APRIL 23, 2021 — UTSA, UT Health San Antonio and Bexar County children’s advocacy center ChildSafe were jointly awarded a $5,000 grant from the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science (IIMS). The grant will fund research related to child abuse in Bexar County.
This grant is well timed, as April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Principal investigator Monica Lawson, UTSA assistant professor of psychology, hopes the study will provide a better understanding of San Antonio’s high rate of confirmed child maltreatment cases.
“This project represents a first step towards solving this problem,” Lawson said. “The bigger picture is once we understand why rates are so high, we can design and implement targeted interventions to prevent abuse and neglect in our community.”
The research team includes Lawson, counseling staff at ChildSafe, and Nancy Kellogg, a pediatrician for UT Health San Antonio and the Center for Miracles at the Children's Hospital of San Antonio who specializes in child abuse.
“This study is timely and important to our community. These are unprecedented times of economic and social stressors that inevitably affect the health and well-being of children” Kellogg said. “The more we understand about the challenges that parents and child welfare professionals face, the better we can do as a community to strengthen families and protect children.”
ChildSafe plays a significant role in coordinating evidence-based services for child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation by employing a unique model where a multi-disciplinary team of professionals work together to ensure child perpetrators are brought to justice, children and families are safe, and victims receive specialized treatment to heal from violence and abuse.
“We are consistently asked why child abuse rates in our county are so high, and while we have general knowledge and assumptions, those in child welfare have never had quantifiable data to answer that question scientifically,” said Randy McGibeny, ChildSafe chief operating officer. “This grant will allow our community to begin to identify root causes of Bexar County’s high rates of child abuse.”
“All of us at ChildSafe look forward to the opportunity to continue and expand our long-standing partnership with UT Health San Antonio, and embark on a new relationship with UTSA,” added Kim Abernethy, ChildSafe president and CEO. “The more professionals we have researching the issue of child abuse in our community, the more we can collectively support children in Bexar County.”
The purpose of IIMS’s Community Engagement Small Project Grants program is to support community and research collaborations from South Texas with grants so researchers may develop activities that lead to the translation of research for public health benefit.
The Center for Miracles is a collaborative program staffed by UT Health San Antonio faculty and fellows working with the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio social workers and medical assistants. This referral-only clinic evaluates children referred by child protective services, law enforcement, forensic interviewers, and physicians.
ChildSafe is Bexar County’s most advanced trauma-focused care center, providing crisis intervention, case management services, counseling, and advanced therapy to aid in the healing of child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, physical abuse and neglect.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
San Antonio’s treasured Asian Festival returns on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Downtown Campus. In observance of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month the one-day performance, entertainment, and food event will celebrate the diverse Asian diaspora represented in South Texas and San Antonio. Come and enjoy one of San Antonio’s premier family-friendly events, with hands-on activities and opportunities to learn through experience.
UTSA Downtown CampusThe Texas Coalition for Heritage Spanish (TeCHS) seeks to provide a cooperative platform to support the success of Spanish heritage language speakers and their communities in Texas, assisting and promoting bicultural and bilingual development in the state.
River Walk Room (DBB 1.124,) Durango Building, Downtown CampusDr. Michael Doyle has had an immense impact on the field of catalysis and organic chemistry. Join in a one-day symposium. In order to honor Dr. Doyle’s colossal career accomplishments with his upcoming retirement, we are holding a one day symposium event
Riklin Auditorium (FS 1.406,) Frio Street Building, Downtown CampusThe NHERI Summer Institute is a free event for early-career faculty, NHERI Graduate Student Council, K-12 educators from the San Antonio area, engineers, and researchers to learn more about the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) community.
La Villita Room (DBB 1.116,) Durango Building, Main CampusBuilding the Dual Language Leader Symposium will provide a safe space for current and aspiring leaders to learn best practices, theories, policies, and systems that support a dual language bilingual education.
UTSA Southwest Campus, 300 Augusta St.Streaming of Spray the Word that will conclude with a discussion with San Antonio's Poet Laureate, Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson.
Aula Canaria (BVB 1.328,) Buena Vista Street Building, Downtown CampusCelebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at our very own street fair - Calle UTSA. We will have activities, performances, food, music, and pinatas to break open! All free to UTSA students, faculty, and staff.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.