Deadline is Feb. 13
From AmigosNAZ staff reports
Outstanding individuals who work directly to make Coconino County a better place for the region’s youngest residents will be recognized at the annual Child Abuse Prevention Luncheon Fundraiser on March 26 in Flagstaff.
The luncheon will be presented by the Coconino Coalition for Children & Youth.
This year the event will be held at Little America in Flagstaff and feature guest speaker Susann Clinton of Flagstaff Medical Center’s Safe Child Center.
Before the luncheon, members of the community are strongly encouraged to submit nominations for the four individuals who will be honored at the event this year. Nominations are due by Friday, Feb. 13.
The awards have been given since 2003, with the luncheon serving as a kickoff to National Child Abuse Prevention Month, which begins on April 1, and CCC&Y’s 2015 Child Abuse Prevention Conference on April 9-10.
Recipients of the awards in 2014 were Molly Sadler, Flagstaff Public Library Youth Services supervisor; Linda Grimsland, a Flagstaff High School nurse; Denise Henderson, a counselor at Northland Family Health Center; and Maria Lopez, a caregiver with the Family and Community Teaming for Students (FACTS) before- and after-school program at Killip Elementary School.
The annual awards program is a result of CCC&Y being awarded Department of Economic Security, Division of Children and Youth funding to become a Regional Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAP), said Ruth Ellen Elinski, executive director of CCC&Y since 2010.
The CAP committee within CCC&Y provides child-abuse prevention education to parents, educators, healthcare and social service professionals along with promoting the Child Abuse Prevention Fund Check Off on the Arizona State Tax form.
The fund has supported more than 50 programs, which help to strengthen Arizona families and keep children safe, officials report.
Becky Lewis, former CAP committee chair, has been involved with CCC&Y since the mid-1990s when the first Child Abuse Prevention Conference was held, followed by the creation of the awards luncheon.
“It’s been a long-standing tradition to host the awards luncheon,” Lewis said. “The initial purpose was to raise awareness of Child Abuse Prevention Month. Then we started to include the Caring for Children Awards because it seemed an appropriate spot to give the awardees some well-deserved attention.”
While Lewis said the initial awards luncheons were smaller affairs, the event has been typically attended by upwards of 150 people in recent years.
“We have been having a good turnout for the luncheon,” she said. “It has become a tradition with people expecting it and planning on being there.”
Funds raised from the event will go to prevention education and training programs to help improve a service provider’s skills when dealing with trauma and abuse, Elinski said.
Child abuse has been increasingly on the radar of officials in Coconino County
“The incidents of child abuse and neglect have been the same or increasing,” Elinski said. “(In 2014) there was a big increase. We are not sure if it was due to changes in the DCS (Department of Child Safety), an improvement in the reporting system, or more incidences of abuse and neglect since the economic downturn. For those reasons it is more important than ever before to spread awareness of this issue.”
While 2014 data is not yet available, Coconino County reported a total of 31,463 children ages from birth through 17 years living in the county in 2013, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Public Health Statistics. During that year, the county reported a total of 17 child deaths, down from 20 deaths in 2012.
But while child deaths were down, the number of felony crimes committed against children in the county grew from 59 in fiscal year 2010 to 75 in fiscal year 2013, Coconino County Attorney David Rozema stated in an Arizona Daily Sun story on March 28, 2014.
Abuse cases reported to Child Protective Services also grew by 19 percent from mid-2011 to mid-2012, for a total of 815, according to another Arizona Daily Sun report on April 7, 2013.
Statewide, a total of 811 children under the age of 18 died in Arizona during 2013, down from 854 deaths in 2012, according to data compiled by the Arizona Child Fatality Review Program’s 21st annual report released late last year.
However, the program determined that 92 of those child deaths in 2013 were due to maltreatment, up from 70 deaths reported in 2012.
Of those deaths in 2013, 80 percent of the children who died from maltreatment were younger than 5 years old.
A variety of programs and agencies are available to help individuals report instances of child abuse, including the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which provides a resource list at http://www.azdps.gov/Services/Crime_Victims/servicesByCounties/coconino.asp.
The site features telephone numbers and web addresses for such organizations as the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona Mobile Advocacy Center of Northern Arizona; Northland Family Help; the Page Regional Domestic Violence Services; the Safe Child Center at Flagstaff Medical Center; Tohdenasshai Shelter Home in Kayenta on the Navajo Nation; the Verde Valley Sanctuary, and Victim Witness Services of Coconino County.
Also visit the Flagstaff Medical Center’s Safe Child Center at http://www.flagstaffmedicalcenter.com/OurServices/ChildrenHealthCenter/Safe_Child_Center
About the event:
The Child Abuse Prevention Luncheon Fundraiser will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, March 26 at Little America, 2515 E. Butler Ave., Flagstaff, in the Grand Ballroom. Individual tickets are $35, with tables of eight available for $245. Tickets can be purchased by going to http://coconinokids.org/get-involved/annual-child-abuse-prevention-kickoff-luncheon-fundraiser/
Click here to get a nomination form.
Click here for a listing of all the award winners from 2003 through 2014.
Send an email to coalition@coconinokids.org for more information.