Kauai officials mark sexual assault, child abuse prevention month with proclamations

Blue pinwheel gardens stood at the Judiciary, Kauaʻi Police Department offices, the Kauaʻi District Health Office, a state building housing Child Welfare Services offices and the YWCA of Kauaʻi as Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami and the Kauaʻi County Council marked April as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month and National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The displays, coordinated by the Friends of the Children’s Justice Center of Kauaʻi, will stay up through the end of April, keeping the message visible long after the ceremony.

The plantings drew in more than county offices. Staff at the partner agencies helped place the pinwheels, and volunteers from the Boys & Girls Club of Hawaiʻi, Līhuʻe Clubhouse and Girl Scouts joined despite inclement weather. The effort reflected a countywide pattern that has returned each April, including child-abuse-prevention outreach in 2024 and Sexual Assault Awareness Month observance in 2025, when county partners also used Denim Day to highlight sexual violence prevention.

For Kauaʻi officials, the annual ceremony sits alongside a sobering public-safety record. In a 2024 county press release, the Kauaʻi Police Department said it responded to 134 cases related to child welfare the year before. That number helps explain why April’s awareness campaign has become a recurring collaboration between police, health workers, advocates and youth groups rather than a one-day symbolic gesture.

The local response network already in place includes the YWCA of Kauaʻi, the Children’s Justice Center of Kauaʻi, the Kauaʻi Police Department, the Kauaʻi District Health Office and Child Welfare Services. In 2026, Sexual Assault Awareness Month marks its 25th anniversary, and national child-welfare guidance says April is meant to reinforce family and community responsibility for preventing abuse and neglect.

Families who suspect child abuse or neglect can call Hawaiʻi Child Welfare Services at 808-832-5300, or 1-888-398-1188 for neighbor islands. On Kauaʻi, that hotline remains the most direct reporting line as county partners keep the pinwheels and the message in public view through the rest of April.