April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
The Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children has kicked off it's Pinwheel for Prevention campaign to help the cause.
"You need steps to recovery, to healing to restoration and becoming whole again," says Alison Sorley, development specialist for Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children.
That's why the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children wants people to know they're there to give a voice to those who may find it difficult to speak out.
"We offer free case management counseling forensic exams and interviews, and we want people to know we're here to help them, to help them through this trauma we're experiencing," says Barbara Wright, the Executive director for Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children.
The center serves six Central Texas counties.
Last year the center and it's satellite offices provided 502 forensic interviews with children under the age of 18.
It's a number they hope to decrease through it's Pinwheels for Prevention campaign.
"The pinwheels is a representation of a child that has been through a children's advocacy center for services," says Wright.
"If you could put this pinwheel in your yard or your business, we greatly appreciate it and remind people of and good behaviors and all children deserve great childhoods." says Sorley.
The center says the pandemic made it difficult to spot signs of child abuse as children stayed home and placed victims of sexual abuse in closer proximity of their assaulter.
"It's heart breaking when you hear these horrific stories of what they've gone through," says Wright.
According to the center, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are assaulted before they turn 18.
The majority of the time the abuser isn't a stranger but someone they know.
"We want to always be there for someone. You walk in and you know you're gonna be taken care of you know you're safe and you're on your way to restoration and healing." says Sorley.
The center also has a 24 hour hotline for anyone to call if they feel that they're a victim.
That number is (888) 867-7233.
