April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time when DePelchin focuses on raising awareness and recognizes the importance of communities working together to strengthen families and children; it’s a time when we call on our supporters to work alongside us in this effort – we can’t do this important work alone!
Every April, we invite DePelchin donors, volunteers, and staff to our Houston campus to tie blue ribbons along our fence line, each one representing and honoring a victim of child abuse and neglect in Harris County. In 2024, there were 5,959 confirmed victims of child abuse and neglect in Harris County and 53,543 victims across Texas. Each year, our blue ribbon display is a powerful sight that calls attention to this issue with the hope that, one day, we will no longer have any ribbons to tie.
We also proudly highlight the programs and services we offer to children and families to help keep them safe. We work hard every day to provide safe and loving homes and to also help children and families before abuse and neglect happens:
- Parenting classes. These programs help equip parents with the strategies and approaches they need to maintain loving, caring homes for their children — including programs that are specifically focused on fathers and their unique roles in their children’s lives.
- Counseling services to support children and parents. Our clinicians help DePelchin clients facing any number of mental health issues. Our counseling services are free for children and adults, and we offer them in a variety of settings to meet our clients’ needs.
- The DePelchin Family Resource Centers in Houston and San Antonio. This is a convenient hub of support in the community for families seeking a variety of services – no appointment needed. For example, families who visit the centers can sign up for parenting or counseling services or learn about other resources of support from DePelchin and other organizations.
We also help children and families throughout the process of adoption when it is not possible to reunify the child with their birth parents. If a child needs a family to provide temporary care before they can be reunited with their parents, DePelchin also finds foster families for those children and works closely with the families to ensure they are able to meet that child’s needs.
We all have a role to play in helping to prevent abuse and neglect, from offering support and encouragement to families who may be struggling, to learning more about how to detect and report suspected abuse, to supporting DePelchin programs. We also appreciate those who are engaged in preventing abuse and neglect with us — whether they are staff, volunteers, or supporters.
DePelchin is honored to be engaged in this critical work and we thank all who make it possible!
