The organization Prevent Child Abuse Iowa is marking its 40th year of educating the public about how to make sure all children live in safe environments. Sarah Welch, spokeswoman for the Des Moines-based group, says they’ve made great progress over the decades, but there’s much work yet to be done.
“You tend to think, ‘Oh, 40 years? Have we really gotten anywhere? There’s still child abuse that exists, are we making progress?’ and then you listen to the stories and listen to the successes that we’ve had and we’ve really moved the needle on people being more aware that child abuse exists and it’s really turned now into this effort to look at how do we build the environment that children need to grow up safe and nurtured.” Welch says the group’s website will be touting its success stories all month.
“As part of our 40th anniversary, we’re doing 40 stories of impact, so we’re interviewing 40 people who have all played a role across the state in the bigger child abuse prevention movement.”
The organization’s annual prevention conference is scheduled for next week, on April 14th and 15th in Des Moines. Learn more about the conference and the group at: www.pcaiowa.org or call 800-Children.
(Reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)