie's Place was formed I learned about its mission from two of the early board members. My hus ..read more

     Back to School Time Believe it or not, it is back to school time! Here in central Indiana, we have schools resuming as early as next week! As much as we all love summer, there is something about starting school that brings everyone excitement. From new shoes to new supplies, there is a sense of newness that comes this time of year.  With all that excitement, there are feelings of anxiety and worry that can come with the change. Times of transition can be a trigger for some students, and those feelings of anxiety and concern might not always show in the way that we as ..read more

     June is Internet Safety Month In 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 29,397,681 reports of suspected child sexual exploitation on the CyberTipline. The majority of those reports involved online exchange of child sexual abuse material, which are photos or videos of child sexual abuse. In cases where NCMEC can identify the child in the image, they found most people abusing a child and sharing those images were neighbors or family friends of the child (22.37%.) Another 15.49% of people exchanging child sexual abuse material had enticed youth ..read more

     Building Resiliency in Youth   Sometimes – despite our best intentions and efforts – bad things happen to children. While we must all do what we can to prevent youth and families from experiencing trauma and adversity, we also need to do what we can to ensure individuals are able to recover when something bad does happen. Building a child’s resiliency before and after trauma is a vital piece of helping youth to not only survive but thrive. But how do we do this? Resilience can seem like a vague concept at times. Sometimes resiliency is perceived as “toughening up” a c ..read more

     The Support of Five Adults      Have you wondered what makes children thrive? If you google this topic (as I did) you will find a plethora of theories on if children become successful adults or not. Part of the problem with this topic is we all have different definitions for these words. Let’s take successful for example. Many will think successful to mean being rich and powerful. That is not how I view the term. To me, successful is when you are a healthy, contributing member of society. For some this also means being able to live independently. If the ..read more