History

The Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Center of North Carolina, Inc was founded in October of 1981 following a Forsyth Co. N.C. taskforce discussion on needed prevention services to deal with rapidly increasing reports of child abuse and neglect. The Exchange Club of Greater Winston-Salem had proposed the program model following the adoption nationally of using parent aides (then known as lay therapists) to work in the homes with families. (For more on the history of Parent Aides, see the Research section of this website).

Core services of in home parent aides and community awareness were provided in the first year of operation. By 1983 both parent education services and support group services had been added. Today over thirty different services or support groups are used in the prevention and treatment of child abuse and over 10,000 individuals are served in 12 counties in Northwest North Carolina. The central Office for administering these programs is located in Winston-Salem, N.C.