Pledge to Fight Abuse

April is Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month and hits very close to home to many people, especially from here in Linn County. In 2010 607 Linn County children were the victims of abuse or neglect, which ranked as the fifth highest rate out of 36 Oregon counties, and was double the state average. Also in Linn County there were 391 children in foster care at least once during the year.

The statistics for the state of Oregon are even more heinous as 22 children were reported to have died from abuse and neglect, eight of those kids were under the age of one year old.

Going back one year earlier to 2009 the city of Albany, alone, had 259 recorded cases of abuse or neglect of children.

On Thursday April 21, 2011 Linn-Benton Community College held a video presentation to help raise awareness and prevention of child abuse and neglect. The video was called, "Hands and Words are not for Hurting," which also happens to be the name of the project that sponsored the video's making. The project first started in Salem, Oregon and is dedicated to "...educating each person in every community about their moral and legal right to live free of abuse and violence."

Child abuse is a tragedy that "Hands are not for Hurting" confronts
Courtesy of Cassandra Clifford

The video presentation spoke repeatedly of "The Power of One". What they meant by this was the power of one single person to influence and help many. Examples of this were Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Ruby Bridges. It also spoke of the fact that one in every four teenagers is in an abusive relationship, be it emotional or physical.

Jeanette Emerson said of the presentation, "It is fantastic that people are raising awareness for this atrocity, however I feel that we need to devote more than just one month to fighting this. There is just too much hate and violence in the world to ignore it. Everyone should take this pledge."

The project focuses on getting people to take a vow to not hurt others. The vow is as stated, "I will not use my hands or words for hurting myself or others." Accompanied by the vow is drawing the outline of your hand onto a purple sheet of paper to symbolize your pledge.


"The pledge is a great way to get the community aware of the neglect and abuse that happens daily. By taking the pledge people are taking actions to prevent the child abuse and being aware that we individually have the power of peace," said LBCC student Jordy Marsh.

On Saturday April 30, 2011 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Heritage Mall will have donated shoes on display for the 300 foster children in Linn County. Anyone can go and view the display as well as take the pledge. If you are interested in donating shoes for the children the information is located in the "At a Glance".

Former English footballer Herbert Ward said it best when he said, "Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime."

At a Glance

Who: "Hands and Words are not for Hurting"
Where: Heritage Mall, Albany
When: Sat. April 30, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.