Posted: 5/4/2016

Child Abuse Prevention Month 2016 Recap

Now that April Child Abuse Prevention Month has come to a close, we wanted to first and foremost thank our entire community for their support of the Pinwheels for Prevention^® Campaign here locally. Hundreds of individuals wore their pinwheel lapel pins, displayed the blue and silver pinwheel, distributed parent resource guides, displayed signage and bulletin boards, and shared the message about the importance of child abuse prevention.  Many of our community leaders, Mayors, and Commissioners proclaimed April as Child Abuse Prevention Month as well.

Thank you to everyone who attended, coordinated, planned, and supported one of the many events that were held in Polk, Highlands, and Hardee Counties. Each year, these events are a reminder of the support for strong families and happy childhoods in our community.

It is important to remember that our roles are vital all year, not just in the month of April, and we can all do our part.

Prevention isn’t complicated, and is largely about supporting families and helping parents reduce stress.

Helping to watch children while a parent goes to the grocery store or takes a couple hours to refresh and renew themselves, providing a listening and supportive ear to a parent who needs to talk about challenges they face as a parent, connecting parents to existing resources such as support groups, faith communities and community programming, or using your time and talents to support local programs that provide programming for children and families, are things that we can all do to support families.

There is no step too small when it comes to helping assure children grow and learn in families and communities that nurture, love and support them.

Join us in our year-round prevention work.

Help connect parents to free infant massage classes, sponsor a teen dating violence prevention program, walk alongside your faith community as they support parents in various capacities and spreading the word about our online resource database at heartland.auntbertha.com.

Don’t hesitate to check out our website at heartlandforchildren.org or call us at (863) 519-8900 to find out more information, and be sure to follow us on social media.