April 15 marks the third anniversary of six-year-old AJ Freund’s death from child abuse. Though most of us remember his name, there have been so many others since including six-year-olds Damari Perry and infants Ameer and Johntavis Newell. Have we learned anything since then?

The average number of children who die from abuse or neglect in the U.S. fluctuates between 4 and 5 per day. Illinois has the fourth-highest record of deaths in the country only behind Texas, California, and New York. Does that mean we haven’t learned anything?

No. While we still have a long way to go, together, we’re working to end abuse every day, and abuse CAN be prevented. Some of the things we have learned:

• Education is the best defense against child maltreatment; knowing the causes, knowing the symptoms; what part each of us can play to stop it
• We’ve identified flaws in our child welfare system, and Shelter has been leading advocacy for making systemic changes
• Our collective consciousness has been raised about the epidemic of child maltreatment in many forms including human trafficking that occurs in all communities
• Clinical programs, like Shelters, have been expanded to help kids heal from trauma and adults break the cycle of abuse
• Most perpetrators of child abuse and neglect are family members
• The more we work together, the more success we have
• Child abuse affects us all where we live, where we work, and all parts of our community
• While there is no way to know how many lives have been saved, we do know, with your help, Shelter reduces abuse every day and improves the quality of life for kids, families, and our community

Every child is filled with remarkable promise. We have a collective responsibility to prevent violence or other forms of adversity from dampening–or extinguishing–children’s potential to learn, grow, and contribute to our communities.