The Carbon County Family Support and Children’s Justice Center is hosting an Open House on Apr. 11 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Director, Shelley Wright to discuss all the details.
“We really want to invite the community so they know the things that we do to support our kiddos and our families. They know when they do make a donation to the center, either through our Friends Board or when they come in the front door, they know what those donations go to and how they support, even just the operating expenses of our facility. Because contracts alone, grants, we run on grants and contracts – sometimes we really need the community support,” said Wright. This is a perfect opportunity to visit the facility to become familiar with the services that both Family Support and Children’s Justice Center offer the community.
The Family Support portion helps to prevent child abuse with all the services they offer. “The child abuse prevention part of our program which is the Family Support Center side. We take care of children; we provide parenting classes. We also offer intensive in-home visiting for families, especially new families, they’re struggling learning how to parent a newborn, and everything that goes into parenting. We offer those services, we’re really trying to educate parents,” said Wright. If you are interested in taking a Parenting Class the Family Support and Children’s Justice Center is gearing up to offer an 8-week course starting April 13. If interested in attending just call the Parent Educator at (435) 636-3200, extension #508.
The Children’s Justice Center focuses on treating child abuse by offering help to those children and their non-offending caretakers. “How we do that is one, we help organize and coordinate the investigation. So the child is brought into the Children’s Justice Center, they receive a forensic interview. Each child that comes through our center we’ll undergo a suicide screener and a trauma symptom assessment. Out of that we determine the need for therapy, we offer trauma therapy for kiddos. Then we just wrap services around that child and family to make sure they are getting what they need to help heal from the devastating effects of child abuse,” stated Wright. They also offer medical services for children who are sexually abused. They provide medical evaluations with medical professionals that are contracted through Primary Children’s Medical Hospital.
To learn more about the services offered by the Carbon County Family Support Center and Children’s Justice Center visit their website at https://www.carbon.utah.gov/