Even before Tawana Williams had children of her own, she felt drawn to them and had the ability to connect with them, she said.
“I have always been good with kids, even outside of work,” Williams said. “I am good with calming kids — I am the director of my youth program at my church — kids just gravitate toward me.”
For the past year, Williams has served as the awareness advocate for the Percy & Donna Malone Child Safety Center in Arkadelphia, which serves five counties.
“I am just passionate about helping people,” Williams said. “In every job that I have had, in some capacity, it has been about helping people, but I just love kids.
“They are so special, so caring, trusting and loving. I have always been drawn to working with kids.”
Her position at the center was created after the staff realized that a lot of children in the area didn’t understand the abuse that was happening to them.
Christa Neal, executive director at the center, said that from the day the center opened almost five years ago, “we heard a lot of kids had been abused and they didn’t know until they watched an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or some other very tragic way of them finding out [that] what was happening to their body shouldn’t be happening.”
“We can’t just be reacting, we have to be proactive; we have to go and educate the kids,” Neal said. “I was really excited to get the grant to fund Tawana’s position.”
Neal said that prior to hiring Williams, the role of raising awareness had been a group effort, which took a lot of coordination and time.
The center provides services for kids and their families during child-maltreatment investigations.
“The majority of our cases are child sexual abuses, and we also help kids that have been physically abused or witnessed violence or maybe some neglect,” Neal said. “But primarily, our entry point is a forensic interview for a child that has alleged to be sexually abused.”
She said that in the past six months, the staff at the center has seen as many kids as they did all of last year, so “we have been exceptional busy recently.”
Serving the children takes funding.
On Saturday, the center will host the annual Denim & Diamonds Barn Dance, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Malone Show Barn, 559 Cedar Grove Road in Arkadelphia. Tickets for the event are $75 per person and are available at www.pdmcsc.org. Tickets are also available to purchase at the door on the night of the event, but Neal encourages guests to buy them in advance.
The event is the center’s biggest fundraiser of the year, Neal said. Last year, the event raised almost $60,000 for the center.
“For Arkadelphia, that is very successful, for a small town,” Neal said. “People come out and learn a little more about the center. It has been very successful for us so far.
“We are a nonprofit, and we don’t charge anything for any of our services. So we are fully dependent on private donations and grants. It is just a continually around-the-clock process of applying for grants and asking for money.”
Neal said the center recently received grants from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), the Alcoa Foundation, the Ross Foundation and the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence, as well as a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Arkansas Building Effective Services grant. She said those grants helped fund the resources for the therapy garden outside the center.
The Denim & Diamonds event is a twist on a gala where guests can wear their real or faux diamonds, denim and boots, Neal said.
“The show barn is covered, but it is out in the elements, so there is a smell of cows at times,” she said. “There is a live band and horses that you can ride and a photo booth. It is a fun night.”
This year, the guest speaker will be a young woman who came to the center almost three years ago for help and is now a student at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Neal said.
“Hers is a story of healing; hers is a story of hope where there wasn’t any,” Neal said. “Honestly, it is one of the things that keeps us going.”
Williams was born in Malvern but graduated in 2008 from Arkadelphia High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in human services in 2012 from Henderson State University. Prior to coming to the center, she was an academic adviser at Ouachita Baptist University.
“This information wasn’t taught to me as a kid, so I am grateful to give the kids the tools that they need to know what should or shouldn’t be happening to their bodies and presented in a way that is tactful,” Williams said. “It has made me more aware, even personally, of how I teach my kids about their bodies.
“It is never too early to start talking to your kids about what their body parts are and even asking them if you can touch them when giving them a bath. … I wasn’t taught it, and I want to make sure these kids get that information.”
Williams has two kids, a 3-year-old daughter, Kenslei, and a 2-year-old son, Kannon. She has been married to her high school sweetheart, Kenny, for six years.
“Tawana is passionate about teaching kids,” Neal said. “We had three wonderful candidates interview for the position, and all three would have done a great job.
“I knew she would do a good job. She is a joyful person. Some days at the center can be a little low on morale and depressing, but she is usually smiling. She is a very positive person. She does a great job engaging the kids, and she cares about what she is doing.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.