Children’s Center’s Kickoff to Child Abuse Prevention Month
Guest post by: Liliana Will, Children’s Center Prevention Coordinator
In 1983, April was designated as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Every year since, organizations like Children’s Center have made progress toward ending child abuse and neglect.
On April 1st, we gathered to take stock of the work we have accomplished, and to recognize the families, caregivers, and communities that work together to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families.
As part of our kickoff celebration for Child Abuse Prevention Month, we debuted our new kinetic pinwheel sculpture. This pinwheel represents the thousands of adults we have engaged and trained in the past year to prevent, recognize, and react responsibly to child abuse and neglect. We have accomplished this through trainings, media presentations, and by building strong partnerships with our community.
Child maltreatment is a worldwide problem. The realities of this problem are often silenced by those involved. The way forward includes support of victims, but it also must include preventing victimization. The issue of child abuse needs to be addressed, not suppressed. When this problem is brought out into the open, it can be resolved and prevented.
Events like the Child Abuse Prevention Month kickoff we held in the Healing Garden help bring this conversation out of the darkness and into the light, so that child abuse and neglect can end.
In April, and during the entire year, Children’s Center staff and partners energetically work to raise awareness of child abuse, and to educate adults on the means to prevent it. Our Prevention and Engagement Program provides Stewards of Children’s workshops, created by the nationally recognized non-profit Darkness to Light.
In the workshop, we share educational materials, strategies, and resources to prevent child abuse and neglect. We are proud to have the capacity to provide this information to adults in both English and Spanish, to better serve the diverse character of our community.
Children’s Center is working to reach a tipping point in Clackamas County where a myriad of adults are trained and prepared to end child maltreatment in our community. Together, we are building a world where all children feel safe, valued, and heard.
If you would like to attend one of our Stewards of Children workshops, please click here.
– Liliana
