Funding to help keep Kentucky children safe from sexual abuse
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Sept. 17, 2018) – Today Attorney General Andy Beshear presented Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky (PCAK) with more than $32,000 to help the program continue to combat child sexual abuse in Kentucky.
Beshear joined PCAK, law enforcement, mental health and medical officials along with Department of Community Base Services social workers and Kentucky Division of Family Resource and Youth Services Centers (FRYSC) officers at the annual Kids Are Worth It! Conference in Louisville.
Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky was established in 1987 and is the only statewide nonprofit organization committed to preventing the abuse and neglect of Kentucky's children.
“It is a great honor to provide funding to support Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky, an organization that shares one of the top priorities of my office – to prevent the abuse and neglect of Kentucky’s children,” Beshear said. “Our children are safer because of the effective strategies and programs it provides, and our communities and families are strengthened through its advocacy and public education efforts.”
Beshear thanked the members of his office’s Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Board, which provided the grant funding through the Child Victims Trust Fund (CVTF).
Beshear said he is thankful for the extensive and specialized efforts that have been made possible by organizations like PCAK and leaders like Jill Seyfred coming together to tackle one of our most pressing problems.
“Children should never be placed in the position of taking responsibility for being victims of sexual abuse,” said Seyfred, executive director of PCAK. “These funds will allow us to continue to expand our ground-breaking training, in conjunction with the attorney general’s office and to make sure adults are better equipped to keep children in their communities safe.”
With support from the Fund, Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky will create a research informed messaging platform designed to change social norms and practices in the Commonwealth. The resulting product, an action oriented, sustainable messaging platform, will be made available to partners through social media, webinars, conferences and other venues.
The Attorney General’s office administers the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Board that allocates dollars from the fund to support child sexual abuse prevention programs.
In the previous fiscal year, the fund supported Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky in the development of a public service awareness campaign.
The fund has also allocated over $100,000 this fiscal year cycle, with more than $70,000 going to two regional programs – western Kentucky’s Child Watch Counseling and Advocacy Center and northern Kentucky’s Family Nurturing Center.
Additionally, Beshear and the board recently announced nearly $80,000 in grants to cover costs associated with more than 1,000 child sexual abuse forensic exams.
An advocacy center’s forensic program is designed to assist law enforcement, social services and the medical community in the investigation of suspected cases of child sexual abuse. The program consists of forensic interview and specialized child sexual abuse examination services. Forensic interviews and exams are only provided at the request of law enforcement or social workers as part of their investigations.
Those interested in donating to the Child Victims’ Trust Fund can do so in three ways:
Beshear reminds Kentuckians that everyone has a moral and legal duty to report any instance of child abuse to local law enforcement or to Kentucky’s Child Abuse hotline at 877-597-2331 or 877-KYSAFE1.
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