“Do Right By Kids was a Monroe County initiative that started over 20 years ago to provide accurate information in a specialized way, with a central theme of supporting children and their families,” said Corbett, who retired in 2017 but worked together with John Riley at Metrix Marketing to create Do Right By Kids. Riley also served on the board of the Bivona Child Advocacy Center.
“When we began, it was just an idea without a name, to counter some of the misperceptions of CPS by explaining how and why the system works the way it does,” Corbett said.
At the time of its origin, there was an increase in concern within Monroe County CPS as a result of several high profile child abuse deaths over a short span of time. According to news reports covering the cases, there were people who knew the situations were bad, yet no one made a report to CPS.
The DRBK development team outlined five fundamental groups of mandated reporters: medical, law enforcement, educators, day care providers, and mental health/social workers. For each group, they identified their unique needs, knowledge and skills related to reporting abuse and neglect.
“A lot of market research went into discovering the peculiarities of each of those groups,” said Corbett. “We conducted focus groups with mandated reporters to determine their knowledge—and misconceptions—of CPS and the reporting process.”
The result was the development of an integrated campaign directed at mandated reporters to provide them with useful and accurate information, along with encouragement to understand and carry out their reporting responsibilities.
The Do Right By Kids website was tailored to that group, in Q&A form—a simple and easy-to-follow interface to better understand a complex system. The educational component of the newsletter also serves to highlight the myriad resources in our community that partner with CPS to fulfill basic needs of vulnerable families and promote child well-being.
