Pelaez is executive director at the Center for Alexandria’s Children, a public-private partnership that coordinates with officials in Alexandria. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. What is CAC’s mission?
We’re a children’s advocacy center and a family resource center here in Alexandria, coordinating the investigation, prevention and treatment of child abuse. Our mission really is to eradicate child abuse in the city.
How prevalent is the problem in Alexandria?
Child abuse really doesn’t know any bounds, and it doesn’t really understand socio-economic differences. Child abuse happens everywhere, and the city of Alexandria really wanted to be proactive in terms of what they saw as a critical need in the city. Back in the early 2000s, we experienced a child fatality [from abuse] in the city, which highlighted several deficiencies in terms of our response. Both public and private leaders came together, and what they saw was that a child abuse prevention center to intervene in certain cases was the direction they wanted to go.
What do you see as your role in Alexandria?
Our organization is a little unique because at our core we see our role as prevention of child abuse, as well. We do what we can to not only provide best practices for intervention of cases of childhood abuse that take place in the city, but we provide information and community resources and direct service programs focused on prevention of child abuse.
What work have you done in the community recently?
We’ve had an unfortunate incident with one of our school teachers being arrested recently [on child pornography charges], and we’ve made it a point to partner with the Alexandria school system to provide parents with support and information and help with resources when they’re ready. Right now I think the city is still in a crisis, but we want to give as much information as we can about prevention techniques.
Ben Giles
