About
“Our children’s future and the world’s future are one.”
Dr. C. Henry Kempe
OurStory
Founded in 1972 by C. Henry Kempe, MD, the Kempe Center was the first of its kind, providing research, training, education, and innovative program development to prevent and treat all forms of child abuse, neglect, and trauma.
In 2022, we celebrated our 50th anniversary. We continue our work in advocating for children and youth’s rights, their health and well-being by strengthening families and supporting communities worldwide.
The Center continues to be one of the longest-running academic center to lead the field in providing evidence-informed services, transformative research, learner-centered education, and effective advocacy, all through an equity lens. For a description of Kempe’s work and programs, please visit our Impact Areas.
OurVision
is a world without child maltreatment.
OurMission
Through an equity lens, we address child maltreatment by improving the well-being of children and families, strengthening their communities, and enhancing the systems serving them through evidence-informed services, transformative research, learner-centered education, and effective advocacy.
OurValues
- JEDI: We integrate JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) in all our work because when people recognize the human potential in all of us regardless of identity, we create a better world for children and families.
- Accountability: Nurtures mutual respect among the team members of the Center contributing to a cohesive and supportive environment.
- Integrity: We strive to be respectfully truthful in our communications, even when it's difficult or uncomfortable.
- Courage: We must take bold actions, face challenges head on and foster a culture of transparency and integrity.
- Meaningful: We are a mechanism for change to advance the well-being of children and families.
- Innovation: We engage in learning opportunities to develop new understandings, and skills, and apply them in ways that advance our mission.
The Kempe CenterWorld Leader
A section of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, The Kempe Center has built a reputation as a world leader in child protection by:
- Evaluating and diagnosing children who are suspected victims of abuse and neglect.
- Providing treatment and therapy for abused and neglected children and their families.
- Developing and testing new programs to help children.
- Training professionals such as doctors, teachers and social workers to protect and heal abused children and support good parenting skills.
- Conducting studies that assist in program development and public policy making.
TheMultidisciplinaryApproach
The Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect has long embraced a multidisciplinary approach, combining the efforts of multiple disciplines (medicine, psychology, sociology, law, social work, education, systems science, research, policy) in one setting focusing on the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. Through the intersection between these disciplines, we have been able to develop integrated knowledge and translate knowledge into practice. We are committed to delivering the highest quality state of the art trauma-informed clinical care and expanding capacity for equity-informed community-based services throughout our region and beyond. Our researchers design, study, and disseminate best practices. We utilize innovative techniques to ensure effective transfer of knowledge to a wide range of learners. And we strive to ensure that knowledge transforms policy and the field.
Through interdisciplinary research, as defined by the National Academies of Sciences, our experts have strived to integrate information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and theories from multiple disciplines to advance fundamental understanding of the complexities of child maltreatment with the goal of developing transformational practices and interventions. In our next 50 years, we aspire to cross disciplinary and sectoral boundaries to create new paradigms and integrate knowledge between disciplines and society through laser focus on our vision of a world without abuse and neglect. We are committed to perform all aspects of our work through a JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) lens.
Events@ The Kempe Center
Each year, the Kempe Center hosts an annual Call to Action conference, various research symposium and institutes, and special advocacy events on various topics. We invite you to visit the page where all of these and other exciting learning opportunities are regularly updated.
