The Section on Child Maltreatment wishes you a happy fall and wonderful winter holiday season. We are pleased to share a few updates with you.
In August, our members were active in the virtual APA convention. The section formally participated in or led two presentations, including a celebration of our own 25th Anniversary and Annual Awards and a 60-minute symposium entitled “Converging Public Health Crises: Preventing Child Maltreatment During COVID-19.” We hope you had a chance to join us (or stream the sessions virtually in the last 3 months) for these section activities in addition to the many other exciting Div. 37 presentations. We were also delighted to celebrate our award winners for the year and look forward to highlighting their work in our upcoming newsletters this year. We are eagerly planning submissions for the 2022 convention in Minneapolis—and are eager to jointly host presentations and activities with the division again. Our Early Career Psychologists Committee is also excited to plan networking events in conjunction with the APA convention as well as other upcoming (hopefully in-person conferences) in the coming year.
Our greatest accomplishment this fall was the launch of our new websiteopens in new window. Through this website, we have a new user interface and membership portal, separate from our old, APA-sponsored website. We will be transitioning our materials from the old website to the new one and, over the coming year, adding new membership resources to the website. We encourage you to check it out—and to join the section to stay up to date. If you are a current or prior member of the section, you should have received a welcome email from our Club Express website in mid-November, and you can follow the prompts to renew your membership via the portal. If you did not receive a link, but think you were a member, please reach out to Anna Washington, our section membership chair. If you are not yet a member, but would like to join, please go to the website and click “new member sign-up” at the top of the page. Special thanks to Anna Washington, Treasurer Yoojin Chae, and Communications and Technology Chair Monica Lawson for their time and efforts on building the new website.
We are also currently in the process of electing new Board members, including a treasurer and two members-at-large, and look forward to announcing these as well as appointing a new Communications and Technology chair, Early Career Psychologists co-chair, and Convention Program co-chair in the new year. Our student board is also in the process of recruiting new members, and we look forward to having full and active boards ready to serve for 20
At the turn of the new year, we will mark two years of this new era with COVID-19. This storm has brought much disruption in our approaches to our work and in the lives of the children and families we serve. It has been inspiring to see the members of our section and division face these winds of change and tack our ships to reset course and keep sailing ahead toward our goal. By seeking novel solutions and working together, we will continue to realize the division’s commitment to the application of psychological knowledge to advocacy, social justice, service delivery and public policy affecting children, youth and families in a diverse society.