The Dallas County Board of Supervisors, acting on the recommendation of local children’s rights activists, proclaimed April as Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month in Dallas County at their Tuesday meeting in Adel.
Prompting the supervisors’ action were Dena Owens, president of the Dallas County Children’s Advocacy Council, Debb Franz, restorative justice specialist in the Dallas County juvenile court system, Jenny Felt, Dallas and Boone County DCAT coordinator, and Lisa Mickelson, extension educator with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
Filling out the chorus was the new executive director of the Dallas County Children’s Advocacy Council, Emily Brott.
Franz showed the board several children’s drawings done on brown-paper grocery bags. The Dallas County Children’s Advocacy Council partnered with Fareway Stores Inc. to have children decorate the bags, which are then distributed to patrons of Fareway along with materials intended to raise awareness of child abuse and prevention.
Franz also asked permission of the Board to again erect a banner on the southeast corner of the Dallas County Courthouse lawn.
“The point is to remind us that child abuse is everyone’s business,” Owens said. She said 100 law enforcement vehicle antennas will also display reminders as part of 2016 Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month.