Sweet Home Mayor Craig Fentiman will declare April Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month in Sweet Home after the Linn County Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse (LCCPCA) provides a proclamation to be read.
Marsha Swanson, with LCCPCA, asked the City Council to make the declaration and to burn a three-wick candle at its meetings during April to represent the three children who die to child abuse each day.
The council agreed, and Swanson lit the candle at its meeting on March 26.
A coalition of local committees is organizing activities for the month. They include Linn County committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse, ABC House, The Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence, Linn County Child Welfare (formerly SCF), First United Methodist Church of Albany and Benton County Family Violence Council.
Among the activities are the following:
– The child abuse prevention exhibit “Hear the Unheard Voice” on display in Linn and Benton County and an educational display at Albany Public Library.
– An invitation to the 253 Linn and Benton county churches to pray for all abused and neglected children.
– A request to Albany, Lebanon, Sweet Home and Corvallis city councils to declare April Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month and observe three minutes of silence in recognition of the three children who die daily in the United States from abuse and neglect.
“Hear the Unheard Voice” is on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Sweet Home on April 13 at Santiam Drug Store.
It also will be on display at Lebanon Wal-Mart from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 14; from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 10 at Linn-Benton Community College; from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Oregon State University Quad; and from April 18 to April 21 at Albany Heritage Mall. It will be on display in Corvallis in a place and at a time to be announced.
“Hear the Unheard Voice” was created by Plain Talk of Benton County using many volunteer hours and donations from businesses.
The exhibit includes 29 life-size images of children and information panels. Twenty images represent the 20 children whose deaths were caused by child abuse in Oregon in 1999. Nine images represent the children in each age group who suffered abuse or neglect.
The information panels are updated with Oregon’s 2000 statistics. They also provide strategies to prevent abuse and how to get help for kids, teens and parents. They define what abuse is. They explain what to do if abuse is suspected. They provide statistics for Oregon and Linn and Benton counties and provide community resource information.