Richland County Children Services (RCCS) agency conducted 2,391 child abuse or neglect investigations in 2013. That is also the number of pinwheels currently planted on a grassy hill outside the Mansfield YMCA in honor of April being National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Friday morning, a dedication ceremony was held for the 2,391 “Pinwheels for Prevention” display attended by the mayors of Mansfield, Shelby, Ontario and Lexington, the majority of the Richland County Children Services staff, and Mansfield Police Chief Ken Coontz and Lieutenant Chief Keith Porch.
RCCS Executive Director Patty Harrelson explained that “Pinwheels for Prevention” started in Ohio as a way to commemorate child abuse and neglect, but also as a way to talk about prevention.
“Those cases on the hill aren’t cases we prevented; those were cases where we got a call and checked out the families to see what was going on,” she said. “My hope is we went out there and saw that family, and maybe we did something so that family will never come back into our system again.”
Harrelson explained there were three types of prevention methods in place by the RCCS: primary prevention using advertisements to create awareness, secondary prevention where RCCS receives a call and intervenes in a household to avoid abuse from happening, and tertiary prevention where the abuse or neglect has happened and RCCS tries not to let it happen again.
“We’re not going to give up on trying to prevent child abuse because someone says to me you can’t tie a one-to-one relationship between this billboard and a reduction of abuse and neglect,” said Harrelson. “I don’t care if I have a one-to-one relationship, what I care about is that we’re out in our community saying it’s possible to stop it, it’s possible to slow it down.”
Shelby Mayor Marilyn John presented a proclamation on behalf of Shelby, Lexington Mayor Gene Parkison, Ontario Mayor Randy Hutchinson and Mansfield Mayor Tim Theaker recognizing National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and thanking the RCCS staff for everything they do for the county. Juvenile Court Judge Ron Spon echoed the sentiments of the mayors by thanking the staff for their service to the struggling families and children in Richland County.
“Those of us that work in this field know what a serious task we have in trying to keep kids safe, and keeping kids and sometimes families from falling off the edge of the Earth,” said Spon.
Spon added that what drives the fulfillment of his job is applying the law in every case with a sense of heart and conscience, and he thoroughly enjoys working with Harrelson to adhere to these principles.
“We are able to bring the kind of strength to our community to really help families and to help kids without wasting effort on extraneous things,” he said.
Harrelson used a quote from author Robert Collier to illustrate the importance of the work her staff does every day at RCCS: “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.”
“Sometimes the job can be routine and mundane, but it is that attention to detail and it is those small things that make a difference,” she said.
“Those cases on the hill aren’t cases we prevented; those were cases where we got a call and checked out the families to see what was going on,” said Patty Harrelson. “My hope is we went out there and saw that family, and maybe we did something so that family will never come back into our system again.”
