Navajo Nation DFS Plans Child Abuse Prevention Walk in Chinle This April

The Navajo Nation Division for Children & Family Services is mobilizing Chinle families, chapter leaders, school staff, and social-service providers around a Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Walk on April 15, putting a public face on child safety work that more often happens behind closed office doors.

The walk begins at 9:30 a.m. at the central Speedway in Chinle and proceeds to the DFS Chinle Field Office on Route 7. Anyone wanting to attend, volunteer, or help distribute information on prevention and reporting procedures can contact Alisha Marianito at (928) 674-2050.

DFS posted the announcement on April 2, framing the event as a community-wide effort to destigmatize reporting and widen access to prevention resources in a corridor where child-welfare challenges rarely exist in isolation. Poverty, housing instability, and geographic distance from services all raise the stakes for Chinle families navigating a crisis, and advocates say that visibility matters: when chapter officials and tribal agencies show up in public around child safety, it signals to families that reporting systems can be trusted.

Resource tables from partner agencies are expected along the route, giving attendees direct access to DFS staff and service information alongside guidance on how to report concerns. The event also supports ongoing coordination among DFS, school counselors, healthcare providers, and family-advocacy organizations across the Chinle area.

Outreach built through a walk like this can extend well beyond April 15, feeding into culturally grounded parenting workshops, school-based prevention seminars, and coordinated referral pathways to counseling and child-protective services. Chinle chapter officials and remote families who have had limited contact with DFS will have a low-barrier entry point to those connections, ten days from now, on Route 7.