Child abuse prevention focus of ‘Believe in the Blue’

Several members of the Fort Smith Noon Exchange Club worked Thursday (March 28) to install more than 700 blue bulbs on the Ferris Wheel in the Park at West End in downtown Fort Smith.

The “Believe in the Blue” campaign conducted nationally by the Exchange Club is held every April and is designed to promote awareness and education about child abuse.

“Believe in the Blue is an effort to reach families all across the nation with positive parenting tips. Exchange believes parents have the power to make positive parenting choices in the lives of their children and is offering some easy-to-use tips to help all parents,” notes the campaign website.

April is also National Child Abuse Prevention Month and a small group gathered Thursday afternoon to note the changing of the bulbs and to promote an April 27 Step Up, Speak Out rally at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders presented a proclamation to Billy Dooly, president of the Noon Exchange Club, and said he believed it “important to recognize” the efforts of a club working to reduce child abuse.

According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, an estimated 6.2 million children during the federal fiscal year 2011 were included in some report of child abuse. Of those, 78.5% were from neglect, 17.6% from physical abuse and 9.1% from sexual abuse.

Other HHS stats from the 2011 report included:
• There were 2.1 child fatalities per 100,000 children related to abuse;
• 81.6% of the fatalities were with children;
• 78.3% of fatalities were caused by one or more parents; and,
• 53.6% of abuse perpetrators are women, and 45.1% are men.

The HHS report said most states follow four types of abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse.

The 2011 report also notes that Arkansas had a child population of 710,474, and there were 51,553 referrals of suspected child abuse. In Oklahoma, there were 936,159 children and 67,266 referrals.

Sanders said events in 2012 related to the Step Up, Speak Out movement in Fort Smith got his attention on the issue because of so many people he knew who said they had been abused as children.

“It became much more real to me,” Sanders said.

The Step Up, Speak Out movement was initiated in 2012 by Sam Sicard, president of First National Bank of Fort Smith. Efforts in 2012 included a large rally in April at the UAFS campus, and block parties in October. The UAFS rally surpassed organizer’s estimates by attracting about 1,500 to the campus for the event.

Sicard, who attended the Thursday event, said the goals of Step Up, Speak Out are to create awareness, encourage people to report possible abuse and to “share the message that we’re all accountable to one another” in working to reduce child abuse.

He also said the program should “let perpetrators in this area know” that the community is aggressive in the effort to stop them.