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Leter to the Editor: CASA thanks Child and Family Services

Editor,

All of us who work with abused and neglected children want to thank the Havre Daily News for your coverage of the Pinwheel Garden in recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Child abuse can be easy to ignore, and — as with all the coverage HDN gives CASA — we genuinely appreciate the extra attention.

  Although it is not an oversight, omission, or correction, I fear our press release, and the article based on it, insufficiently expressed our gratitude to the local Department of Health and Human Services, Child and Family Services staff who came out to help us plant pinwheels and raise awareness.

  Although we occasionally have different outlooks or opinions born of our different emphases — CASA is focused on the best interest of the child, while CFS is more broadly concerned with the family as a whole — it is undeniable that without the tireless work of CFS staff, a CASA’s work would be impossible. Quite simply, our allies at Child and Family Services are on the frontline day after day, doing all-too-often thankless work without which our children would be at incomprehensibly higher risk.

  I am thankful that our display of pinwheels isn’t larger, because each of those pinwheels represents an abused child in our child welfare system. I hope our display is smaller next year (last year was a record setting year for child abuse reports all across Montana). As a result, the display — like child abuse in general — is easy to miss, easy to overlook and easy to ignore.

  So is the vital work of the fine folks over at CFS. With the blue and silver pinwheels still sparkling in the sun this Monday morning, reminding us that every child matters, I think it is worth remembering that there are folks who deal with child abuse directly, daily and generally without fanfare. This Child Abuse Prevention Month, I want to recognize the indispensible work of our Child and Family Services staff in preventing, and more importantly, helping families and children recover from the trauma of child abuse. 

Thank you,

Mark Douglass

Executive director, CASA of Hill County

 

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