April is Child Abuse Awareness month. We know, it is a heavy topic in an already stressful time, but as the directors of two local nonprofits serving children who have suffered abuse, we want to shine some light on the children and families who were already struggling with abuse risk factors before the pandemic began. These risk factors can include addiction, poverty, hunger, domestic violence and mental illness.

Now more than ever, we need to support struggling families and protect children who could be at higher risk of abuse due to increased family stressors and isolation. Most significantly, because children are out of school they have fewer people looking out for signs of abuse or neglect. School personnel are mandatory child abuse reporters and they make more reports than any other group in Oregon. Since school has closed, the Oregon Child Welfare Department reports that calls into the child abuse hot-line have fallen by 70 percent.