The Carbon County Family Support Center and Children’s Justice Center have been campaigning this month for National Child Abuse Prevention Month and they are preparing for Utah’s Family Month coming up in May. Director, Shelley Wright took time to come into Castle Country Radio Station to share all details.
“So first of all, I just want the community to understand that Child Abuse Awareness Month is nationally recognized. It’s just a national movement and the idea is one, to make people aware of child abuse does exist, unfortunately, and it becomes a community problem. But the other thing we really want to focus on is how do we strengthen these families so that we can prevent or reduce the incidents of child abuse and neglect,” stated Wright. The Carbon County Family Support Center and Children’s Justice Center has so many different opportunities to help families prevent child abuse and neglect.
One of the services that the Family Support Center and Children’s Justice Center provides is a Crisis Nursery facility. “This program really focuses on child care for families who are undergoing an unreasonable amount of stress. If they’re dealing with a crisis, overwhelmed with the demands of parenthood, and the demands of being a responsible adult. We want parents to use our facility, bring the children in while they take the time that they need to take care of themselves,” said Wright. The organization also offers an 8-week parenting classes to assist parents with parenting techniques, understand child development and what’s appropriate, and it really focuses on parents with newborns. If you would like to learn more about the free parenting course, contact the Family Support Center and Children’s Justice Center at (435) 636-3739.
It’s Utah Family Month beginning Mother’s Day, May 8 running through to Father’s Day, June 19 and the organization is planning a community gathering to celebrate. “So it runs from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day and the whole idea is to really focus on the family unit. It doesn’t matter if you’re living in a two-parent household or a single-parent household, the idea is just to help strengthen the family, provide activities. So every year for the last five or six years we’ve been hosting a kite flying day and we will do that again this year. We don’t’ have a date picked out, it will be in June but we will be serving hotdogs and hamburgers like we did before, we’ll be giving away kites, and frisbees and have some outdoor activities,” said Wright. More details of the Kite Flying Day will come at a later time when the event details are finalized.
To learn more about Carbon County Family Support Center and Children’s Justice Center visit their website or Facebook page.