ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Bivona Child Advocacy Center gathered with their partner agencies, first responders and community leaders Wednesday for their annual signing of their “Memorandum of Understanding.”

Each year in April, Bivona hosts this gathering to recognize the importance of collaboration and education in our community’s fight against child abuse.

Rochester Police Chief David Smith spoke about the unique efforts in our community to keep children safe.

“Bivona is the folks in the room here, which is what’s great about Rochester and Monroe County is everyone here has set their egos aside to work together for one common goal, and that’s to provide what Bivona provides for our children and the children of this community,” Chief Smith said. “I think that’s one of the very unique things about the community that we live in. No one operates in a vacuum.”

In recent years, there’s been over 500,000 reports of child abuse and neglect across the country according to Monroe County Executive Adam Bello.