Advocates raise awareness for preventing child abuse

Apr. 9—April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and local advocates are raising awareness to ensure children grow up safe and loved.

"People need to understand the reality of child abuse and that it happens everywhere," said Melissa Birdsell, executive director of Voices of Courage Child Advocacy Center. "It's happening right here in our own community and we need to be sure that everyone is aware of not only the prevalence of it, but also, how do we handle it, what do we do about it and how can we make it better going forward?"

Child abuse does remain a concern in the area and it's kept Voices of Courage busy servicing hundreds of families.

On average, they're working with 500 kids a year through the forensic interview department as an immediate response to an allegation of abuse.

So far, in the first quarter of 2024, advocates have met with over 200 families and more than 250 therapy sessions have taken place.

"We're on pace with last year where we saw a bump in numbers as well," Birdsell said. "We're servicing a lot of families and children, so being able to bring in additional staff members to help us has been great because we believe that's what has kept everything moving for us."

In addition, the advocacy center recently added a prevention specialist that has trained over 1100 people this year alone with one thousand of those being children.

Child abuse often goes unreported or unnoticed, officials say, and staying involved in your child's life could reduce the millions of child abuse cases that people don't see.

"The number one thing that keeps kids safe is having people they trust in their lives," Birdsell said. "The main thing we want to make sure people understand is one of the reasons it goes overlooked is because we don't want to see it so we have to open our minds to the fact that it can happen to anybody, including our own children. That's part of what we are trying to bring awareness to this month."

Several events organized by Voices of Courage are scheduled this month allowing the public to get involved in the initiative of preventing child abuse, including the Courage Conference and crime victim rights week.

For information on upcoming events, you can visit Voices of Courage Child Advocacy center website at voicescac.org.

Jenna Wilson can be reached at jenna.wilson@newspressnow.com.

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