U93's Roofsit raises awareness for child abuse in Michiana

 Jennifer Pickering, a Board Member at Prevent Child Abuse, told ABC 57 News "Roofsit funds go to agencies in a five county area so Saint Joe, Elkhart, Laporte, Berrien and Cass. Through an RFP process afterwords and we also fund agencies like the ladies that are here from CAPS. Their agency will get money for working the event so we give out performance grants as well."

CAPS' mission is to ensure that every child lives a life free from abuse and neglect.

Michelle Roell, a Healthy Families Worker for CAPS, told us "CAPS as a whole we reach about 5 thousand people a year in our community."

They accomplish this through education, advocacy, and intervention with families and the community to support safe, stable, nurturing relationships for all children.

Roell continued, "We have so many services available to families in Elkhart County. It's very important for us to get the word out to the community that we have these services and most of the services are free we have parenting services, home visiting programs different things like that."

Some of those parenting services include programs that provide a safe place to conduct forensic interviews, volunteers that help the court determine what is best for abused and neglected children, and a preschool for children who's foundation has been shaken; giving them a place to rebuild healthy development like trust, security, safety, positive self-esteem, food, shelter, and so much more.

And  this wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for annual events like Roofsit.

As Pickering  said "Well we know that child abuse is preventable. One of the most powerful facts is that with an engage community, with support for families, and with information we can prevent child abuse. Providing these types of resources, allocating these kinds of dollars, certainly goes right back to our kids and frankly it is going to the kids that your child is in the classroom with, families in your neighborhood. I mean this is hyper local and with education we know that we can prevent child-abuse which is so critical."

If you are interested in getting involved you can donate by calling 1.800.853.kids or by visiting www.roofsit.org.