By Michelle Costa, Local News 8 Reporter

POCATELLO - April is child abuse awareness and prevention month.

Members of Bright Tomorrows, a child advocacy center in Pocatello, are hoping to bring our community together to fight against child abuse.

Stopping child abuse is all about having strong families and these blue and silver pin wheels.

"The blue represents the child abuse prevention month and then the pin wheels are a memory of kids and how much joy they bring to our lives," said Curtis Peterson, Director, Bright Tomorrows.

The idea started in 2006, but now, the group's trying to get the whole state using them.

"We hope that they will remember that families are the center of our children's lives and that they are the key to preventing children from being abused and neglected and parents are our children's primary protector. That it will encourage them to do more and to be more active and always keep their children in mind," said Peterson.

Even though there's lots of snow on the ground now, members of Bright Tomorrows hope soon the bright pinwheels will be on everyone's yards.

"We have 2,700 and the number is supposed to represent the number of lives burst that happened in our county last year," said Peterson.

Peterson's found there's some things a family can do to prevent child abuse.

"One of them is the ability to ask for help and access community resources. The second one is parenting knowledge. The third one is the ability to grow healthy children who have the ability to express their emotions, feelings and have an open relationship with their parents," said Peterson.

But, not all families are healthy, seeing as the number of children sexually abused is on the rise.

"The national statistic is about one in four girls and one in six boys will have some type of sexual abuse sometime before the age of 18. In our area, we saw 150 kids who are in our forensic interview program and so we know that it is happening at least from a sexual abuse perceptive and we know that physical and neglect happen way more frequently than that," said Peterson. 

You can pick up a pin wheel at Bright Tomorrows, located on Washington Avenue or the Family Services Alliance.

They'll also be handing them out to the elementary schools starting on Monday at Blackfoot, American Falls and Preston.