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April is National Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month and on
April 9, 2013, Mahoning County Children Services in collaboration
with the Child Advocacy Center will host its’ 8th annual
Pinwheels for Prevention event.
Pinwheels for
Prevention is a nationwide public awareness campaign created by
Prevent Child Abuse America to encourage Americans to take action to
prevent child abuse and neglect from ever occurring. The Pinwheel
not only serves as a symbol of a happy childhood, but it also
represents “change” due to its constant movement. The pinwheel can
be moved with little effort just as it takes a little effort to make
a difference in a child’s life. The prevention message has evolved
or “changed” from being just an awareness message to one of
providing solutions for effective prevention. The goal of the
campaign is to stop child abuse before it ever occurs.
According to the
2011 National Child Abuse and Neglect Annual Child Maltreatment
Report, there were approximately 676,569 victims of child abuse and
neglect in the United States.
Last year,
Mahoning County Children Services investigated 925 reports of child
abuse or neglect. These reports were provided by caring adults in
our community who advocated for the safety of children and each of
these advocacy calls will be represented and displayed throughout
the month of April in the form of a pinwheel on the lawn of Akron
Children’s Hospital in Boardman.
This year, our
awareness event will be held at Mahoning County Children Services on
April 9th at 12:00 Noon. The event will last approximately one hour
and will be held in the agency conference rooms. Our event agenda
will include remarks from Interim Director, David Arnold and our
keynote speaker will be sexual abuse expert, Cynthia King.
For additional information or to RSVP, please
contact Radhika Cruz at 330-941-8852. Thank you! | 
