Hundreds gather for Monroe's youth abused

Bloomington community members gathered at the Sample Gates Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. for a vigil against child abuse and neglect. The event, sponsored by Prevent Child Abuse Monroe County and the Monroe County Court Appointed Special Advocate program, garnered 30 to 40 participants, including parents, children and social workers.\n"This is to represent how we can make changes in our community towards the abused and neglected children of Monroe County," said Dawn Freeman, co-president of PCA Monroe County. "I think it's important in order to educate parents."\nThe event began with a walk down the sidewalks of Kirkwood Avenue. Attendees carried signs with slogans like "You Should Always Listen to Children," "Hands Are For Loving" and "Teachers Teach Our Parents" and walked silently amongst the street's pedestrians.\nNancy Hughes, the executive director of Family Solutions in Bloomington was a foster mother to five special needs foster children. She spoke at the event of the need of parental support in the community. \nHughes suggested people take their efforts a step further to help at-risk families and even strangers. "There are many people in the community that do not have support," she said. \nSpeeches highlighted statistics like 327 children in Monroe County were victims of child abuse and neglect in 2005, and 57 children statewide died as a result the same year. Overall, 61,369 children were reported as abused or neglected in Indiana in 2005.\n"It's a huge problem in Bloomington," Freeman said of child abuse. "It's a huge problem across the nation."\nKelli Deckard, an employee of Family Solutions, came to the event to show her support for child abuse prevention.\nI think that it's something that we need to become more aware of," she said.