Planting a pinwheel for hope, prevention

Guadalupe County Children’s Advocacy Center sheds light on child abuse

(Seguin) — Children advocates in Guadalupe County want you to know that the pinwheels that you see spinning in the wind throughout the county are more than just spring time garden toys. The pinwheels each represent the number of child abuse victims reported in Guadalupe County in 2023. This past year, that reported number was 782 children — children that each received services at the Guadalupe County Children’s Advocacy Center.

Christy Williams, the executive director for the children’s advocacy center, says each of the 13 gardens planted across the county display the 782 pinwheels.

“It is less than last year and it is still a very high number if you think about how many days in the year that we are here and working and how many kids are being served in that time, all of those kids, for the most part, were receiving a forensic interview. Their non-offending caregivers are receiving support and resources from our family advocates and we have really ramped up and grown our therapy department which is not something that you can really see in that number because most of those kids received a forensic interview — so we only count them once no matter how many services they receive but we have really grown our therapy department and they are providing services to roughly 150 clients at any given time,” said Williams.

Williams says this visual throughout the community is part of their observance of April as Child Abuse Awareness Month. She  says it’s just one more way to remind the public that child abuse knows no boundaries.

“They are your people that go to church. They are every day people who just have really terrible things that they’ve experienced and there is nothing significant that helps us to narrow down the number of kids that we think that we might see or the demographics of who we can pinpoint to try to do prevention efforts with because it is not any one socioeconomic status. It’s not any one ethnicity. It’s not any one neighborhood. It’s happening across our county, across every demographic and it could happen to really anyone,” said Williams.

Not only does it help raise awareness for the problem but it also serves as a reminder that there are still victims out there who live in silence. Williams says it also serves as a reminder for the community to act should they suspect abuse.

“We want them to know that there is nothing to be embarrassed about if you have ever been through something tragic — if somebody has ever hurt you or hurt someone that you love — has sexually abused you or your child, if you have a domestic violence relationship, there are people in this community, there are agencies in this community that are here to help and to make you whole again and to work with you and provide you resources and so, we want everyone to know that this exist and that it is okay to speak up if something has happened and it’s also super important for people to report if they suspect abuse or neglect so that those people can get help,” said Williams.

This month also sheds like on the advocacy center here in Guadalupe County which still remains a unique and rare tool in the fight against child abuse. It serves as a one stop service for child victims who don’t have to retell their painful stories to the large number of adults that it takes to fully investigate a crime and to rollout the necessary services for their healing.

In fact, Williams says there are various ways throughout the year for the public to show its support.

“We have our Schertz Designer Purse Bingo coming up on May 9 over at Schertz so we are looking for sponsors for that event and we will have general admission tickets later on this month and we’ve got our Champions for Courageous campaign going online for anyone who wants to just contribute to help the work that we are doing. We are always looking for wonderful volunteers to help at the center and we just hope that we bring a little bit of awareness to what is happening in our community so that if we shed some light on it, then we will hopefully end all of the darkness that is existing there,” said Williams.

The community is asked to contact the advocacy center or follow its social media pages for future events.

Williams says she especially thanks the large number of volunteers and law enforcement agencies who showed up this year to help plant each of the 782 pinwheels at the 13 different locations. Those locations include Faith Lutheran Church, the Guadalupe County Courthouse, the Department of Families and Protective Services, Texas Lutheran University, McQueeney Baptist Church, Marion Veterans Park, Cibolo Fire Department, RE/MAX Corridor, Schertz PD, the Cibolo soccer complex and Christian Brothers.