April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Preventing child abuse and neglect is not the responsibility of a single agency or organization—it takes a community. When professionals, families, and community members work together, children are safer, families are stronger, and healing becomes possible.

This month, we want to highlight the importance of community-wide partnerships that help keep children safe, prevent abuse and neglect, and respond compassionately and effectively when abuse does occur.

Join us for events this month! >

What is CAP’s Role in Child Abuse Prevention:

The Children’s Advocacy Project works together with a multidisciplinary team of partner agencies to provide coordinated forensic and comprehensive services for alleged victims of child maltreatment.

This team-based approach ensures that children and families receive support in a safe, child-focused environment while investigations and services move forward efficiently.

As partners across Wyoming explain, CAP’s collaborative model makes a powerful difference in the lives of children:

“The Children’s Advocacy Project demonstrates the power of true collaboration. By working closely with law enforcement, prosecutors, and the courts, this team ensures that children feel safe, heard, and supported during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Their compassionate, coordinated approach protects children, strengthens cases, and reduces trauma for families, making a lasting difference in our community.”
- Chief Thompson, Evansville Police Dept 

“The Child Advocacy Project (CAP) is extremely helpful as the victim child will only have to tell their very traumatic story once, in a non-threatening environment. Also, the forensic interviewers are trained to not ask leading questions, which is advantageous for successful prosecution.”
- Detective Justin Lindberg, Mills Police Department

“The Child Advocacy Project is a critical piece of the multidisciplinary team that brings child protection, law enforcement, and prosecutors together to collaborate and achieve the ultimate goal of keeping children safe in our community. CAP offers continued support for victims and families to heal from heinous events, strengthening survivor’s futures.”
- Madison Brost, BS, Social Services Investigator, Wyoming Department of Family Services 

“The Children's Advocacy Project is a direct reflection of the Department of Family Services' mission: WY Home Matters. The DFS mission emphasizes three core values: safe at home, giving families opportunities for success, and supporting the people who support the families. CAP, very successfully, utilizes the MDT approach between mental health providers, DFS, law enforcement, forensic interviewers, the DA's office, etc., to support children in Natrona County and the greater Wyoming community. Being a part of the MDT collaboration through CAP is a truly empowering experience, and it helps each member of the team support everyone's main goal of keeping children safe.”
- Landree Adams, BSW, Social Services; Department of Family Services 

“CAP brings together different people from law enforcement to bankers. All of these backgrounds act with one voice and one purpose. That is to help children with issues that are extremely dark. The CAP center helps children lead normal lives.”
-Dan Itzen, District Attorney

“The Children’s Advocacy Project is a vital program to the health and safety of Wyoming as a whole. As a prosecutor in a small rural jurisdiction with a lack of investigative resources, CAP allows us to professionally bring offenders against Wyoming’s most vulnerable to justice. CAP not only provides professional forensic interviews that are in keeping with the latest research, they provide a safe place for children to share memories of traumatic experiences often forced upon them by people they dearly love. CAP’s forensic interviewers are vital members of the Multi-disciplinary team. When investigator, Department of Family Services, victim witness, prosecutors, and CAP come together to attend a forensic interview to focus on the safety of a child powerful things happen; children are supported, investigations are complete and justice is served. Without CAP, children would not be properly interviewed, causing more trauma, and less positive outcomes for children. And then the Symposium not only does CAP offer their direct services, forensic interview, provide us space and join us to brainstorm about investigative avenues, they make sure to support the whole state by bringing phenomenal training to the State that is otherwise unavailable."
-Kelly Owen, Deputy Hot Spring County & Prosecuting Attorney

“The collaborative model between the Children’s Advocacy Project, Moorcroft PD, Crook County Attorney’s Office, and all partner agencies is a powerful example of what can be accomplished when departments work together with a shared mission. By coordinating investigations, advocacy, victim support, and legal action, the team ensures that child cases are handled with sensitivity, efficiency, and a unified commitment to justice and healing. This multidisciplinary approach not only strengthens cases but also minimizes additional trauma for the children we serve. 
CAP’s combined efforts create a system where children are heard, protected, and supported every step of the way. The teamwork truly represents the best of public service.
When agencies stand together with one purpose - to protect and uplift children – justice becomes stronger, healing becomes possible, and no child stands alone."
- Chief Bryant, Moorcroft PD & DaNece Day, Crook County & Prosecuting Attorney

WHAT YOU CAN DO AS A PARENT/CAREGIVER:

1. Educate Yourself: Learn about the signs of child abuse and neglect so you can better know when to respond to a situation that makes you or your child uncomfortable.

2. Teach Body Safety: Educate your child about body safety and personal boundaries from an early age. Teach them the names of their body parts, explain appropriate and inappropriate touches, and empower them to say no to anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.

3. Monitor Your Child's Activities: Stay involved in your child's life and monitor their activities both online and offline. Know who they are spending time with, where they are going, and what they are doing. Encourage open communication and let your child know they can come to you with any concerns or questions.

4. Seek Help if Needed: If you are struggling with parenting or feeling overwhelmed, don't hesitate to seek help from a trusted professional, such as a therapist, counselor, or parenting coach. Asking for support is a sign of strength and can help prevent child abuse.

WHAT YOU CAN DO AS A COMMUNITY MEMBER:

1. Education and Awareness: Knowledge is power. By educating ourselves and others about the signs and consequences of child abuse, we can better identify and respond to situations of concern. Together we can advocate for change.

2. Know the Law: In the state of Wyoming, everyone is required by state law to report knowledge or suspicions of child abuse or neglect, which is why learning the signs and symptoms of abuse can be so important. That means that you are a mandatory reporter!

3. Support Organizations: By supporting organizations that support strengthening economic support for families, we can work toward child abuse prevention.

4. Make a Donation: A gift to the Children’s Advocacy Project means that every child that walks through our doors will receive comprehensive and coordinated care at no cost.

Join our community this month:

During Child Abuse Prevention Month, we invite you to stand with children and families by participating in community awareness events.

• Pinwheel Garden: Join us at the Children’s Advocacy Project building (350 N. Ash, Casper, WY 82601) on Thursday, April 2 at 11:00 a.m. A pinwheel will be planted for each victim of abuse and maltreatment we served in 2025 – 286 children, 286 pinwheels. The pinwheels will stay up all month long and serve as a visual reminder of the child abuse that continues to occur in our own community.
  
  
• Wear Blue Day: Show your support by wearing blue and helping raise awareness for child abuse prevention on Friday, April 10!
  
  
• Follow Along on Social Media: We will continue to share prevention information on month long on our Instagram and Facebook.

Together, we can create a community where children feel safe, supported, and heard. Because child abuse prevention takes all of us.