The mission of AWARE is prevention of child abuse, neglect, and family violence.Education is the key to PREVENTION. PREVENTION is the key to diminishing child abuse and domestic violence.
Aware Central Texas focuses on three levels of prevention:
- Primary Prevention - where abuse has not been identified.
- Secondary Prevention - focuses on underserved and at-risk families.
- Tertiary Prevention - where abused has been identified.
To reduce child abuse and domestic violence in Central Texas using the following strategies:
- Create awareness in the communities of Central Texas and beyond
- Educate the community about child abuse and domestic violence.
- Provide volunteer family coaches to at-risk families
- Provide parenting, anger management, and mood/stress management classes
- Provide anti-victimization (anti-bullying) training in schools and the community
History
AWARE was formerly Family Outreach of Bell County. It was started in 1986 as the volunteer arm of Child Protective Services of Bell County. The purpose of the agency was to assist in the prevention of child abuse and neglect in high-risk families. Up until a few years ago, there were 34 similar centers across Texas and four were located in Central Texas. In 2003, the Texas legislature eliminated funding for the supervising Family Outreach social workers and as a consequence all but ten centers closed. Central Texas had gone from four centers to only one.
In 2006, Aware Central Texas was born. This agency is no longer associated with Family Outreach Services but the legacy of compassion, mentorship, and prevention continues.
AWARE (Aware Central Texas) has become a nationally recognized CAP Center (Child Abuse Prevention Center) through the National Exchange Foundation. With this title comes accreditation using a research based model.
AWARE IS THE ONLY AGENCY IN THE REGION THAT IS SOLELY FOCUSED ON PREVENTION. It is also only one of 3 CAP Centers in all of Texas. Aware believes that education is the key to prevention and prevention is the way to diminish the shamefully high rate of child abuse/neglect and family violence in our area.
