On the morning of April 7, nearly 3,000 bright blue pinwheels were planted on the lawn of West Jordan’s Justice Court. Each pinwheel represents three children of confirmed cases of child abuse.

The Pinwheels for Prevention event, sponsored by The Family Support Center in partnership with Child Abuse Prevention Utah, marked the beginning of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

 The organizations hope to bring residents and volunteers together to raise awareness for child abuse and connect families with critical resources.

“The pinwheels may look simple to you, but they carry a powerful message. Each one represents the bright, safe and joyful childhood that every child deserves,” said Deondra Brown with Prevent Child Abuse Utah.

In 2025, 8,622 children in Utah were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect.

Lori Cox, executive director of The Family Support Center, hopes that community events such as these will prompt people to think about child abuse in a different way.

“We want people to drive past and ask about what these blue pinwheels mean… to get people to think about child abuse and think about it in a different way.” She continued, “Instead of condemning all parents, we want people to look at prevention measures.”

The Family Support Center is a nonprofit organization that provides critical resources to protect children, strengthen families and prevent child abuse across the state. The organization offers crisis childcare, transitional housing for families rebuilding their lives and parent education information.

“We want parents to come out and get educated on positive ways to help their kids. We want them to not be ashamed of taking advantage of places like crisis nurseries when they're in a moment of stress,” Cox said. “It’s in moments of stress that parents react in ways that they're not super proud of. We want to prevent that before it happens.”

Jenna Sume, a parent educator with Prevent Child Abuse Utah, spoke on risk factors that increase the likelihood of child abuse, and how to offset these challenges.

“Risk factors can be things that set someone at a disadvantage in life, a lot of which is not up to their control. Protective factors, such as getting families connected to their communities and helping them with developmental education, can combat these risk factors.”

Prevent Child Abuse Utah works with all kinds of families to build community and prevent child abuse through events, education, public awareness and more.

“It's important to recognize that abuse is happening within our communities and to raise awareness for that,” Sume said. “One of our sayings is that child abuse isn’t inevitable, but it is preventable.”

Following the planting of the blue pinwheels, Mayor Dirk Burton and Chief of Police Jeremy Robertson gave remarks on the event and their hopes for the future of West Jordan’s children.

“West Jordan is the third largest city in Utah and as such, we have a lot of children. We care about our children here, and we want them to have a great life,” Burton said

“There’s nothing worse than a true victim who is abused in this community, and children are true victims,” Robertson said. “We need to have more members in our community being willing to intervene and help prevent child abuse.” 

The Family Support Center planned to host another Pinwheels for Prevention event at City Hall on April 27, and the bright blue pinwheels will continue to be a visual reminder of the bright future every child deserves.