WSMR leadership signs Child Abuse Awareness Month proclamation at the Frontier Club

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. (April 3, 2025) – On April 2, Amanda A. Carreras, Division Chief of the Family Advocacy Program with Army Community Service at White Sands Missile Range hosted a proclamation signing in observance of Child Abuse Awareness Month at the Frontier Club.

This year's theme is “MilParents Rock,” with the tagline “Rock-Solid Families Start Here.” This theme supports military parents with good information such as parenting classes, strong communities such as father parenting groups, and helpful resources such as counseling and reading materials. In addition to this, WSMR has the initiative of Rocko the Rock Snake where parents and their children can paint a rock and add it to a train of others to make the snake in honor of this month’s theme. This family activity will be held April 1 through 30 outside all Child Youth Services facilities. Parents and children can bring a painted rock to add to Rocko the Snake at one of the CYS facilities.

“While Child Abuse Awareness Month is nationally recognized every year, we as a community do this every day with our coordinated community response to protect the children on post. More and more people are reaching out for classes and resources to identify risk factors and support our mission on post. While we have a lot of moms, nannies, and grandparents showing up for the weekly play groups and parenting classes, we are intentionally reaching out to the men and fathers in our community with our upcoming class; ‘A Daddy’s Love,’ to encourage, support, and equip men to be more involved in parenting,” said Carreras. “Our purpose for the Family Advocacy Program is not to be a scary place. We want to normalize that parenting is hard and that other people are going through similar challenges in the home, and we want them to feel confident to ask for the help they need by taking advantage of the resources we provide.”

“Thank you, ACS and MWR team for doing this. You are doing great work. We started Child Abuse Awareness Month in 1983, so the fact that we are still doing it today means we still have not fixed this problem in 42 years and that is unfortunate. Last year there were over 500,000 cases of neglect and abuse of children in the United States and there were 2,000 deaths and that is way too many. The mission here at White Sands Missile Range is no abuse, no neglect, no deaths. The command is committed to this mission,” said Turner.

Upcoming classes that the WSMR community can sign up for include:

“A Daddy’s Love” a parenting bootcamp for men and dads of all ages: April 29, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

WSMR Community Baby Shower: April 25, Aug. 29, Dec. 19, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Family Advocacy Insights: July 1, Oct. 7, 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.

Sexual Behaviors in Children and Youth: Feb. 4, May 6, Aug. 5, Nov. 4, 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.

Teen Communication Challenge for Parents: Feb. 25, May 27, Aug. 26, Dec. 2, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Structure in the Home: March 4, June 3, Sept. 2, 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.

Building Family Routines: March 25, June 24, Sept. 30, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Tiny Tykes Playgroup: Every Thursday morning, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m., RSVP by Tuesday afternoon

For more information call the WSMR Army Community Service at: 575-678-2018