April brings the beginning of spring – flowering trees and warmer weather, my favorite season. April also brings National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Child abuse is not something we think about with the bright colors of spring or the hope of a new season. Black and blue are not colors we associate with spring. Sunrise Children’s Services works diligently every day to bring the hope and promise of spring into Kentucky’s black and blue kids.
April will come and go, but the tragedy and hopelessness of child abuse continues to affect over 15,000 children in Kentucky annually. Sunrise serves an average 500 of these children daily. You could say that every month is Child Abuse Prevention Month for Sunrise.
The children we serve come from homes that model problem solving by hitting spouses and children and abusing drugs and alcohol. Joe came to Sunrise’s Crossroads Treatment Center in Elizabethtown having seen his father beat his mother during drunken rages. Joe began to mimic the behavior he witnessed. After several weeks of the staff at Crossroads working with Joe, sharing appropriate ways to handle his anger, he began to change. As he learned how to begin breaking the cycle of abuse, Joe learned to be more respectful. His father joined him in counseling helping them begin a new relationship.
This is just one of hundreds of examples of the children who come into our care receiving a sense of hope and new beginnings. When the cycle of abuse is broken, generations to come are spared the pain and our society benefits as well.
April shouldn’t be the only month that we try to prevent child abuse. It should be every day of every month in every church and neighborhood. Child abuse is not contained to one part of town. We invite you to join us in being the answer to this issue that plagues many of Kentucky’s children. Help us be a part of the beginning of spring and new hope for a young person’s life.
Please visit our secure Web site at www.sunrise.org and make a tax-deductible donation. As you support the work of Sunrise Children’s Services, you are supporting the change in individual young lives and the hundreds of lives these children will touch in the future. When we reduce child abuse in Kentucky, everyone benefits. Please send a generous gift today!
Posted by: |