From The Tribune staff reports
TRUSSVILLE — The City of Trussville announced April 2022 as Child Abuse Prevention Month, and Prescott House Child Advocacy Center as the agency that serves child victims and witnesses to violence in the City of Trussville
According to the proclamation presented to the city council on Thursday, April 7, all children have a right to grow up in safe, stable, and nurturing homes and live in communities that foster healthy growth and development, and child abuse and neglect is a serious problem affecting every segment of our city, and finding solutions requires input and action from everyone in our community.
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“I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of these individuals here at the Prescott House and my capacity with I was with the city of Trussville as well as a lot of crossover cases now with the DA’s office,” Councilmember Ben Short said. “I don’t think the community truly understands what you’re forensic interviewers and what your advocates do, so I am grateful for all that you do.”
Preventing child abuse and neglect is a community responsibility that affects both the current and future quality of life of a community; in 2021, there were 26,514 reported cases of child abuse and neglect in the state of Alabama with 10,430 abusers indicted. Over 40 percent of abuse and trauma cases that Prescott House received in 2021 involved children who reside in the city of Birmingham; and
The Prescott House Child Advocacy Center serves the vast majority of the Birmingham-Hoover metro area, our children are our most valuable assets in providing positive growth and therefore an exceptional future that will forever shape our City.
Members of the Prescott House thanked the city council, mayor, and citizens for supporting them. They shared a poem that a little boy shared with them that depicts what the Prescott House aims for every day.
The poem reads, “I am somebody, I believe in myself. I deserve to do my best, I refuse to be average. There are no shortcuts to greatness, there is a plan for my life to have a future.”
Effective child abuse prevention activities succeed because of the meaningful connections and partnerships created between child advocacy centers, child welfare, education, health care, community and faith-based organizations, law enforcement agencies, and civil authorities. Communities that provide parents with the social support, knowledge of parenting and child development, and concrete resources they need to cope with stress and nurture their children help to ensure that all children grow into their full potential
The city of Trussville encourages its citizens to work together as a community to increase awareness about child abuse and contribute to the social and emotional well-being of children and families in a safe, nurturing environment.