Services are provided at a child-appropriate facility designed to provide a
warm, friendly and safe environment. Services offered are child-appropriate,
culturally competent and legally sound, and include: case review; case
tracking; forensic interviews; referrals for medical exams when necessary;
victim support and advocacy; Supportive counseling, and Community education
and awareness.
Mercer County recorded the
highest number of open child abuse cases in West Virginia in 2002 and 2003,
despite being only the 8th largest county in the state, and as of 2005
recorded 253 open cases of child abuse.
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The Community Foundation
awarded Child Protect $2,000 to purchase 1,500 copies each of two workbooks,
Safe and Unsafe Touching and It's OK to Tell, which are being
used in Child Protect's "Body Safety" child abuse prevention education
program. These workbooks have been distributed to 1,155 Mercer County
elementary and middle school students.
The program was presented 175
times to 216 individual classes of students, utilizing 25 high school
students to assist the Prevention Coordinator with the presentations.
Several disclosures of potential child abuse have been made since the
presentations, although it is not possible to know for certain whether the
Body Safety program was responsible for them.
Most of the disclosures were
unable to be substantiated, however, at least one case was substantiated and
is being investigated, and Child Protect staff believe the Body Safety
program is successful in making children aware of inappropriate contact by
adults.
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Child Protect
of Mercer County is a Children's Advocacy Center (CAC)
that lessens the trauma to children who have been victims of child abuse and
neglect or a witness to violence or crime. The organization is located in Princeton, WV,
and is a non-profit organization led by staff and
governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. It provides a warm, home-like
environment that provide services to Mercer and surrounding counties. Child
Protect is a nationally accredited CAC through the National Children's Alliance.