The Exchange Club of Springfield met via Webex Tuesday August 25th, 2020. Guest Speaker was Carlisa Parker, Director of the Clark County Child Advocacy Center. Carlisa provided the following updates:
From January 2020- July 2020 we have seen 95 cases with 31 of those being felony level physical abuse cases and 63 sex abuse cases. We have seen an increase in these cases even during the pandemic as despite kids not being in school, families are being overwhelmed with financial difficulties and kids being in the home all the time as well as the typical stressors that a pandemic brings.
At the beginning of the pandemic we were seeing only emergent cases, however about a month ago we are now seeing all cases.
Most all of our staff are working remotely and come in when we are doing an investigation and conducting our interviews. The team is taking every precaution necessary to ensure safe protocols etc. We are all wearing masks, asking all of our clients to wear masks, taking temperatures, asking the covid protocol questions to ensure that there is no active illness etc. The Exchange Club Foundation will be working with the CAC to once again provide a Prevention of Child Abuse educational event. Photo of Director Parker from a visit in 2017.