The Children’s Place St. Clair Children’s Advocacy Center held its 29th luncheon to raise money to continue serving the county.

According to Director Pam Kelley, approximately 520 tickets were sold, totaling at around $11,000 raised. She said the heart of the entire event is bringing attention to what the organization is doing and trying to prevent child abuse.

The organization specifically works with children just after the authorities and DHR have been notified. Kelley said they play an important role in the first steps of helping victims.

Services include doing interviews, providing counseling and advocate for the family throughout the process with medical or legal support. She described Children’s place as a “support system throughout the process.”

“Child sexual abuse affects the whole family, very rarely is a child sexually abused by someone who is not close to the family. It breaks family and it’s something you never want to find yourself in, but if you do, you need services to get through it for your family to stay together and survive,” said Kelley.

Kelley said there are around 15 new sexual abuse cases each month in St. Clair County. She said the issue is extremely prevalent in the county. She hopes to help people feel confident in seeking help if the time comes for it.

“I think sometimes people are scared to speak up. If they think someone is not right, it’s okay to call. Nobody is looking to do something that doesn’t need to be done, but our children have to be protected. There’s so much out there on the internet, children are just vulnerable to people who prey on them,” said Kelley.

She said some of the first steps in teaching kids to be safe is reminding them that it’s okay to vocalize being uncomfortable around certain adults.

Kelley said she was very grateful to feel a lot of support from the community. The luncheon also involved live music and a poster contest.

On behalf of Children’s Place, she said they’re all looking forward to continuing their work alongside law enforcement, children’s hospitals, DHR and mental health services. She also visits local schools with age-appropriate programs that raise awareness for abuse.

Due to the nature of the organization being a non profit, Kelley said they operate with both a small budget and staff.

“The funds raised will go towards operation expenses and maybe expanding our school prevention programs,” said Kelley.