FLORENCE – Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear presented a $48,000 grant funding check from the Child Victims’ Trust Fund to Family Nurturing Center in Florence, an agency which works to help prevent child abuse in Northern Kentucky.

The money which will be doubled by an anonymous donor match will be used to provide 230 training sessions to more than 3,000 adults about how to prevent child abuse, how to recognize it and how to respond when it happens.

When deciding who to distribute grant money to, Beshear says that it comes down to impact of programs and the Family Nurturing Center programs are making a difference.

Beshear acknowledges that while his office has done a lot in the area of targeting abusers, there is still much work to be done and training programs are being implemented to protect kids.

“Every single child who is in danger is one that we have to help, and we’re going to work every single day until we eliminate child abuse because it is 100 percent preventable,” Beshear said. “February 8th at the New Life Center, we’re going to have training for youth serving organizations. They could be youth sports, after-school programs, churches and others, but not all of them have practices and procedures in place that we know work.”

Family Nurturing Center Executive Director Jane Herms said she was proud to be recognized by Beshear for the work her agency is doing to assist children and their families.

“They really allow us to increase community capacity and have more people engage and involved in protecting children,” Herms said. “Family Nurturing Center provides child abuse education and prevention and treatment services. We serve over 30,000 children and parents a year through a whole continuum of services.”

Beshear admits that even though a good number of child sexual predators have been apprehended by his office, it’s hard sometimes to gauge if the number of offenders still on the loose is rising or falling, but Beshear notes that’s not necessarily his number one concern.

“What matters is how we respond, how many children we help, how many people we hold accountable that are committing horrendous crimes against children and I know we’re doing better there,” Beshear said.