On Wednesday, November 5th, my group and I went on our first fieldwork to the Child Abuse Prevention Program (or CAPP)’s headquarters in Manhattan. We were all fairly nervous when wegot to the building on Christopher street with the very official-looking golden-plated metal letters on the front, reading: “Center for Child Protection.” When we entered the building, a woman named Marion White, the direction and founder of CAPP whom we had been corresponding with, met us downstairs and took us into a room to show us a video of an old puppet show they did for a public school here in Manhattan. We passed bright yellow painted walls with children’s drawings hung up all over and a big spread of newspaper clippings with headlines about child abuse.
After the video, she took us upstairs, and this is something I’ll never forget: When we were walking to the conference room, we passed people working in their cubicles, and the dedication and urgency on their faces and the concern in their voices as they spoke had such an impact on me. You really can see that this is what these people want to be doing.
While I was setting up the camera she must have noticed us glancing at the puppet in the middle of the room. She opened a bag with three puppets and said how excited she was that we took the time to come talk to her. Then she surprised us by offering to let us hold the puppets and she even took a picture of us with them! We thanked her again and told her how excited we were for the interview as we all sat down. After that, she signed the release and we started filming. Over just that one hour we learned so much about CAPP and child abuse in general from talking to Ms. White. We learned the actual laws of what levels of discipline qualify as abuse, how and why they started their organization, the legal process a child and their family goes through when a case is reported, and more.
After we finished the interview, Ms. White invited us to watch a performance of theirs at another school to see what happens first hand. She also offered to set a tour up for us with Safe Horizon, another child abuse prevention and care organization. She went above and beyond our expectations and we were so happy with the outcome with our visit!
Jared, Nina, Sarah and I with the puppets from CAPP.
