Virginia’s House raising child abuse awareness in April

Across Young and Stephens counties in April, blue ribbons can be found in various locations with a goal of raising awareness for an important cause, child abuse prevention and awareness.

Virginia’s House, in Young County, and Dr. Goodall’s House, in Stephens County, work each April to raise awareness in their communities for Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month.

“Virginia’s House (and Dr. Goodall’s House are) an umbrella organization. We have three different programs under (both agencies). We have the mentor program, the CASA program and the (child advocacy center) program. Each one deals with different parts of each child’s life,” Director of Programs Rebecca Navarro said.

The two organizations meet the needs of abused, neglected and traumatized children through programs of prevention, advocacy and support.

“Our whole center is centered around advocacy for children so it’s automatic that we would do this (awareness campaign) because the programs that we have are involved in a child’s life at different stages,” Navarro said. “Sometimes we’ve had a child where they started the mentor program, they come to our center to get interviewed and then a CASA (is assigned to them).”

During the month of April the organizations will place blue ribbons around their communities. The blue ribbon comes from Bonnie Finney, a Virginian grandmother who tied a blue ribbon to the antenna of her van after the murder of her 3-year-old grandson, Michael. 

Finney used blue ribbons, symbolizing the bruises that covered her grandchildren, as a sign of her personal commitment to end child abuse.

Navarro said stories just like the one told by Finney are around in both Young and Stephens counties.

“This is happening in our communities and at Virginia’s House (and Dr. Goodall’s House) we do have the resources to help those children and families get the help that they need,” she said.

During the month of April, the organization hosts a fundraiser for businesses called Denim Days which allows employees to wear denim and raise awareness. The organization also spreads awareness through other venues such as churches and by creating an awareness T-shirt each year.

Virginia’s House and Dr. Goodall’s House have three programs which help fight against child abuse: North Star Texas CASA, the community advocacy center and the mentor program.

The CASA program provides a volunteer who is trained and appointed by a district or family court judge to speak for the best interests of an abused or neglected child.

“The CASA program deals with children that have been removed from the home because of abuse of some sort, and they’re assigned to a case and... they follow that case until it’s completely closed,” Navarro said. “They see this child on a monthly basis, at least.”

Staff for the child advocacy center work together as a team with representatives from Child Protective Investigations, law enforcement, medical personnel, mental health experts and county prosecutors to provide justice and begin the healing process for child victims of sexual trauma.

“Instead of retelling their story to the investigator, CPS (and) to everyone, they just tell it once so it’s not traumatizing. They’re not having to relive it every single time,” Navarro said. “They come to our center and we have a forensic interviewer that’s specifically trained to question a child.”

The mentor program helps children and young teens by providing a mentor who is a positive and encouraging adult. 

The mentor provides a young person with a strong and exemplary role model, instills pride and self-esteem in a young person and helps to broaden what they think.

For more information about the organizations in Young and Stephens counties, visit virginiashousetx.org.