Spotlight on the Kempe Foundation: Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect

The Kempe Foundation is recognized as the leading organization in preventing child neglect and abuse worldwide. Here’s what you need to know about the history of the Kempe Foundation and the vital work the organization carries out to help ensure that all children have the opportunities and support they need to develop in a healthy, safe, nurturing environment.

Dr. C. Henry Kempe established the Kempe Foundation in 1961.

Born Karl Heinz Kempe in Breslau, Germany on April 26, 1922, Dr. Kempe was a virologist and pediatrician. He is perhaps best known for being the first person from the medical community to formally identify child abuse.

Born to a Jewish family, Dr. Kempe fled Germany for the United States as a teenager following the rise of Hitler’s Nazi party and institutionalized fascism. Dr. Kempe learned to speak English, completed high school and college, and became a physician. Dr. Kempe became an eminent virologist. He contributed to the development of Vaccinia immune globulin to reduce the adverse effects of the smallpox vaccine.

Dr. C. Henry Kempe became the University of Colorado’s youngest pediatric department chairman. During his tenure with the university, he started to recognize patterns of non-accidental injury in children. Among cases reported by four local hospital emergency rooms, Kempe demanded better diagnostic investigation of unexplained, life-threatening injuries in children, including burns, shattered bones, and brain damage.

In 1962, Dr. C. Henry Kempe co-authored "The Battered Child Syndrome."

This groundbreaking paper led to the recognition and identification of child abuse by the medical community. Throughout his career, Dr. C. Henry Kempe received two Nobel Prize nominations. The first was in recognition of his work improving the safety of the smallpox vaccine. The second was for Dr. Kempe’s contribution to the treatment and prevention of child abuse.

"The Battered Child Syndrome" is still widely regarded as the single most important event to raise awareness of child abuse. The paper offered physicians a method of identifying child neglect and abuse, as well as providing them with information on how to report suspected cases to the relevant authorities. As a tireless advocate and a tenacious researcher, Dr. C. Henry Kempe strived to change laws, policies, and perception, in order to better protect and serve American children.

A decade after publication of "The Battered Child Syndrome," he established the Kempe Center for the prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. Professionals from the Kempe Center work to improve the wellbeing of children in a variety of ways, strengthening communities, families, and the systems that surround them.

In 1976, Dr. Kempe established the Kempe Foundation. It engages professionals, business leaders, and local communities in order to increase awareness of child neglect and abuse; advocate for children; and secure resources for the Kempe Center’s ongoing work.

The Kempe Foundation is recognized as a world leader in preventing child abuse.

The Kempe Foundation currently supports experts in Colorado and around the world. It also advocates for legislation protecting children on a national and regional basis. The Kempe Foundation works with local communities, striving to ensure that children grow up in healthy, safe, nurturing environments.

From the very beginning, the Kempe Foundation has supported experts at the Kempe Center through fundraising and advocacy support. For more than 45 years, the Kempe Center has led the fight against child neglect and abuse. Today, the organization’s programs include behavioral and medical health services which provide child welfare professionals with valuable information and training on the causes and impact of child abuse.

The Kempe Foundation partners with Colorado’s Department of Human Services in order to support at-risk parent-child interactions and families as well as provide guidance on child health and home safety. A program evaluation carried out in 2017 revealed that, among families that completed the program, there was a significant decrease in risk of the family having an open child welfare case within six months of completion.

The Kempe Foundation works with the Colorado Department of Human Services to develop and implement the Child Welfare Training System. This is an advanced adult learning program for foster parents, child welfare workers, and other professionals and mandatory reporters.

The Kempe Foundation partners with organizations such as Project ECHO.

Partnering with ECHO Colorado, the Kempe Foundation has contributed to Project ECHO. The initiative has created a network of health professionals that enables experts and peers to share experience and knowledge via modern technology.

An estimated 400,000 infants born in the US this year will be sexually abused before reaching 18 years of age. Due to environmental factors, as well as the complexities of emotional and physical symptoms, the majority of child abuse continues to go unreported.

Project ECHO is a free six-week series. It provides primary caregivers with applicable skills, best practices, and helpful insights. This enables caregivers to evaluate children's needs based on the resources and information available. Sessions show participants how to identify abuse through primary care assessments. It also provides the necessary resources and information caregivers need to effectively deal with suspected cases.