Offering Support to West TN
The mission of the Exchange Club Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse is to provide support to families in preventing and dealing with child abuse in West Tennessee and to help both parents and children meet the practical needs of preserving and improving the quality of family life.
Covering 21 West Tennessee counties, the Centers provide a multitude of services including forensic interviews, a 24-hour hotline, parenting classes, counseling, trauma-based therapy, victim advocacy, and support services. To bring attention to these services and to the prevention of child abuse, April is designated as “Child Abuse Prevention” month. The local Center will be hosting several events during the month of April to promote awareness of child abuse prevention and the services they offer.
On April 5, the Center will host a Community Support Day at 149 Tennessee Street, and will be distributing toys, school supplies, clothes, and snacks, and providing information on their services. On April 11, from 5:00-9:00 p.m. the Center’s Advisory Board will serve as waiters at Backwoods Restaurant in Bolivar; 10% of the evening’s sales will go to the Center. “Any time we do local fundraisers, all of that money stays here in Hardeman County to help those who come through our Center,” said Monica Goodman, Director of the Carl Perkins Center-Hardeman County.
In the U.S., a child is abused or neglected every 47 seconds; 1 in 10 children will be the victims of sexual abuse before their 18th birthday, and the majority of those children know their abuser. Goodman says these statistics are often shocking for adults, especially parents, to hear. “Abusers and predators are not only someone a child often knows, but the internet introduces an entire world of individuals who prey on children. These individuals who engage in sextortion of children and teens often start by posing as a friend, someone they can talk to, that sort of thing. It quickly turns very dangerous when the person asks for photos, almost always of a sexual nature, and then threatens the child with those pictures. Sextortion can lead to child pornography, sex trafficking, those sorts of things.” The Center is currently working on a program to teach parents tools to provide digital safety and hopes to have it ready in the next few weeks.
The Center provides forensic interview services for children who have been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse. “From the minute that child walks in, they are assigned an advocate who works with them throughout whatever process they will go through. The child can be interviewed, in privacy, on site. The advocate may even be able to present testimony on behalf of the child at a trial, to keep the child from having to testify in person and relive their trauma. If the child victim is going to testify at trial, then their advocate will prep them so they know what to expect in court,” Goodman said. The victim advocate also works with the parent(s) to help them understand the process as well and to know what types of behaviors to watch for in the child while they await a hearing.
Goodman, who has worked for the Center for over 30 years and has been the Hardeman County Director for the past 7 years, says that one of the most rewarding things she does is teaching the Nurturing Parenting Class – at the local prisons. “I never thought I would say that I not only enjoy going to the prison for those classes, but I look forward to it every week. These classes are a way to not only give parents tools on how to parent their children but gives them tools on how to break cycles of abuse that they may have lived through.” The classes cover topics such as self-esteem, communication skills, creating family rules and values, the effects of violence on children, how to handle discipline without violence, and enforcing the fact that the decisions of adults have a huge effect on children.
“Sometimes in the classes, I will present an idea that is totally foreign to them, as a good number of those in the class grew up in a cycle of either abuse, witnessing violence in the home, those kinds of things. No one has ever said to them that there is a better way to handle parenting. Sometimes we agree to disagree, but many times they will come back to me later and say that something we talked about in the class has made them start to think in a different way.” The individuals in the classes at the prison are on track for parole and the class is a part of the preparation for leaving prison.
“Parents today have to be hyper-aware of their child, their child’s friends, the activities they are involved in,” Goodman says. “We need to listen to our children and know what is going on in their lives – and who is in their lives, both in person and online. Any type of change in a child’s behavior could signal signs of abuse, depression, thoughts of suicide, those types of things, and parents should seek help immediately. Parents don’t need to think, ‘oh that would never happen to my child’. The reality is that it can and it does.”
To report suspected child abuse or inquire about programs offered by the Center contact the Hardeman County Center at (731) 659-2373 or 1-800-273-4747. To learn more about the Exchange Club Carl Perkins Center, visit www.carlperksincenter.org Services offered by the Center are free and confidential. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline number is 988 or 1-800-273-8255.