Chicago City Wire

Democrat U.S. House Rep. Danny K. Davis will receive a lifetime achievement award and Republican U.S. House Rep. Darin LaHood will speak at Thursday's Prevent Child Abuse America Gala in Chicago, a program official said during a recent interview.

Davis and LaHood are both children's champions and their work to support legislation to prevent child abuse and neglect shows that the cause knows no political bias, Prevent Child Abuse America President & CEO Dan Duffy told Chicago City Wire.

"In this day, with all this political turmoil, we have a Democrat, Danny Davis, and a Republican, Darin LaHood, who are both working together to fight for this important cause, to help prevent child abuse and neglect," Duffy said. "It shows just how bipartisan our cause and our mission really is."

U.S. House Rep. Darin LaHood

Davis has for decades supported federal programs like Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Visiting, which helps fund some of Prevent Child Abuse America's work.

"Congressman Davis has been a big supporter of our programs for years and for children and families in general," Duffy said. "We’re going to give him a lifetime achievement award for all of his hard work."

LaHood's support for child abuse and neglect prevention also is well known, Duffy said. 

"LaHood has also been a big champion for children while he served in the state legislature and now in Congress," he said.

Davis represents the 7th Congressional District of Illinois while LaHood represents the 18th Congressional District of Illinois.

LaHood is expected to provide the introduction and remarks during Thursday's gala at University Club of Chicago on East Monroe Street. The gala itself marks an important milestone in Prevent Child Abuse America's history, Duffy said.

"The gala is to celebrate our 46th year, working to prevent child abuse in America and following our mission, which is to prevent abuse and neglect of our nation's children," Duffy said. "We do that through our 50-state chapter network. We have a chapter in every state."

Prevent Child Abuse America also supports almost 600 Healthy Families America sites across the nation, with a chapter in Springfield and other programs across Illinois, Duffy said.

Prevent Child Abuse America recently expanded into Israel, Duffy said. 

"So we have a global reach," he said.

Duffy said he personally finds the hard work that Prevent Child Abuse America does to be very rewarding.

"For me, it means that a lot of people have been doing a lot of great work for many years to prevent abuse and neglect from taking place," he said. "We're a prevention organization, not an intervention organization. We work with new families and new parents to help them learn proper parenting techniques to raise happy, healthy children before abuse and neglect ever have a chance to occur. So we're a very proactive organization that works to strengthen families and help lead families to self-sufficiency."