April is Child Abuse Prevention Month nationwide, and as part of the Prevent Child Abuse (PCA) Oregon Pinwheels for Prevention Campaign, the Washington County Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) “planted” a pinwheel garden to raise awareness about the issue of child abuse in our community. We installed 100 blue and silver pinwheels Monday, April 3rd on the front lawn of the Public Services Building, and the pinwheels will remain planted until Friday, April 7th.

Special thanks to Governor Brown for renewing her annual proclamation that April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The Children's Trust Fund of Oregon is proud to be Oregon's chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America and support the efforts of the 2017 Pinwheels for Prevention® Campaign during Child Abuse Prevention Month. Pinwheels for Prevention® is a nationwide public awareness campaign that features a blue pinwheel to represent the healthy, carefree childhood free from abuse and neglect we long to see for every child. Since the campaign began, over 5 million pinwheels have been displayed nationwide to promote a message of prevention and hope.

This year, we are thrilled to tell you that we have covered Oregon in silver and blue.

There are two sides to every coin and child abuse and neglect is no different. If we want to prevent abuse, we must promote great childhoods- something we can all agree is important and worthwhile.

In this spirit, we are asking our families, friends and neighbors to support the cause and honor loved ones by taking photos of themselves with signs stating:

Because of _______________, I had a #GreatChildhood.

Don't forget to tag the person you are honoring. You can keep your post private, or make it part of our statewide social media effort by tagging Prevent Child Abuse Oregon (PCA_OR) and the Children's Trust Fund of Oregon (Trust4KidsOR). For more information about how to be involved in preventing child abuse, contact MDT coordinator Kathleen McDonough at (503) 846-8671.