Pinwheels were planted in front of One Door Polk as a reminder on Monday afternoon that child abuse continues in the community, and local residents can do much more to tackle the problem locally, statewide and nationally.
The beginning of Child Abuse Prevention Month was met by local organizers like Rhonda Heuer of Polk Family Connection with an opportunity to continue an annual tradition of putting out pinwheels around the community to promote the prevention of child abuse across the community.
Local 4-H students volunteered to help out with the effort this year in front of One Door Polk, along with officials from offices at ODP as well.
Child abuse remains a problem in Polk in a variety of ways, ranging from physical abuse and maltreatment to specific victims, like those who have been sexually abused. Statistics available for a period between June 2021 and May 2022 showed that Polk had 427 maltreatment reports made with 378 individual children, and 199 investigations made.
Additionally, some 86 victims of abuse were reported, 24 of those removed to foster care.
As of September 2023, some 75 children were in foster care due to removals for various reasons.
The National Children’s Alliance estimates that some 600,000 children are abused or mistreated annually. Learn more about those statistics here.
Learn more about April being recognized as Child Abuse Prevention Month here.
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