Celebrating the 2024 Pinwheels for Prevention Awardees
Each spring, FamilyWise Services shines a spotlight on organizations, agencies, and community-based initiatives statewide that have consistently worked to create safe, healthy, and supportive environments for children and families. This year we are honoring five awardees who have been pioneering this work in their communities. Congratulations to the five awardees below!
Arrows Family Services provides supervised parenting time, parent coaching and education, support groups like Circle of Parents and a group for adoptive/foster/kinship families, and family home visiting services to support families in feeling successful in their parenting journey. Their mission is to provide services and education that strengthens families to prevent child abuse and neglect. As one staff member said, “The magic of watching families come together in intentional and healthy ways after months of relearning connection and a felt sense of safety is the best part of the job.”
First Witness Child Advocacy Center
First Witness Child Advocacy Center’s mission is to strengthen our community’s response to child abuse, making our community a safe place for children to grow and thrive, with the driving vision of a society that supports children and ends child abuse. Along with our work of providing support for the investigation and assessment of child abuse cases, First Witness is a nationally recognized training center for child maltreatment professionals, and they provide prevention education in schools and our community. “Kids and parents cannot do this alone,” said Executive Director Tracie Clanaugh. “They need all of us to stand up and step forward to make our community a safe place, one where all children thrive and grow. Child abuse has devastating consequences for children, and we are asking our community to become educated and aware of what we can do to protect and keep our children safe,”
Greater Minnesota Trauma Center
Greater Minnesota Trauma Center (GMNTC) offers a wide range of mental health services from Mental Health Counseling, Supervised Visitations, Parent Education, Consultations, and Provider Training. Their goal is to spread trauma awareness by connecting communities through different avenues and new ways of thinking and approaching mental health problems. They provide safe, supportive, and healthy environments to each of our clients through the implementation of trauma-informed and family-centered approaches that focus on the strengths of the families to help them become experts in their own lives and pathways of thinking and behaving.
“We can see first-hand specific barriers that people who have experienced childhood trauma face when seeking services and we are here to help bridge the trauma gap by changing the narrative of traditional and outdated ways of counseling and educating,” said Justin Coates, owner and founder of GMNTC. “Times are changing, people’s ways of thinking are changing, and it is our job to update and change our ways of counseling and educating to tailor to the needs of the new generations to help them thrive in times of change or uncertainty.”
Lincoln Park Children and Families Collaborative (LPCFC)
The Mission of LPCFC is to support children and families by connecting them to resources and opportunities, embracing our cultures, and building community and well-being through strong and equitable leadership. Their vision is to create strong, thriving, healthy, and equitable communities in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Their programs include neighborhood meetups and community-building events, support groups, childcare, awareness campaigns, and supported family visits. “Children is in the name of the organization and that’s what it truly is about,” said a Lincoln Park resident. “Helping out kids who truly need help or helping them out with things they would not typically have.”
Scott Carver Dakota CAP Agency
Community Action Partnership of Scott, Carver, and Dakota counties (CAP Agency) takes a comprehensive approach to advocating and empowering self-sufficiency for their community. They deliver individualized solutions through relevant and local services. Through partnerships, they connect their neighbors to resources they need now and the tools to create a better future. “It feels like (parents helping parents) is really a place for these families to find support and answers,” said an Early Learning Teacher on a weekly Parents Helping Parents group being held at their school. “It’s hard to be a parent, we all need that kind of community,”
Thank you to all the awardees for your hard work and dedication to helping families become the best that they can be. Find more ways to support prevention efforts this Child Abuse Prevention Month by visiting our CAP Month webpage: https://familywiseservices.org/child-abuse-prevention-month/