WHEREAS, During the month of April 2022, Williamson County will observe National Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect, and create strong communities to support the strengthening and healing of the abused children and their non-offending family members; and

WHEREAS, In calendar year 2021, Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center reviewed 4,891 reports of alleged child abuse, and conducted 816 forensic interviews; and

WHEREAS, Working together to raise the awareness of child abuse and neglect, the “Go-Blue Committee,” which includes members of Bikers Against Child Abuse, CASA of Williamson County, Cedar Park Police Department, Georgetown Police Department, Round Rock Police Department, Round Rock ISD Police Department, Leander Police Department, The Georgetown Project, Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, Juvenile Services, Starry, Georgetown ISD and Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center, serves hundreds of abused and neglected children, as well as their non-offending family members, each year; and

Choose Tech Event Week Free Webinars: March 27-31, 2022

Open House

Sunday, March 27, 2022, 5 p.m. CT

An opportunity to learn more about WGU and the IT programs we offer. We'll tell you how you can earn the certifications jobs require and the degree you need to advance, all at a cost that's about half of other institutions in the nation. The first half of the Open House will provide insight into how WGU is designed for you. The second half will offer you an opportunity to attend degree specific information sessions hosted by faculty and get answers to any questions you may have.

Williamson County is hosting two public meetings for its Atlas 14 Floodplain Mapping Study. The public meetings will be held at two separate locations on different dates to make it more accessible for county residents to attend one of the meetings.

The county has suffered from severe flooding numerous times in the past. These events have reinforced the importance of knowing where flood risks are located and where mitigation measures are needed. The Atlas 14 Floodplain Mapping Study is being funded via the Texas Water Development Board and will update rainfall data throughout the county, map streams and waterways, and identify where flood risks are located.

At the public meeting, attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about the study, speak with team members and share anecdotal information about flooding on their property. Public meeting materials will also be available online starting March 29.

Please visit the webpage www.wilco.org/atlas14 to learn more.

Click on Read More for Public Meetings information.

Once, kids ordered to Williamson County’s Juvenile Justice Center by a judge were met with a military academy culture that focused on building self-discipline and increasing compliance with rules.

Despite some gains, recidivism rates were high, with many youths penetrating further in the justice system. Executive Director Scott Matthew and Assistant Director Matt Smith looked for a better way. Their search led them down several paths, and one was to Round Rock Starry, a local nonprofit known for supporting youths and families in the Child Protective Services and foster care system. Recognizing that kids in the Starry programs have experienced significant trauma, its leadership implemented the internationally recognized Trust-Based Relational Intervention framework.

TBRI, the brainchild of the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University, offers innovative approaches for working with traumatized children. 

A look at the backgrounds of the youths at the juvenile center revealed that 83% of its residents had been in the CPS system, with 27% of those youths previously removed from their homes.

Recognizing that youths in both systems have similar backgrounds and that many touch both systems, in 2016 Matthew and Smith sought TBRI training for the staff at the juvenile center. Their previous approach wasn’t addressing root causes in most kid’s lives; the staff wanted to make a positive long-term difference in the lives of the kids placed in their care. 

Through TBRI training, juvenile agency staff learned how adverse childhood experiences impact normal brain development when toxic stress levels are daily occurrences for children. 

So how do children with brains geared for survival operate normally in this world? They struggle. TBRI practitioners blend nurture and structure as they work with kids on their behavioral responses to events and pressures in their lives. The focus is on teaching these youths appropriate coping skills. Mentoring and teaching, not punishment, brings improvement and positive change for the children. Lives can be changed. In many cases, time spent at the juvenile center can be the best thing in these kids’ lives to date.

Born on the 4^th of July in 1879 to former slave parents, Wade Sauls married Louisa Allen Robertson on April 18, 1896 at a very youthful age and proceeded to dominate farming in crop production. He was sought by many farmers for help in their crops but chose to go to the A.J. Palm Farm in Palm Valley to become Mrs Aders (Anna) Palm’s overseer for her farm.  He grew cotton, hay, cash crops, and raised livestock for her over 36 years.  As one of the first to farm cotton in the region, he was called the Cotton King by locals because he could get a full bushel of cotton out of an acre of land, and he was also the first farmer in the season to produce the initial bale of cotton of the season.

Wade and Louisa resided in a home on the A.J. Palm farm until he purchased his own land in the area of Dell Diamond and built a house.  He became a farmer and rancher on that land. The milk produced by his cows was delivered to the Round Rock Cheese Co., our very own cheese factory in Round Rock along Brushy Creek. Meanwhile his growing family reached 17 children of which 15 survived into adulthood (bless that Louisa).