Natchez Children’s Services requests appropriation, asks to set pinwheel display for Child Abuse Prevention Month

Catherine McFady, executive director of Natchez Children’s Services Children’s Advocacy Center, told the Claiborne County Board that her organization provides free forensic-interview and support services to child victims in several neighboring counties and to Claiborne County. “From 10/01/2023 through 09/30/2024 … 18 of those were Claiborne County cases alone,” McFady said, and she asked the board to consider an appropriation during the current fiscal-year budgeting process.

McFady supplied the board a packet and noted that interviewing children at a children’s advocacy center costs roughly $1,000 per child versus an estimated 36% higher cost for a traditional investigation; she said that equates to about $30,000 in estimated county savings for the children served last year.

She also requested permission for the center’s annual courthouse pinwheel display in April for Child Abuse Prevention Month; the display is installed and removed by the center and features a banner listing the number of local children served. The board took the funding request under advisement and voted to allow the pinwheel display.

Supervisor Chambliss moved to take McFady’s appropriation request under advisement; the motion carried. McFady said the center’s last recorded county appropriation was $4,000 in 2023 and that current need likely exceeds that amount.