Monticello Live

Any time a child is abused or neglected, it is a tragedy. Unfortunately, it happens every day, in every community. The month of April is recognized across the nation as Child Abuse Prevention Month. It is a time to come together as a community to increase awareness and provide education and support to help prevent child abuse and neglect.

This year, CASA of the 10th Judicial District (CASA),  Children’s Advocacy Center of South Arkansas (CAC), The Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), and The CALL in Southeast Arkansas joined efforts with the Mayor of Monticello, Arkansas Jason Akers to bring awareness to Drew County. Mayor Akers read and signed a proclamation recognizing April as Child Abuse Prevention Month and planted a pinwheel garden to show their commitment to preventing child abuse and neglect. The blue pinwheel is the national symbol for child abuse prevention, representing the happy, healthy childhoods all children should have.

CASA of the 10th Judicial District recruits and trains local community members to investigate, monitor and report back to the court their findings, keeping the best interest of the child in the forefront and ensuring the child has a safe, permanent home.  The lawyers know the statutes, the social workers the regulations. But the CASA volunteer is assigned to know the child, one child at a time, to understand the boundaries of the child’s life, to telephone teachers, to consider the child’s hopes and dreams, to try to come to some conclusion about what will be in best interest of the child. For children whose pasts have been chaotic and whose futures are uncertain, the CASA volunteer may be the most consistent, interested presence in their lives. CASA of the 10th Judicial District serves Ashley, Bradley, Drew, Desha, and Chicot Counties.  For more information please visit www.CASAofthe10th.org.

The CAC is a safe place for children who may have been abused to tell their story and get the help they need to begin the healing process.  One goal is to reduce the impact of trauma, provide medical and mental health services for children and their families, and facilitate the prosecution of offenders by working together through a multidisciplinary team approach. A multi-disciplinary team (MDT) is the key to the Children’s Advocacy Center. Professionals from a variety of agencies – child protection workers, law enforcement officers, mental health providers, advocates, and prosecutors – join forces to ensure child victims are receiving the essential services, referrals, as well as tracking the progress of the criminal case. The CAC of South Arkansas serves Union, Ouachita, Calhoun, Bradley, Drew, Ashley and Chicot Counties.

The Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) works to ensure safety and permanency for children and youth of all ages and to strengthen families. The division works alongside national and local partners to respectfully engage children and youth, families, and communities to prevent and protect them from child abuse and neglect, provide safety and stability through foster care, and permanency through reunification, adoption, and other services. More foster homes are needed. Children in foster care do better in homes with families, not facilities. We need caring, patient, and flexible foster families who can provide temporary care to children while we work to get them safely back home to their original families as quickly as possible.

The CALL in Southeast Arkansas serves Ashley, Bradley, Chicot, Desha, Drew, and Lincoln and is an affiliate of the statewide organization that recruits, trains and supports foster and adoptive families through local church and community partnerships. Their mission is to encourage, educate and equip the Christian community to provide a future and hope to children in foster care in Southeast Arkansas. The CALL in Southeast Arkansas hope to see a day where no child is found waiting for safe and appropriate placement in Arkansas foster care. To see how you can help The CALL in Southeast Arkansas please visit https://www.thecallinarkansas.org/sea.

CASA, CAC, DCFS, and The CALL in Southeast Arkansas have partnered with Every Child Arkansas to help citizens like you connect with the right people in your community to begin the foster parent approval process — and support you along the way! To learn more about becoming a foster family in Arkansas or other ways that you can provide love, care, and support for vulnerable children and families in our state, please visit  Every Child Arkansas at https://everychildarkansas.org.

“It just takes one person to make a positive impact on a child and family.  – organizations, governmental agencies, businesses, communities, neighborhoods, faith-based groups and individuals all need to to join together and invest in the lives of the children in our community,” Executive Director Jerri Willis-Mendiola said.

To report child abuse or neglect in Arkansas, you can call the Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-482-5964 (TDD: 1-800-843-6349). Please give as much information about the incident, the victim, and the alleged perpetrator as possible. You’ll need to be as specific as possible about what your concerns are – the more information we have, the better we are able to respond.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 21st, 2024 at 6:55 am and is filed under City, County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.