October is Child Abuse Prevention Month and community members gathered at Family and Children’s Services Guelph-Wellington (FACS) on Oct. 23 to celebrate positive progress made in the last year and initiate a reminder that child protection and family support are everyone’s responsibility.
The annual seminar partners with a community program or initiative that has a connection to child welfare and this year’s organization was Give Yourself Credit – an alternative public school program that offers community-based education for vulnerable youth.
Students enrolled in the Give Yourself Credit program attended the event, which featured a showcase of artwork they created as part of awareness month.
Executive director Rosemary Coombs said the program was developed to help youth who were not finding success in the mainstream education system – to give them a place to work on their own.
Within three years it had been recognized by the government and now has a permanent staff. She says although the program was largely a success because of the community coming together, the real leaders are the youth.
“All of the youth that have come to Give Yourself Credit have decided that they want to change their lives. They’ve decided they want to do the credits, they show up – nobody tells them they have to come – they can walk at any time, but they walk through those doors every day to change the trajectory of their lives,” she said.
Staff and other community leaders who have worked with FACS and Give Yourself Credit also addressed the crowd, including Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge.
She said that although Guelph has a reputation as a safe, sustainable and welcoming place to live, this is not the reality for everyone who calls it home. She said emphasis needs to be on prevention and having services like Give Yourself Credit in place to provide assistance before a crisis is reached.
“We need to be able to have a positive intervention early on before a risk turns into a crisis,” she said.
“In terms of eliminating the abuse of children in Guelph [we need to] provide the support that people need so that doesn’t happen. So thank you for that leadership that your organization plays in helping us change the way we address this in the community.”
Councillor Don McKay spoke on behalf of Wellington County and said that despite the region being recognized as the safest community in Canada by Maclean’s magazine and designated a National Safe Community by the World Health Organization, there is still work to be done.
“While all these are major accomplishments and we should be proud of the recognition it brings to the county, what does it mean if one child is abused or if one family is in crisis and is not looked after?” he asked.
“Every one of us has a moral and legal role to play in protecting children and supporting vulnerable families in our community by being alert to the signs of abuse and knowing who to call.”
Board of directors president Jan Lord concluded the seminar by speaking to the future, citing Give Yourself Credit as one of the many ways the community is becoming a leader in child abuse prevention initiatives.
“It would be wonderful to live in a community where there was no child abuse or child mistreatment and to me, the focus needs to be on how do we develop the services – of which Give Yourself Credit is one – that give youth someplace to focus and move forward,” she said.
Throughout October, purple ribbons were distributed to community organizations to remind everyone that they have a role to play in keeping children safe and helping families get the services and support they need.
