On April 1st, 2024, Fall River hosted a press conference to mark Sexual Assault Awareness and Child Abuse Prevention Month. Laura, representing the Children's Advocacy Center, detailed the center's three-fold mission: forensic interviews for children who've experienced trauma, on-site mental health support for healing, and extensive prevention work, particularly focusing on smartphone use and body safety. Kristen Batstone, Executive Director of The Women's Center, highlighted her organization's mission to provide safety, hope, and empowerment to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence across 13 cities and towns, including Fall River. She emphasized their prevention education efforts and support services like court and hospital advocacy, various counseling options, and emergency shelters, including one in Fall River. Mayor Paul Coogan then read a proclamation, declaring April 2024 as Sexual Abuse Awareness and Child Abuse Prevention Month in Fall River. The proclamation cited alarming statistics, including that one in four women and one in 26 men experience attempted or completed rape, and one in four girls and one in 20 boys will experience sexual assault before age 18. Mayor Coogan underscored the importance of increasing education, awareness, and community involvement to prevent sexual violence and child abuse, thanking both the Children's Advocacy Center and The Women's Center for their continuous work.
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today is April 1st and although it is often time uh a date for making jokes um we are serious here in our mission uh for protecting and supporting children and their families who've experienced trauma and the role of the Children's Advocacy Center um is three-fold one we do the forensic interviews for children who've experienced trauma and we partner with the District Attorney's office with all 20 law enforcement
0:28jurisdictions um and uh the Department of Children and Families uh to support children through that forensic interview Protective Services approach the second thing that we do is to support children in their healing journey and so we provide um on-site mental health support and the third most important piece and we're so pleased that the mayor has asked us to be here today to talk about this is our
0:52prevention work and so the whole month of April although we do it 12 months a year 365 days a year we are very very dedicated to to getting the word out about our prevention efforts and we do that in schools with pediatricians with law enforcement and we'll train and support anyone who would like workshops um but one of the most important things we do is work with young people about um
1:18how they use their smartphone how they handle their bodies and keep themselves safe so in an important prevention effort we just wanted to be here today and we're so pleased to spread the world word about taking care of one another and taking care of our children in our community so I'm going to pass the mic over to Kristen and again we're so pleased to be here and we feel so
1:39supported by mayor Coogan and all of the Fall River um police department and everyone that works with us in these prevention efforts thank you Laura I'm Kristen batstone I'm the executive director of The Women's Center and although we are located with our headquarters in New Bedford we serve 13 cities in towns including Fall River our mission is to bring safety hope and empowerment to
2:07women children and men who are survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence and like Laura said we know the evidence shows that prevention education lowers perpetration and victimization and so this is a big part of our efforts and we are funded by the state of Massachusetts to do that as well as many generous donors we do this work in supporting sexual assault survivors through Court advocacy Hospital advocacy
2:41counseling children's Counseling group counseling and Emergency Shelters including a confidentially located shelter here in the city of Fall River so we thank you to the mayor for bringing attention to this really important issue and highlighting it in the month of April and as our partners said this is an extremely heightened focus on in on the month of April and sexual assault and
3:08child abuse awareness month so we'll read a proclamation that the city will issue today whereas Sexual Assault Awareness Month calls attention to the fact that sexual violence is widespread and impacts every member of the community Far River and whereas rape sexual assault and sexual harassment impact our community and St statistics show one in Four Women and 1 in 26 men experience attempted or completed rape at some
3:37point in their lives and whereas women 18 to 24 who are enrolled in college are three times more likely than women in general to suffer sexual violence and whereas April is also the national Child Abuse Prevention month a time to ra raise awareness about child abuse neglect and encourage individuals and communities to support our children and families and whereas child abuse sexual prevention must be a priority to
4:10confront the reality that one in four girls and one in 20 boys will experience sexual assault before the age of 18 Child Protective Services responds to a report of sexual abuse and whereas young people experience heightened rates of sexual violence and youth aged 12 to 30 4 at the highest risk of sexual assault and whereas with leadership and dedication we can be successful in preventing sexual violence and child
4:42abuse in the city of Fall River by increasing education awareness and our community's involvement we must work together to educate community members about sexual violence supporting survivors and speaking out against harmful attitudes and actions therefore I Paul Coogan Mayor of the city of Fall River do hereby declare the month of April 2024 as sexual abuse awareness and Child Abuse Prevention month throughout
5:12the city of Fall River and I encourage citizens to join with me to promote awareness of this escalating problem of sexual assault and child abuse signed today April 1 by me Paul Coogan Mayor of Fall River um congratulations and I want to thank the Women's Center and of course um the child's Advocacy Center for all the work they do day in day out 12 months a year and again this is just a
5:37month we focus a little more attention to try to increase people's awareness but it's a very very important issue and it changes the lives of the people they help every single day so congratulations guys thank you so much thank you thank you