WHEELS OF JUSTICE
Mission Kids Center ‘plants’ pinwheels to observe Child Abuse Prevention month
It ’s spring, which means the crocuses and hyacinths are sprouting, and so are the pinwheels.
Thursday marked Mission Kids Advocacy Center’s fifth event for “Pinwheels for Prevention,” a symbolic “planting” of the shiny toy that conveys childlike whimsy and the carefree years all children are entitled to, but too many are robbed of at the hands of abusers.
Public of f icia ls and members of law enforcement joined Executive Di- rector Abbie Newman and the Mission Kids staff at the facility to add to the garden of blue pinwheels spinning in the breeze in the center’s back yard.
In its countywide childadvocacy efforts, Mission Kids helped pioneer the use of forensic interviewers to speak to young victims of abuse in a nonthreatening environment and record the results.
“I’m very familiar with Mission Kids, and it ’s one of the best things the county has put together,” noted Lansdale Chief of Police Robert McDyre. “I worked as a detective for many years, and this came
"The more we talk about child abuse, the more we bring awareness to it and the less of a stigma there is to it." — Mission Kids Advocacy Center Executive Director Abbie Newman
in after the fact. Doing child abuse cases was horrendous ... We used to interview the child, the district attorney did, and the child would go through that over and over. This is by far the best method they’ve ever come up with.
“With the forensic interviews they interview the child once. Not having the child being interviewed at a police station, but in a more comfortable environment is a great methodology. And then they have the team members here with the family advocates who get them counseling and a follow-up. It’s a great system. And it’s been so helpful for us.”
Newman noted that April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
“The blue and white pinwheel is a symbol of child abuse prevention,” she said. “The people who are here today are team members of Mission Kids. Because we do a multidisciplinary team response for child abuse investigations, a lot of our partners will come out to see us today. We see kids from all over the county so we work with all the different law enforcement departments in the county.”
Invited guests on Thursday included First Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann; Mary Pugh, Jill Moffitt and Patricia Teaford of the Montgomery County Advocacy Project; Montgomery County Commissioner Joseph Gale; Dr. Andrew Trentacoste, Creative Health; Anthony Rodriguez, Michael Williams and Oscar Vance, Mission Kids board members and East Norriton Police Department Chief Karyl Kates.
The only agenda of “pinwheel day” was to keep the awareness of child abuse in high gear, Newman noted.
“The more we talk about child abuse, the more we bring awareness to it and the less of a stigma there is to it,” she said. “The less of a stigma, the more likely people are to report it if they think that something is happening. And that’s the only way to end child abuse, is to have people in the community aware that
it’s out there. “
Some national statistics indicate that child abuse may be decreasing slightly, Newman allowed.
“We like to think that it’s because child advocacy centers are a national movement,” she said. “In Pennsylvania, pre-Sandusky, there were 24 centers for the 67 counties; now there are 35 centers and the number of centers is still growing.
“With that being said,” Newman added, “while we’re gratified that there might be some decrease, we’re talking about how the numbers used to be one of five children abused before the age of 18, and the best possibility is that it’s now one in 10. That’s still a huge number. We still have a long way to go, but we should take this as encouragement for everybody who continues to report and continues to talk to their kids so that we can prevent it.”