Lucas County Children Services hosts events for child abuse prevention month

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Lucas County Children Services urges the community to combat child abuse by raising awareness during child abuse prevention month.

According to Lucas County Children Services – LCCS – more than 1,400 children in the county were confirmed to have been child abuse or neglect victims in 2022.

The 12th annual Wear Blue Day will take place on April 12. To participate, residents must post photos of themselves wearing blue to the LCCS Facebook page with the hashtag #OhioWearsBlue.

LCCS will host its annual Child Memorial on April 27. The event will take place at the Conference and Learning Center located on 711 Adams St. Ohio Senator Paula Hicks-Hudson will be the keynote speaker.

The ceremony will remember 17 children lost since last year’s memorial. Eight of the children – of which all but one was under the age of 4 – were victims of abuse or neglect, and the remaining nine of the memorialized were teen victims ranging from 14 to 17 years old who were victims of gun violence.

“Fewer children entered LCCS custody in 2022, though the families we did see came to us with more serious and complex problems. On a more positive note, the number of children (12,571) and families (4,866) we served declined seven to
eight percent from 2021. We believe we can attribute the declines to the child abuse prevention work LCCS and its collaborative partners have been doing in the community to empower families to resolve their own problems before this agency has to get involved.” said Donna Seed, LCCS interim executive director.

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