GREENFIELD — This won’t be the first year Child Abuse Awareness Month is celebrated in Greenfield.
But it will be the first year the celebration takes place with a child advocacy center on the other side of town.
The Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and the North Quabbin, which opened its doors on Feb. 1, is one of the co-sponsors of a flag-raising slated for the Greenfield Town Common at noon on April 4 to generate awareness for the threats facing America’s youth. CAC Director Irene Woods said the other co-sponsors are the Mayor’s Task Force on Domestic Violence and the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office.
The event is scheduled to include a proclamation by Mayor William Martin, comments by Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan and Natalie Shea from the Department of Children and Families, literature provided by various child-advocacy agencies, and songs by students of Federal Street School. Woods said the flag is a special one that represents Child Abuse Awareness Month.
She said she intends to speak at the flag-raising.
“We’re new to the community and I think the community should be congratulated for bringing (the advocacy center) to fruition,” she said.
Mary Carey, spokeswoman for the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, said it promises to be a heart-warming event.
Woods told The Recorder the facility at 56 Wisdom Way was an old house that had been vacant for at least 10 years. She said the town renovated the house via financial donations and now it serves as a “warm, child-friendly safe house for children who have made disclosures about child abuse.”
Woods mentioned a federal study that revealed Massachusetts reported the highest rate of abused and neglected children in the country during the 2014 fiscal year.