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THE SEA COAST_ECHO
Thursday, February 21 ,	1991
Child abuse prevention Morning Edition subject
"■ BY TRACI BONNEY
Child abuse prevention will be the topic of this month’s Morning Edition Coffee.
The coffee, which will start at 7:30 a.m. Friday at the Hancock Civic Center on Longfellow Road, will feature speaker Dr. Edward R. North Jr., founder of the National Exchange Club Foundation for the Prevention of Child Abuse. The coffee is cosponsored by the Hancock County Exchange Club and Moore & Powell CPA, and hosted by the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.
North began laying the groundwork for the National Exchange Club Foundation for the Prevention of Child Abuse during the club’s 61st Annual Convention in 1979.
The Jackson physician urged Exchangites to adopt child abuse prevention as a national project after witnessing firsthand the effects of child abuse. He then served as the Foundation’s first president on the board of trustees.
Since the Foundation’s beginning, ithas grown to a network of 61 Exchange Club Centers in more than 30 states and Puerto Rico. Locally, the Hancock County Exchange Club and four other Coastal Exchange Clubs sponsor the South Mississippi Exchange Clubs Family Child Center.
The center, with its main office located in Gulfport, provides services to Hancock, Harrison, Jackson and Stone County residents and professionals
working in the area of child abuse prevention. This center is the only one in the south Mississippi area that provides child abuse prevention service prog-rams to families and professionals.
In Hancock County, the Center’s satellite office at 331 Shieldsboro Square has implemented several programs, including:
—the use of parent aide volunteers who work with families in need of help;
—a multidisciplinary child abuse team which helps coordinate available services to child victims and assists in coordinating criminal investigations between social service professionals and law enforcement agents when appropriate;
—a Child Victim/Witness Orientation program to victims of child abuse prior to their courtroom appearance, which helps prepare the children for their time in court (this program is the first of its type in Mississippi);
—community education programs focused on child abuse prevention, and training sessions for day care center staffs and school personnel on child abuse issues.
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