<strong>From staff reports</strong>

A carload of essential items was donated this week to the area’s only home for abused and neglected children, thanks to a community partnership between the Child Abuse Prevention Association, the 14th Circuit Victims Services Center and a Solicitor’s Office program.

The 14th Circuit Victims Services Center and the Pre-Trial Intervention program donated toiletries, healthy snacks, school supplies, and clothing to CAPA and the Open Arms Children’s Home, which primarily serves children ages 12 and older who have been removed from an abusive or neglectful situation.

“Our need for the essentials hasn’t stopped; if anything, it is greater,” CAPA Executive Director Christina Wilson said. “While the pandemic has staunched our ability to fundraise in a traditional manner, we have seen the community’s support come through in different ways.”

Enter the Victims Services Center and the Solicitor’s Office Pretrial Intervention program. Donations of essential items by PTI participants helped them meet a community-service requirement. Such opportunities for service have grown more scarce during the pandemic.

The Victims Services Center is a community initiative launched by the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office and its partners, to include CAPA. It brings together a team of professionals to help victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child and elder abuse, and other crimes against vulnerable populations within the 14th Judicial Circuit. The center aims to reduce the number of times victims must tell their story and the number of places victims must go for help.

“The success of the VSC has been in-large part due to partners like CAPA coming together to provide services that are critical to helping victims,” 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said. “It just makes sense to support CAPA in its mission to end child abuse and neglect.”

To learn more about the VSC and its community partners, visit https://scsolicitor14.org/victim services-center/. To donate, visit capabeaufort.org.

<em>Above, from left to right: Shannon Horton and Ashley Collins of the 14th Circuit Pre-Trial Intervention program, Director of Victim Services Michelle Fraser, and forensic nurse Heather Dollar gather Wednesday in the 14th Circuit Victims Services Center with a donation of essential items headed to the Child Abuse Prevention Association in Beaufort. Items were collected through the Solicitor’s Office Pre-Trial Intervention Program and the Victims Services Center. Submitted photo.</em>