Central Arkansas organization aimed at child abuse prevention receives $50,000 in grant funding from UAMS program

BENTON, Ark.- A central Arkansas organization aimed at child abuse prevention is getting help thanks to a recent grant from UAMS.

UAMS, through their Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence program, granted over $630,000 to 11 organizations focused on preventing child abuse and neglect.

A Benton and Hot Springs organization, Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Center (CAMCAC), received $50,000 of that funding to continue an elementary school program in Saline, Garland, Grant, and Montogomery counties that provides children with the tools they need to identify child maltreatment.

“It’s teaching them very much a skill set, and building your self-confidence, and identifying safety rules,” CAMCAC Director Tracey Childress said.

The prevention program began seven years ago when the team decided it was time to solve cases and help prevent them.

“We currently work with kindergarten through fifth grade in the school districts of our four counties: Saline, Grant, Montgomery, and Garland,” Childress said. This grant will help us expand to eighth grade.”

The prevention program works to teach body rights and gives children the resources to report if they see or experience child maltreatment.

Staff members of Benton and Hot Springs CAMCAC go into schools twice a year to have one-on-one conversations with each class.

While working on prevention, CAMCAC helps local law enforcement, Arkansas Department of Human Services, DHS’s Division of Child and Family Services and the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children’s Division solve cases and allegations of child maltreatment when the reports are made in one of the four counties they serve.

Ensuring a child only has to experience one forensic interview and forensic exam, only reliving the trauma once.

“It’s a one-stop shop, as we like to say, because everything happens comprehensively in one place, in a child-friendly environment,” Childress said.

Childress says that when a child walks through the door, they are met by a child advocate who works in the child’s best interest while providing a “blueprint of information.”

“We want to make sure that we don’t just meet the needs of that investigation but that we meet the needs of the child,” Childress said.

Providing this care for 21 years through their Benton and Hot Springs locations, seeing nearly 700 kids per year.

“We make sure that the child received that healing and removes that trauma that has taken place,” Childress said.

When asked why Childress continues to work in this heart-wrenching career, she said it’s because if she didn’t, she doesn’t know who would help find justice and help these children heal.

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