By Blake Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal

Hundreds of lives are changed in Dallas and the surrounding counties each year by organizations that are funded by the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention’s Children’s Trust Fund.

And this year will be no different.

“Thank you for the work that you do. I am humbled,” said Tracy Plummer, deputy director for the department. “I appreciate it and you make us proud with the work that you do with the families and children that you serve.”

To show that thanks, Plummer awarded a check Friday to agencies in Dallas, Pickens and Wilcox counties for $405,000.

“What’s taking place in the Black Belt communities is making us proud,” Plummer said. “And of course, every time I attend a check presentation it also sparks that little drive of I’ve got to get them more money.”

The department was established 33 years ago by the legislature because of the need for programs across the state to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Four agencies in Dallas County will receive $200,000 combined from the check Plummer awarded to this area.

Those four agencies are the Children’s Policy Council for Dallas County, the Dallas County Family Resource Center, the YMCA of Selma-Dallas County and the Central Alabama Regional Child Advocacy Center.

“Y’all have no idea how much we appreciate the Children’s Trust Fund,” said Robert Armstrong, executive director of the Children’s Policy Council of Dallas County. “It blows us away. … Thank y’all so much. It means so much to us. It gives us great hope and it gives us the tools to make a difference.”

The council received two grants worth $50,000 each for fatherhood initiatives in Dallas and Perry counties.

“We couldn’t run the fatherhood program without the Children’s Trust Fund, so it’s bottom-line necessary,” Armstrong said.

The resource center received a grant worth $50,000 for its Whole Parent Program, the YMCA received a grant for $40,000 for its Reach and Rise Mentoring Program and the Central Alabama Regional Child Advocacy Center received a grant for $15,000 for a public awareness and training program.

Armstrong said it is amazing to see how these organizations have developed over the last 12 years and turned into a cohesive unit that works toward the same goal.

“We didn’t have a lot going on, but over 12 years people have begun to work together … and there is a lot of good things going on to help people and transform our community.”