Harmony Home to celebrate 30 years

Jan. 27—For 30 years, Harmony Home Children's Advocacy Center has worked to help minimize the trauma of child abuse through multidisciplinary team investigation, prosecution and treatment.

They'll be celebrating the milestone with an anniversary party next week.

The celebration will take place from 6-8 p.m. Feb. 2 at the MCM Elegante.

"It's 30 years of supporting children who have been physically, sexually abused and neglected," Executive Director of Harmony Home Children's Advocacy Center Carrie Bronaugh said. "30 years of team collaboration with law enforcement, CPS, child protective investigators for supporting these children. 30 years of community support and wrapping hands around us so that we can provide the very vital services that we do every day at Harmony Home. There's lot to celebrate and be thankful for."

Harmony Home employs a small group of 18 professionals who help provide healing for abused children in seven counties throughout West Texas.

The nonprofit organization serves over 600 children each year, each a victim of sexual, physical or emotional abuse and neglect.

"We exist to break the silence in child abuse," Bronaugh said. "When we opened our doors in 1993, we had a group of individuals in the community that were hearing a lot of news stories about individuals whose children that were nonverbal, we're talking about babies, that were being hurt at the hands of their parents or people that were supposed to be taking care of them. These community members really wanted something different. They knew there was a vital piece missing."

Since then, Harmony Home's services have grown.

Since 2013, the organization has provided community awareness and prevention throughout the Permian Basin by providing evidence-based training to adults on how to react, respond and report sexual child abuse.

In 2019, the organization was able to start its 360 degree approach in prevention by going into the classrooms and helping children in grades K-5th know and understand the importance of spotting red flags and talking to safe adults.

"For over 30 years, we've really honed in and perfected the process," Bronaugh said. "We've been able to serve 20,000 kids. It's been magical and amazing to serve. I give honor to the individuals that started us."

However, there have been challenges over the years that Harmony Home has faced, most recently the pandemic and trying to provide services during lockdown.

"COVID brought its own challenges," Bronaugh said. "Everyone did shut down. We were considered essential from the governor's office. We had to shut down for a short time. For about two months, we only opened in case of emergencies. That drastically cut our numbers in half. We were only providing interviews, therapy and advocacy to the individuals that law enforcement truly felt was an emergency."

That ended up hindering a number of children.

"Our reporting across the city and state went down drastically," Bronaugh said. "Our reporting went down 40 percent. Those were child abuse reports. ... These children were at home with their abusers and no one has eyes on them and behavior changes."

After about two months, Harmony Home was able to open its doors back up but its therapy sessions were strictly through teletherapy.

"It wasn't as utilized as it should've been or could've been," Bronaugh said. "The children didn't buy into the teletherapy process. We were low in supporting our children in that aspect. After children were allowed to go back to school, our numbers shot through the roofs. We expected that. Our services increased. In 2021, our services increased by 13 percent. ... We've increased our therapy and our support. That's been a huge plus."

Next week's event will also be a way for Harmony Home to educate the public on what it does.

"This event is our way of saying thank you to the community," Bronaugh said. "It's also a way to let our community know who we are. If you've never walked through our doors for services, you may not know of the array of our services. If you don't need us then you probably don't want to know about us. Unfortunately, we live in a world where child abuse isn't talked about as much. It makes people uncomfortable. This event is to educate. By coping and getting the support, these children's nightmare can turn into something beautiful. We want our community to know that even in the ugliest days, there's a light at the end of the tunnel."

The event will include a dinner and a cake.

"We can't have an anniversary without birthday cake," Bronaugh said. "We'll have some cupcakes to hand out. ... Some awards will be handed out to specific individuals. We'll focus on what we're currently doing with our services as well as a sneak peak of what our future looks like."

For more information about the event, go to tinyurl.com/yck6wvn2.

If you go

— What: Harmony Home Children's Advocacy Center 30th Anniversary Celebration.

— When: 6-8 p.m. Feb. 2.

— Where: MCM Elegante.