Six area Child Advocacy Centers are getting a financial bump, thanks to the local Rotary District.
District Governor David Matthews says he chose the Child Advocacy Centers as a focus of support during his term, and encouraged the 48 individual clubs to raise money and awareness for the centers. The former social worker says the cause is near to his heart.
"I saw a lot of kids who were in foster care, a lot of kids who were adopted, who had also been physically or sexually abused. And I know the trauma that the abuse has on the kids... not only when they're kids, but when they're adults."
Leah Brown is the Executive Director of the Child Advocacy Center in Herrin. She says like many other agencies, hers is struggling through the state budget crisis. She says the five-thousand dollars her Center received will help a lot.
"It also means that all of our children can get trauma-focused services for counseling, and that advocacy services are available to everyone - that we don't have any delay in services."
The Rotary district, which stretches from the Mississippi River to the Wabash, and from Cairo to Olney, raised more than $30,000 to distribute.