April is recognized as child abuse prevention month nationally and St. Augustine Youth Services is doing its part to help continue to raise awareness to the local community by hosting the St. Johns County 2025 Party for Prevention on April 9.
The organization wants the event to help kickoff child abuse prevention month with an event that would get the entire community involved in a variety of ways.
The event will be free to the public and the fair-style family friendly event will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. at the St. Augustine Youth Services main campus located at 201 Simone Way in St. Augustine.
According to SAYS CEO Schuyler Siefker, 2014 was the first year the organization hosted the one day event, now known as Party for Prevention, but prior to that Schuyler and SAYS staff engaged in a parade of events throughout the month of April to highlight child abuse awareness month.
Many of the ways they have helped create awareness was by creating press releases, doing radio commercials and holding speaking engagements at clubs, businesses and homes throughout the community. In many cases, Schuyler and her team would do about 28 events that month.
The idea behind the Party for Prevention came forth as a creation from the Florida Department of Children and Families, but various agencies host the parties for each county.
“We at SAYS host the St. Johns party and work with several partners on a committee to organize the event, and even more partners and providers participate as ‘vendors’ at the event on the day of,” said Tim Decker, director of development at SAYS.
Some of the other community agencies and organizations taking part will include St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, St. Johns County Fire Department, Epic, Family Integrity Program, and many others.
There will be games to play and food available for those in attendance to purchase through a food truck that will be on site.
Parking will be available at the South Branch Library with shuttles for transport to and from the event.
SAYS has provided critical mental health services to youth for more than 35 years and currently operates three community programs serving youth and young adults up to 25 years old, as well as residential therapeutic group homes for boys ages 6-17 who have experienced emotional trauma or abuse.
