Katie Phillips & Fatima Hooda
Co-Features Editor & Staff Reporter

The Champions for Children’s second annual walk was held Sunday, May 17 by the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Illinois (CACI) to raise money and public awareness about child abuse.

The eight-mile walk, sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield, Resurrection Hospital and Eastern Illinois University, began at Fullerton and Clifton along the lakefront.

There are six venues around the state of Illinois with approximately 800 walkers in total. Two GBS students, sophomores Michelle Durkin and Katie Phillips, participated in the walk.

Billie Larkin, executive director of CACL, said, “We walked in all of the regions because in every block, every city, every county, and every area today, children are being abused.”

The CACI, established in 1995, is a non-profit network that researches, investigates and attempts to treat child abuse cases.

Over 11,122 child abuse cases were reported at the Children’s Advocacy Centers in 2008.

“The 38 children advocacy centers across the state play a critical role in protecting our children by helping to coordinate the complex network of social, legal, and health services, and ensuring that the well-being of the child comes first,” Jennifer Tani, community relations coordinator at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, said.

Representatives of the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) and Blue Cross Blue Shield volunteers participated in the walk. The DCFS mission is to protect, prevent and intervene in child abuse cases to ensure the safety of children.

“When a child is abused, it’s a very, very sad and serious matter,” Governor Pat Quinn said at the event. “We as adults and citizens have to band together to help that child recover and to obviously prosecute the perpetrator.”

This issue also affects the GBS community.

“GBS gets about one abuse case per year, yet one time is too often,” David Heartman, GBS social worker, said. “These abuse cases include emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect etc… When we have a feeling that something like that might be happening, we contact DCFS that carry on further investigation.”

GBS students have also decided to participate in these organizations in an effort to help eliminate child abuse in Illinois.
“It’s really nice to be a part of something that isn’t talked about all that often,” Durkin said. “It’s important that people know that [child abuse] happens everywhere, maybe even at South.”