April is child abuse prevention month.

Today, dozens of advocates and state officials honored the memory of children who died from child abuse… while celebrating the efforts of workers who keep kids safe everyday.

Volunteers planted blue and black flags all across State Street in front of the state capitol in Harrisburg this morning.

In 2023, 57 children were killed by abuse in Pennsylvania. Overall, there were 4,720 substantiated cases of child abuse in the state.

After planting the flags, advocates headed inside for a ceremony hosted by the PA Family Support Alliance. Four child advocates—from a detective to a case worker—won the 2025 Blue Ribbon Champion Award.

Today’s events are just the start of a month of education.

“Recognizing and identifying child abuse can be a complicated thing. If it’s a physical injury, of course, that’s pretty obvious. Sometimes you have an injury that just doesn’t kind of go along with the story that’s given,” Angela Liddle said, president of PA Family Support Alliance. “But there’s many forms of abuse. So we really encourage people to get educated on the signs of symptoms and what our law says.”

Their website has many resources for families and communities. Liddle says one of the best ways to prevent child abuse is for parents to get connected with classes on good parenting skills.

From WENY, April 2, 2025