Pinwheels at Courthouse to Highlight Child Abuse Awareness Month

ZANESVILLE, OH – April is National Child Abuse Awareness Month.

On Monday morning, the Muskingum County Commissioners met with members of Brave Beginnings, a local Child Advocacy Center here in Zanesville.

Roni Kuhn, is the Executive Director of Brave Beginnings, and says they’ve been in talks with the Commissioners to place 174 pinwheels outside of the Courthouse to represent each child they served in the last year.

“Everybody should know that child abuse is prevalent.” Kuhn said. “It’s important to be a support for the children in our community. For years, people have looked at it as, “Oh that’s not my business.”, “I’m going to stay out of it.”, that’s just how things were. Now it has come to the point where it’s like we tell people, if you see something, say something. Child abuse isn’t something that you hide behind closed doors, we want to bring it to light and let people know that there are services available and that are helpful for the community.”

Kuhn says some of the services they offer are victim advocacy, forensic interview, medical services, support groups for care givers, as well as some one on one time with Koa Bell, Brave Beginnings Therapy Dog in Training.

“So she gets to sit with the children before interviews and sometimes during the interviews, to help ease the nerves that they’ll get.” Kuhn said. “Also sit with them in medical examinations, she is also going to be trained to accompany children to court, if need be.”

The pinwheels will begin going up this week and will remain up until the end of April.

For more information about Brave Beginnings, you can head to their website, Facebook, or check them out on Instagram.