April is Child Abuse Prevention Month

Guest Editorial
By Greg Abbott, Attorney General of Texas

April marks a time of new beginnings, so it is appropriate that we take a moment to reflect on Texas' future and how to renew young lives during Child Abuse Prevention Month. There is no greater cause than ensuring our children grow into healthy, strong, successful adults.

At the Office of the Attorney General, we regularly work with the Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) of Texas to protect child abuse victims. CACs, like the Center in Bastrop, work every day to answer cries for help from kids who have been abused or neglected. The centers tackle their difficult task by partnering with law enforcement, child protective services, prosecutors, medical professionals, mental health experts and victims' advocates.

At each of the 61 CACs across Texas, these critically important professionals work together at a single location. As a result, when physically or psychologically abused children enter a CAC, they get all the help they need under one roof. CACs are equipped to conduct forensic interviews, facilitate coordinated investigations, provide medical and mental health treatment, and offer victim advocacy to child victims.

Equally important, CACs provide child-friendly facilities where kids can tell their painful story just one time. The people who need to know - law enforcement officials, child protection officers, medical professionals, and prosecutors, among others - get vitally important information during a single discussion with a young victim. This saves children the pain of re-living the trauma they had experienced at the hands of their abuser.

Last year, alone, CACs served more than 37,000 Texas children. And to ensure CACs have the resources they need to continue their good work, we provided $4 million in grant funding to CACs all across Texas. The young Texans who were helped by a Children's Advocacy Center last year are living testimonies to the hope and healing these centers provide.

The caring folks who serve Texas CACs band together every day to give children courage, to heed the littlest victims' cries for help. And thanks to these centers, many young victims are emerging from the cold darkness of abuse to the bright warmth of a better tomorrow.