COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Child abuse rates are rising in Colorado despite a decline in national numbers.
The El Paso County Department of Human Services child abuse hotline took more than 12,000 calls in 2010, making it the third year in a row El Paso County received more calls than any other county in the state.
One local organization is trying to bring those numbers down by raising awareness about the issue.
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of the Pikes Peak region acts as the voice for children who are abused or neglected.
"We'r
e a nonprofit organization who utilizes community volunteers to represent the best interest of children who are involved in the court system through no fault of their own," Trudy Strewler Hodges, Executive Director of CASA of the Pikes Peak Region, said.
She said CASA serves more than 900 children a year and more than 350 children each year in their child abuse program.
"Our volunteers are appointed by the judges to child abuse and neglect cases, and they become the eyes and the ears of the court," Hodges said. "They go out and investigate the case, they gather information, they write reports to the court. They interview the parents, doctors, teachers, therapists, everyone involved with the case, and then they make recommendations to the court about the future of that child."
CASA advocates also help place abused and neglected children in loving homes, like they did for Josiah Matthews.
Josiah is now a happy little boy surrounded by a loving family, but that wasn't always the case.
"When we first saw him we thought 'wow that baby has a huge head,'" Dionn Matthews, Josiah's adoptive mother, said. "But it wasn't that he had a huge head, it was that he was malnutritioned, and he had a very small body."
Josiah suffered from torticollis, or a twisted neck, a common problem among neglected children who are left in cribs for hours every day.
"He couldn't raise his neck up" Susan Woessner, a CASA advocate who worked Josiah's case, said.
Josiah has been through it all.
"He's been in a lot of therapy, he's been in speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy," Dionn said.
Dionn and her husband adopted Josiah about a year ago into their family made up of three biological children and three other adopted children.
"We're very happy to have him," Dionn said.
Josiah has made incredible progress with the help of therapy and love.
"You can just tell how much a great family, that kind of influence it has on a little boy," Woessner said.
Josiah is one of the lucky ones. Officials said thousands of children are abused each year in El Paso County, and last year 36 children died from child abuse in Colorado.
"All over the country we've been seeing child abuse rates decrease, but in the state of Colorado overall they're increasing," Hodges said.
Hodges said the higher numbers in El Paso County could be the result of a variety of reasons, like the poor economy.
"When economic times are hard and challenging for families, and individuals are out of work, parents are more likely to be short-tempered and to strike out at their children," Hodges said.
Another possible reason is the large military population in El Paso County, which means more young parents.
"That's where child abuse usually happens, is in young families," Hodges said. "It isn't that the military necessarily abuses their children more, but they certainly bring more young families and children to this community, and so in that way our population grows so that we have more families where there would be a propensity for abuse to happen, but it's not because the military abuses their children more. My advice for young parents is find a neighbor, a friend, a school, a mom's program through your church, some way to be able to take the child and leave them with someone else when you reach that place of frustration."
Strewler Hodges said all parents have their limits, and needing a break doesn't make them bad people.
"It doesn't mean they're a bad parent. We all need to take a break and spell ourselves, and it's really important even to be able to just count to 10 and go sit out on the front port step for a few minutes, if you're feeling really heated and really angry and frustrated," she said.
She also recommended learning more about child development.
"If we understand what normal childhood development looks like, for instance, we can't expect a 2-year-old to not wet their pants, then we don't get frustrated, we don't get mad, because we know that that's within the expectations of what a 2-year-old can't do, and so once we understand child development we're not as apt to lash out at a child," Hodges said.
As the number of child abuse cases continue to rise, so does the need for more voices willing to speak for a hurting child.
"Our greatest need is always more volunteers, there are still hundreds of children waiting for advocacy in the courts, so anyone who has a heart for children, we can train and prepare you to be an advocate for children in court," Hodges said.
Dionn said CASA has been there for her and her family when they needed them.
"All of our CASA workers have helped us a lot. A lot of times, especially with a special needs children, you'll see things that they need that other children of that age don't need, and a lot of times the case workers and things don't see the needs of the child, and I can always go to the CASA worker, and they'll go in front of the judge and just like the commercial says, be their voice, be the child's voice," Dionn said.
Strewler Hodges said CASA is also in need of financial support.
"We screen the volunteers, we train them, we supervise them, and support them and that takes funding," Hodges said.
Woessner had high praise for CASA.
"I think what's really special about CASA is that each kid, or each set of brothers and sisters, gets one person to be their advocate all the time, so there are so many people in the child welfare system looking out for kids. But to have one person dedicated to the best interest of a particular child, or a particular set of siblings, I think really helps make sure that those kids end up in the safest and best situations for them," Woessner said.
Dionn said it's important for children to have a stable and loving home.
"It's very important because we need to teach these children how to have a family when they get older, you know they need to learn how to be moms and dads, responsible moms and dads, and be home at night and, you know, play with their children," she said.
For more information about CASA or to donate visit casappr.org
Helpful Local Resources for Parents:
KPC Kid's Place Respite Nursery 719-634-5439
- Nonprofit nursery that offers free crisis and planned respite childcare for young children.
Nurturing Parenting Program 719-520-1019
- Provides parents with effective behavior management tools and encourages the development of healthy parent-child relationships.
Center on Fathering 719-634-7797
- Provides a program which teaches dads to be more actively and positively involved in their child's development.
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