A local education program that helps school children learn about sexual and physical abuse narrowly avoided going under due to a lack of funding.
The Green Bear Project started in 2001 in order to teach children what sexual and physical abuse is and to instill their trust in adults that could help them. Last year there were 878 cases of sexual or physical violence in southeastern Missouri alone, many of these cases involving children. They were aided through their harsh experiences by the people of the Beacon Health Center.
The Beacon Health Center is home to a child sexual violence education and prevention program called The Green Bear Project in Cape Girardeau. They reach out to grade school children across most of the Bootheel and give presentations of how to get through the traumatizing experience of sexual or physical abuse and who they can trust to talk to.
They have recently been struggling to acquire the funds necessary to keep the program up and running in the Bootheel area. Executive Director Kim Williams says the program relies heavily on grants.
“As a non-profit, we depend on grants from different agencies be it department of public safety or different victim agencies and donations, basically. Grassroots efforts as well here locally, but the grants are our biggest funding source,” Williams said.
Last weekend they were able to receive a grant from the Cape Girardeau department of public safety, but more funding is necessary especially during the end of the year. Williams said they refuse to see the Green Bear Project slow down in any way and will be using fundraisers in the coming months to ensure the program continues.
“We hope doing some fundraisers here locally, more of a grassroots effort, maybe we can get some things going to keep the schedule up,” Williams said. “Green Bear is a program that has been with us for many years and we want it to keep going.”