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Family & Children’s Place annual breakfast Thursday

April 15, 2015

Agency to provide updates, recognize partners during Child Abuse Prevention Month event

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (April 13, 2015) – Family & Children’s Place,  which provides critical life-saving and changing services to children and families hurt by abuse, is holding its annual Building Brighter Futures breakfast Thursday, April 16.

The hot breakfast, sponsored by event partners MainSource Bank, LG&E and UK HealthCare, and supported by Passport Health Plan, Brown-Forman, Deming Malone Livesay and Ostroff, and Humana, begins at 8 a.m. at The Seelbach, 500 S. Fourth St., in downtown Louisville. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m.

“We’ve worked with children and families in one way or another in the Louisville area for more than 130 years,” said Pam Darnall, Family & Children’s Place president and CEO. “We began as an agency providing coal to families to stay warm and today we provide help and hope to child victims of violence, abuse and neglect and their families.

“Our priority is to help them work through and heal from trauma.”

Family & Children’s Place works in Indiana as well, in New Albany, and has for more than 30 years. The agency is putting the final touches on its second Indiana office, in Jeffersonville, that will offer trauma-informed community based counseling and therapy.

During the friend- and fundraising breakfast, attendees will hear about the agency’s child- and family-centered programs and progress made in the last year. Charlos Thompson, an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kentucky State University, and a survivor of violence and abuse as a child, will deliver the keynote.

The agency also will present Gold Medals to key partners, including gold medals for philanthropy and volunteerism. The agency is also awarding Gold Medals for partnership to:

  • The Crimes Against Children Unit of the Louisville Metro Police Department
  • The Kosair Charities Division of Pediatric Medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, for care provided at the Kosair Charities Child Advocacy Center
  • Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney office.
  • The Division of Community Based Services.
  • The Face It Movement Policy Committee, for its advocacy.

“These agencies are on the front lines every day protecting children and helping families,” said Darnall. “They contribute mightily to our success.”

The breakfast is one of several activities sponsored by the agency during April, Child Abuse Prevention Month, including a 5k walk/run Saturday, April 18, at Louisville’s Seneca Park Loop, and an agency “Run for Families” team  participating in the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon and Marathon April 25, to help raise funds to help  children and families.

“Last year, in Jefferson County, 3,467 children were victims of abuse and neglect,” said Darnall. “Statewide that number totaled more than 19,000, and 12 of those children died. At our Kosair Charities Child Advocacy Center, we saw and helped 1,300 children who may have been victims of sexual abuse.”

In 2014, F&CP helped nearly 5,000 children and family members break the cycle of child abuse and begin healing. The agency also helps keep families in homes, prepare first-time parents for the rigors of bringing up a healthy newborn, help children succeed socially and academically, and help youth overcome the dangers and risks of substance abuse in three struggling Louisville neighborhoods.

“Family & Children’s Place could not change the lives we do without the help and support of people in Louisville,” said Darnall. “It takes a community to raise a child, and the same is needed to ensure their safety and happiness.”

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Family & Children’s Place works to protect Kentuckiana children, families and communities from abuse, neglect and exploitation, and help move them from hurting to healing.  The agency serves approximately 6,000 children and family members annually through trauma-informed and impact-evident services.  For more information about Family and Children’s Place, email info@famchildplace.org, visit www.famchildplace.org or call 502-893-3900.