Kinship Navigator Program members plant pinwheel garden in honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month

Submitted by Nancy Boyd

Kinship Navigator

Serving Dickenson, Buchanan,

Wise, Lee, Russell, Tazewell, Scott and the City of Norton

April is Prevent Child Abuse Month. You may see many pinwheels being placed in various places around the area recently. The pinwheel is a whimsical reminder of the carefree childhoods we want for all our children. In 2008 Prevent Child Abuse America introduced the pinwheel as the national symbol for child abuse prevention through their Pinwheels for Prevention campaign. In 1983 President Ronald Reagan declared April to be the first Child Abuse Prevention month. Since then, many public agencies and organizations around the country have organized activities and created resources to raise public awareness and provide detailed information on how to recognize, report, and prevent abuse and neglect.

This year grandparents in the Kinship Navigator Program joined in this effort by planting a pinwheel garden. Kinship families know very well that children that come to them for whatever reason require a lot of tending, nurturing and love to blossom and bloom. Last year more than 180,000 children in Virginia were cared for in kinship families. As we plant this pinwheel garden we say thank you to those relatives who have stepped up to care for these children.