PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Two Palm Beach County organizations are joining forces to fight sexual abuse among the youth.
The Center for Child Counseling (CFCC) announced it is merging with KidSafe Foundation.
The goal is to expand their outreach within the community.
"They were a very small organization, so bringing on their six staff into our 70 staff really expands the capacity to do more outreach," said Renee Layman, president and CEO of CFCC. "Not only in Palm Beach County, but throughout the state. We want to go national with this programing."
Kidsafe will work under the umbrella of CFCC bringing a preventative service the center wasn't able to offer.
"A child doesn't have to fall apart emotionally before we do something. We know we can prevent some of these circumstances. We also always want to provide that prevention, early intervention in addition to the treatment," said Layman. "So, they bring that level of the services and it's a great combination to the work we've already been doing,"
Kidsafe Foundation agrees that the partnership is beneficial to both organizations.
"It was natural to go under the umbrella of Center for Child Counseling, because of the synergy in the work, the caring for children, the reach we could do and to help Renee further that cause of a public health model of prevention, early intervention and treatment," said Laura Askowitz, director of strategic development with KidSafe.
Askowitz said 1 in 4 girls, and 1 in 13 boys report being abused by the age of 13, with 90% being harmed by someone they know and trust.
"The children, the families, our community. We know that trauma in childhood impacts you for the rest of your life," said Layman. "If we can provide early intervention and support and healing support, everything that a child or family could need to mitigate, prevent or heal the effects of childhood trauma, that's a part of our mission."
Layman said last year they served 7,000+ children and they've seen an increase in children needing mental health services.
CFCC said research has shown that unaddressed mental health problems among children can lead to lower educational achievement, greater involvement with the criminal justice system and poor health and social outcomes overall.
"For me, a well-functioning society is not where nothing happens to our children, it's not attainable, but one where we set up a support system, where they learn the tools to speak out, and get the resiliency, so that they become that adult they could've been," said Askowitz. "No matter what happened, it's a silent epidemic."