Child Abuse Prevention Month

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and two local organizations are part of efforts to bring awareness and help those who need it. First a quick highlight of CASA:

Champaign County Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) is a not-for-profit organization which recruits, trains, and monitors volunteers who advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children.

CASA volunteers work through the juvenile court system to facilitate prompt delivery of services and make independent recommendations to the court concerning the child’s well-being.

In addition to these volunteers their office is participating in the Pinwheel Project to raise awareness and funding to prevent Child Abuse. More at their website here. Last month the News-Gazette's Mary Schenk interviewed Rush Record, the executive director of CASA on her "Legally Speaking" podcast. Excerpt:

Besides two paid attorneys, you have volunteers assigned to cases. Who are they and what do they do?

They come from all backgrounds ... retired folks, working professionals. They have a heart to work with kids. Most have not worked anything close to abuse/neglect before. They simply applied, interviewed, passed the background check and did the extensive (30-hour) training.

These are people knocking on doors making sure kids are safe ... driving all over the state to see the kids, attending all the meetings. Ultimately, they have an opportunity to give a written report to the court which includes their opinion and recommendation. That's so unique, for a volunteer to have that input to a judge.

More excerpts and link to the podcast here. The Champaign County Children's Advocacy Center is also working on awareness efforts locally. From today's News-Gazette:

Children's Advocacy Center's 'Blue Kids' to reappear in April
Blue silhouettes of children will be reappearing in April outside businesses, homes and other places in Champaign County.

The county's Children's Advocacy Center places the "Blue Kids" as annual reminders of the unknown children who have suffered as a result of child abuse or neglect...

The Children's Advocacy Center said it interviews about 250 kids a year as a result of reports of sexual assault or serious physical abuse...

Anyone who suspects a child is being abused or neglected is urged to call the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Hotline at 800-252-2873 or report it to local police.

Full blurb here. More at their website here.

Court Appointed Special Advocates Training

Champaign County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) is looking for volunteers. From yesterday's News-Gazette:

Champaign County CASA to begin training new advocates next week
The Champaign County Court-Appointed Special Advocates begin training classes for new advocates next week.

Volunteer advocates are the "eyes and ears of the court" for more than 380 abused and neglected children whose parents are the subject of court action in Champaign County.

Their job is to work with the child and social-service agencies to ensure that the best interests of the child are met throughout the court process..

No experience is necessary, and CASA will train interested advocates who are at least 21 years old, willing to make the time commitment and can pass a background check.

The 30-hour training program for new advocates begins Jan. 22. Training is held three times per week through Feb. 13. The deadline to apply is Jan. 20.

Full blurb here. A brief overview from the CASA website here:

Having a CASA volunteer means having a trained and committed adult, by your side, who has been appointed by a judge to watch over you and advocate for your best interests. That volunteer will make sure you don't get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home. They will be there for you until your case is closed. It can make the difference between homelessness and a safe home, between dropping out and completing school, between unemployment and success, between jail and becoming a productive member of society.

Champaign County CASA currently serves approximately 350 children, thanks to our 100 volunteer advocates. The children we serve range in age from newborn to 18 years of age. Last year over 35% were under age 6.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact our office at 217-384-9065 or by email at casa@casa4kids.org.

Sex Ed and Local Government

If your memories of Sex Ed were the horror shows and dire warnings from local religious elders in their public school teacher day jobs (squeezing as much shock and awful secular public schools would allow) then this recent article on how modern Sex Ed works in the area may sound like an improvement. From last Tuesday's News-Gazette:

Health district educators ensuring middle-schoolers get comprehensive sex ed
...
To ensure students in Champaign, Urbana and Rantoul were getting "comprehensive" information — which includes teaching about sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, abstinence and consent — educators with the health district have been going into middle schools for the past five years, equipped with an evidence-based curriculum that goes for seven weeks.

"It's called 'Making Proud Choices,'" Greger said. "Generally, the kids are really receptive to it. The teachers enjoy the program, as well."

If it seems redundant to bring an additional educator into middle schools already staffed with health teachers, Greger said it's often not.

"It kind of takes maybe that awkwardness out of teaching it for the teacher," she said. "We're in there with those kids for however long; we don't see them every day. The kids might even be more comfortable talking to us about that kind of thing than with their regular classroom teacher."

More at the full article here. It also highlighted further collaboration that led to consent being on the curriculum:

For the past two years, the three educators have reached roughly 1,000 students per year, with Fruitt adding that Rantoul schools have added an extra layer of education for students by inviting Urbana's Rape Advocacy Counseling and Education Services to present on sexual-assault prevention.

That, she said, came about as a result of a coalition between school officials, the health district and social-service providers.

Democrat Enters Sheriff's Race

Yesterday was the last day for parties to fill vacancies on the general election ballot when no one ran or was nominated in the primary. For example, the County Board District 1 race will be having Ben Chapman (more on his write-in campaign here) join the fray. It appears that there will be another addition to the 2018 General Election ballot, this time for County Sheriff. From the News-Gazette website yesterday:

Lake Land instructor, officer running as Democrat for Champaign County sheriff

A longtime criminal-justice faculty member and police officer for Lake Land College in Mattoon is the Democratic candidate for Champaign County sheriff.

Dustin Heuerman, 37, announced Monday that the Champaign County Democratic Party has slated him to run for sheriff against Republican Chief Deputy Allen Jones in the November election...

Before coming to Lake Land in 2010, Heuerman worked as a patrol officer and field training officer for the Champaign County Sheriff's Office for two-and-a-half years.

Heuerman said he wants to look at providing alternatives to incarceration...

Heuerman said he favors providing help for drug offenders...

Heuerman said he wants to make domestic-violence victims comfortable enough with the sheriff's office to report abuse...

Heuerman said he opposes any jail plan that would increase the number of beds.

"It may be more efficient to have one facility as opposed to two, but we need to re-purpose the jail to address special populations of offenders," he said.

More including quotes on these policy positions at the full article here. The Cheat Sheet Elections and County Office races pages will be updated this week to reflect these and any other additions this week.