Courtesy of the Child Abuse Prevention Council

Local children’s advocates will commemorate April as Child Abuse Prevention Month with their annual flag-raising and candlelight vigil on Saturday.

Hosted by the Del Norte County Child Abuse Prevention Council, the vigil seeks to shed light on and honor the children who were lost due to abuse, CAPC Chair Jennifer Dutton said. The ceremony will feature speakers from Sunset High School’s Sources of Strength youth resiliency program. The Crescent City Police Departments’ Explorers will raise the flag.

“It’s really simple,” Dutton said of the ceremony. “We’ll light the three candles that represent the past, the present and the future of what we would like to see our community do and hopefully bring awareness about CAPC. And then maybe get people to come and be involved in preventing child abuse in our community.”

In Del Norte County, about 123 children are under the jurisdiction of the court due to child abuse and neglect currently, according to Christine Slette, CASA of Del Norte executive director and a 15-year member of CAPC. Most of those cases stem from poverty and substance abuse issues, she said.

CAPC is comprised of nonprofit agencies like CASA and the Del Norte Child Care Council as well as the Department of Heath and Human Services and local law enforcement.

“(CASA) just had our Crystal Ball last month and one of the things highlighted was why child abuse exists,” Slette said, referring to one of her organization’s annual fundraisers. “It’s not necessarily people who are bad parents, it’s people who are struggling. In Del Norte County we have generational poverty and historical trauma. The loss of the fishing industry and the logging industry contributes to high rates of poverty, which contributes often times to toxic stress and other factors and risks for child abuse.”

During the month of April, CAPC raises memorial flags on government buildings and schools countywide. These flags feature five figures, four in blue and one in white. The child in white represents the children who die from child abuse, Dutton said.

“All schools are going to have a flag they fly,” she said. “There will be the one at the Family Resource Center, at the Flynn building — the more people that can fly that, that’s what we want. It’s just so people see this and it just brings awareness of what it is. We got to work together. We got to figure this out.”

The flag raising ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. at the Family Resource Center of the Redwoods, 494 Pacific Avenue in Crescent City.

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