April is National Child Abuse Prevention and Sexual Assault Prevention month, an annual observance to raise awareness in preventing child abuse and sexual assault. Serving Hancock, Henderson, Warren, McDonough, Fulton, and Knox counties, the Western Illinois Regional Council provides services to support in these cases through their Victim Services Program. Naomi Taylor, Victim Services Director, has more:
“All of our services are free and confidential. We try to tailor those services to each individual’s needs. In cases of child abuse, obviously a contact from a non-offending caregiver or parent; we would go through that process of getting them the services they need through us and making an individualized plan with them dependent on what kind of things they want to work on. For sexual violence, our whole goal in working with people is to get them back to where they were before this event occurred,” Taylor states.
For anyone that has experienced abuse or knows of someone , the 24 hour crisis line is 309-837-5555.
