It has been busy few days. I attended my two networking meetings yesterday. I really enjoy going to these meetings. Of course both are here in San Diego. One of the meetings is the Child Abuse Prevention Committee with County of San Diego Commission on Children, Youth and Families. This group meets one time per month. It is a great place to learn what is going on around prevention in San Diego. I have met very nice people there and the meetings are excellent. They bring in presenters that are working in the field that are sharing what works and resources that we can all benefit from. It is a place where profesionals and others (like me) can come together, share their concerns and learn from each other. The other meeting was the ACTION network or the AN. This organization is put together of 50 organizations that work together Against Child Trafficking & the Prostitution of Teens in Our Neighborhoods. Both these organizations are a great place to be and let me know if you would like to learn more about them. I am new in town, but at both these meetings are wonderful people with a true passion for their work. I made a couple of good connections at the meetings yesterday. A school counselor for a small school district and a person from a local church. They are both a great fit for the Stewards of Children training. You can check it out online www.darknesstolight.org
I was also at these meetings to share about the child abuse prevention training, Stewards of Children that we are providing on on april 14th 2007. When I say we I mean, the members of Authentic Voices International in San Diego, www.ethicalife.com and others. Just hoping to get the word out that the training is available and needed! I am not one that tries to re-create the wheel. I belive in working together and if there is something out there that we can all get behind to support, because it works, then why starting from scratch? Wasting time and money! That is how I have done what I have done….in a short amount of time. See I am just a survivor trying to help. That sounded like a victim stance. It is more that, today I see the gift in my path, my pain and what happened to me. I don´t wear it on my sleeve any more, I want to change how peopel see and feel about this issue and especially make people aware of the fact that it is happening all around us and we need to change that and we can!!
So the good news today. My sister (twin) that has worked with me (the two of us are the co-founders) on the project (Blátt áfram) in Iceland sent me email and shared that the Ministry of Justice is giving us just over $10 thousand dollars towards the conference that we are planning for this may.
I was so happy! I have been waiting for a while for a reply from about four of the ministries in Iceland that I applied to for money for this conference! I think I shared in an earlier post that I am planning our annual conference that will be held the 24 and 25 of May. The conference is called Education + discussion = Prevention; is the best way! It was my mother in law that put that title together for me.
We have invited some great speakers. Robert E Longo www.saperi.us, Shirley Paceley www.illinoisvoices.com , David Burton and John Patterson www.nonprofitrisk.org . You should google them and see what you find. They are all unique and bring a wonderful and important message to the issue of child sexual abuse prevention. I will add their web sites under my favorites soon. It is getting late. I tend to do my work very early in the am or very late in the pm when the kids are in bed. Especially at night I can spread out on the couch, watch CSI and type on the computer. Aside from the dentist appointment today…it was a great day!
