Silver and blue pinwheels have taken over the front lawn of Pierce County Juvenile Court, and are springing up around Tacoma and Pierce County to help bring awareness to National Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month.
For the third year Pierce County Juvenile Court’s CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) Program kicked off the “Pinwheels for Prevention”campaign by planting pinwheels around town during April to raise awareness for the area’s abused children. The pinwheel is the new national symbol of child abuse and neglect prevention and symbolizes the hope for the happy, healthy, and carefree childhood of children.
There are 250 CASA volunteers who provide advocacy for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and/or neglect and remind all parties involved – social workers, attorneys, parents, judges – that the child is the focus of the case, and needs a permanent, safe, stable home.
Pinwheels will be planted all over the county to bring attention to more than 1,500 abused and neglected children in foster care locally. The display of 750 pinwheels on Juvenile Court’s lawn represents the number of abused and neglected children who do not have a CASA to advocate for them.
In addition to raising community awareness of child abuse, the CASA Program hopes to recruit more CASA volunteers to speak up for our county’s most vulnerable young citizens as they make their way through the foster care system on their way home. For more information about the CASA Program, call Carrie Appling at (253) 798-3837 or visit https://piercecasa.org.
Pinwheels for Prevention is a national campaign which began in 2008 by Prevent Child Abuse America and Healthy Families America.
MEDIA CONTACT:
TJ Bohl, Pierce County Juvenile Court administrator
(253) 798-7988
[email protected]