The issue of child abuse is a very sensitive topic for most people. Whether somebody has had the misfortune of experiencing it firsthand or is simply aware of its existence, many do not want to discuss it. But the fact that it still exists and is difficult to discuss is all the more reason why awareness of the issue needs to be spread, says Sallie Fowler.

“There’s no excuse for child abuse; that’s our motto,” says Sallie.

Fowler co-founded with her husband Ray Fowler the North Haven-based Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Program in 2008. She was inspired to start the organization after reading about a story of abuse in Georgia, which made Sallie curious about whether this problem was gaining awareness in North Haven.

“We started researching, and there was nothing around except for DCF [Connecticut Department of Children and Families],” says Sallie.

Through spreading awareness early on and working with Town Hall, Sallie and her husband eventually built up the program into one that has been active in getting the word out about the issue of child abuse.

The program is very active on social media, regularly posting links to news stories around the United States on incidents of abuse and making themselves heard during April, which is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

In its early years, Sallie and her husband would gather materials to print pamphlets distributed throughout the town. These pamphlets presented methods for spotting an instance of abuse and initiating a preventative action.

“On one side, it had all the awareness of what child abuse is and how you could see and how you could prevent it, and then trigger points,” says Sallie. “They’re still floating around. I saw them in Town Hall the other day.”

The program went to North Haven Public Schools to set up prevention programs and, to its meetings, invited speakers from groups like the Greater Federation of Women’s Clubs. The latter group helped the program with a fundraiser that got North Haven youth involved with spreading awareness, as young artists designed posters and came up with other slogans for the program so that there were elements to the program “that people would identify North Haven” for, says Sallie.

As a voracious researcher, Sallie is constantly on the lookout for stories to share online. But she recognizes that with every story she comes across, she encounters a “heartbreaking” incident time and time again that could have been preventable.

“It’s heartbreaking when you hear of something that could have been prevented if people had just looked at what was going on in the world or in their own neighborhood,” she says. “It’s a topic that resonates with people because obviously people know about it. But I think it’s one of those topics that people veer away from. It’s distasteful. They don’t want to talk about it or think about it.”

No matter how difficult it is to talk about child abuse, It’s programs like Sallie’s that keep the necessary conservation going. This can be achieved through the program’s sponsored conversations, speakers, or visual presentations. Every year, the program works with North Haven Community Services to put up blue pinwheels, a symbol of abuse prevention, on a small patch of grass at the front door of North Haven Town Hall.

Sallie reminds everyone that just because abuse is not directly visible to an individual does not mean it shouldn’t be their business, especially since children without any control in their life are being affected.

“They say, ‘It’s not happening here, or maybe you made it up, or it’s not that important, or it doesn’t affect me.’ And you say, ‘Wait a minute, we’re talking about a little kid here who absolutely has no control over his father’s anger, or his coach’s upsetness of losing his job, or that so and so is drinking,’” she says.

Spreading awareness of abuse with young people as targets continues today, Sallie says. Last month, she presented before the Board of Selectmen her concerns over bullying as a real and damaging issue, not just simply “a rite of passage” for all young people. Sallie read to the board a poem she found online written by a 13-year-old girl who was the target of bullying that resonated with those who saw her read.

“It was so heartfelt, by this little girl, about what people had said to her, about her, which obviously weren’t true, and what the words meant to her as she was hearing them,” said Sallie.

For those who want to be more active in prevention, there are laws to protect the proactive.

“If you see something and you report it, you call DCF; you can do this anonymously; you don’t have to give your name,” she says. “Also, now that we’ve had so many instances of leaving a child in a [hot] car, if you see that in a parking lot, you can break the window to get the kid out. You [cannot] get sued by the driver.”

The North Haven Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Program’s Facebook page can be found at www..facebook.com/NoHCAAP.