AUSTIN, Texas – It is Texas Advocacy Day at the State Capitol where people who want better protection for children from abuse will rally for change on Tuesday.
- Texas Advocacy Day at State Capitol
- Rally calling for better protection for children
- Need $30 million to help 3,600 more families
Child protection advocates will spend all day at the capitol to educate lawmakers about evidence-based abuse prevention programs. The protection programs are methods that have been proven effective in preventing child abuse.
According to the event organizer, TexProtects, those programs include Nurse-Family Partnership and Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support.
The Nurse-Family Partnership involves specialized trained nurses regularly visiting young, first-time mothers all through their pregnancy to the child's second birthday. Based on TexProtects' latest study, this program has helped reduce child abuse and neglect by 48 percent statewide.
Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support, or HOPES, is a program hosted by the Texas Department of Family Protective Services, which provides child abuse and neglect prevention services to high-risk counties.
The nonprofit hopes that their efforts will result in $30 million of additional funding for both programs to reach 3,600 more families a year.
Currently, the programs can only reach 15,000 families, out of 420,000 who need the services.
Advocates will be lobbying starting at 10 a.m.