Ounce of Prevention meets for Child Abuse Prevention month

On Tuesday, April 9, Ounce of Prevention and allied organizations filled the hall at the Church on the Rock in Daingerfield to discuss how to further prevent child abuse and spread awareness. These included the Department of Family Protective Services, CASA of Titus, Camp, and Morris Counties, the Child Advocacy Center in Texarkana, Family And Youth Program, and SAFE-T.

On the agenda were updated changes for 4Kids4Families. Kaitlyn Kading with the DFPS said, “Now we contact CPS and we also have online reporting and reports to the hotline as well.

Krystal Homer with CASA encouraged the community to volunteer, “These kids need the help and we don’t always have enough volunteers to handle the case loads. The volunteers we have also have their own families. We appreciate every helping hand.”

For the CAC, FAYS, and SAFE-T, they spoke about their efforts to spread awareness with teachers, healthcare workers, parents, and even with teens. It was also discussed in length that abuse victims need more mental health help, even after escaping their abusive situation.

“When people think of domestic abuse, they think physical,” Allen Lawrence with SAFE-T said. “Especially with teens, it may not be the case. It can be emotional, psychological, or financial abuse. There’s so many ways people can be abused. We all know the old adage ‘sticks and stones’, but it’s not really true.”

This was the last meeting of the school year for Ounce of Prevention, but the coordinator for the meeting, Martha Baker, wants to remind everyone that April 27 is DEA Take Back day and April 28 is Blue Sunday, in which churches can offer prayers for child abuse prevention.