Community leaders supporting fight against child abuse in Logan, Mingo County
- Robert Fields
- Apr 10
- 3 min read
LOGAN April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, during which groups across the United States raise awareness to combat and prevent child abuse.
In West Virginia, the state Child Advocacy Network (WVCAN) is running its third annual “High5Drive.” The organization is asking for support from public donations. Carla McCoy, the Resource Development Coordinator for the Logan Mingo Child Advocacy Center, said this public help is crucial for the network and the children it serves.
WVCAN is entirely funded through public support and grant money.
As part of the High5Drive, McCoy is visiting municipalities across Logan and Mingo Counties. On Tuesday, she visited both Logan and Chapmanville during their respective council meetings. During Logan’s City Council meeting, she explained some of the critical services offered by the program for children. However, she also told council members that funding has been increasingly difficult with recent cuts to grant programs such as the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grant.
“It’s a very good program. Everything is free for all of the children. We have counseling, we have the forensic interviews,” she said. “They just have to tell their story one time, and it’s not even like a police setting. It’s very child friendly. I never knew, until I started working there last year, what that program was, and we run on grants and donations. There’s no fee for any of the children or the families.”
“Has any of your grants been cut,” Mayor Nolletti asked.
“Our VOCA grant has hurt a little bit, so we’re still not sure about some,” McCoy answered.
The funding received from the local municipalities has been a key factor in keeping the program on its feet.
Fortunately for the Child Advocacy Center, the longstanding competitive relationship between Logan and Chapmanville has served in the program’s favor. Last year, Logan donated $750 to the center, and, in response, Chapmanville took the extra step and gave $800. It was the same story this year: Logan donated $1000 and the Chapmanville Town Council’s only debate on the matter was how much to raise the stakes.
After some deliberation, the total amount submitted by the Town of Chapmanville was $1,230.
WVOW spoke with Paula Adams, a forensics interviewer and captain of the High Five program. She took a moment to explain the meaning of the program’s name as well as shed some light on the importance of the work done by the center. She said team members work constantly to offer counseling and support services to children who were abused or have been victims of a crime. Unfortunately, she also says those services are becoming ever-increasingly necessary.
“The reason we chose “High Five” as our symbol is it gives a symbolic high five to all the children who came through our center and was brave enough to tell their stories throughout the year. This year, we had 183 kids come through those centers,” she said.
“It is a very disturbing number, and what we have seen on our trends is every year it goes up. When they released some of the opioid epidemic numbers, kids from Logan and Mingo County are four times more likely than the national average to have been affected by that in some way – either losing a parent to death, incarceration, a victim of a crime related to drug use. It just continues to grow and the funding for it unfortunately continues to get cut, which is why the awareness is so important of what we can offer the kids in our communities, so they don’t have to travel. We have a center in both counties, that way no kid has to leave their county to go and drive, to go to Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown – wherever – to access these kinds of services.”
Anyone who would like to donate to the West Virginia Child Advocacy Network for the High5Drive can call a nearby center or visit wvcan.org.
PHOTO | Royal Family Kids
Comments