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On April 15, Troup County Connection Authority’s annual Family Expo and Awareness Walk will take place at Southbend Park. This year will be the event’s second outing at the park and the organization’s 26th year putting it on.

The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and will include community resources tables, Kona Ice, door prizes, raffles and activities for families.

The walk portion of the event will begin at 10 a.m. and to participate is $20 for adults and $10 for children. The first 50 people to register will receive free lunch

“April is child abuse awareness month. As a fundraiser for Safe Families, participants will do a walk around the park for child abuse prevention,” Mandy Hill, executive director of Troup County Connection Authority said.

Nicole Spivey, community liaison for Safe Families, said the event has seen huge support from the community.

“We had many community sponsors. We had community partners walk as well as our volunteers of Safe Families. It has been great to see our community and volunteers get together to walk in the spread of awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month,” Spivey said.

Along with being a family fun event, Spivey said the event will bring a bring perspective and ways to prevent child abuse.

“Oftentimes, when we watch the news or we see something on TV, we don’t put it into perspective that those same things are happening in our community. LaGrange is such a wonderful town, but there’s also ugly things that go on,” Spivey said.

“Unless you’re in social services day to day, you may not be aware of those. So, our event shines a light on child abuse awareness with ways that you can prevent it, the signs of how to report it and then also, by partnering with Troup County Connection Authority, we can offer community resource tables and things to the parents and community members.”

Hill said so far 30 resource organizations have registered to be a part of the event Among those attending are Get Troup Reading, West Georgia Technical College, Bikers Against Child Abuse, Child Advocacy Center and more.

In the nearly three decades of putting on the expo, Hill said it has been amazing helping families get valuable information about services available in the community.

“The biggest impact of the event is families realizing how many resources we have available in our community,” Hill said. “For us to be a small community, we have a lot of resources that support children and families, and we want to spread that awareness to those in need.”