Courthouse Display to Raise Awareness for Child Abuse Prevention

  • Courthouse Display to Raise Awareness for Child Abuse Prevention
    Courthouse Display to Raise Awareness for Child Abuse Prevention

WATONGA – A display of blue pinwheels outside the Blaine County Courthouse is coming soon to raise awareness about National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April.

The Garfield County Child Advocacy Council, which has a Blaine County office, is running the program to educate the public about child abuse and recruit volunteers. Each pinwheel will correspond to a documented case of child abuse in Blaine County in 2021 – 60 cases total, said the Child Advocacy Council’s Dustin Albright.

That’s up from 48 cases in 2020, he said.

Albright attributes the jump largely to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was harder to report cases in 2020, he said, when children were at home and not around the people who often make such reports, like teachers. Frustrations about the economy, lockdowns, declining business and periods of isolation may have also increased abuse.

How to help

The Child Advocacy Council is looking for individuals and businesses who want to sponsor pinwheels to benefit the organization and its mission to help vulnerable kids. Oklahoma AgCredit has already stepped up as a major sponsor of the Blaine County event, Albright said.

To sponsor a pinwheel or donate to the Child Advocacy Council, residents can call the organization at 580-242-1153, reach out on Facebook, or find more information online at theCareCampus.com.

Alyson Burrow is the volunteer coordinator for the Court Appointed Special Advocates program, or CASA, in the Fourth Judicial District. She said the best way to help Blaine County kids is to volunteer to become a CASA.

CASAs are not foster parents – they are trained advocates who meet monthly with children who’ve been removed from their homes. CASAs advocate for the child’s interest in the courtroom, and provide a consistent presence in the child’s tumultuous life.

“Blaine County is one area that we absolutely need more help,” Albright said, adding that more men are especially needed in the program.

“I would like to see Blaine County have a CASA for each one of the cases that are involved with (the Department of Human Services),” said Michelle Baldwin, a victim advocate at the Child Advocacy Council.

Becoming a CASA involves 30 hours of training – 15 in person and 15 at home. Then the time commitment is about six to eight hours per month. “It seems overwhelming at first,” Burrow said, “but once you do it, and once you get that case and spend that time with that child, the look on their face and the reward of building that relationship with that child is amazing.”

Again, more information about becoming a CASA is available at 580-242-1153, on the organization’s Facebook page, or at theCareCampus.com on the “Volunteer” page.