Why is prevention important?

This says it all.  From the Ace Study web site.  “The ACE Study reveals a powerful relationship between our emotional experiences as children and our physical and mental health as adults, as well as the major causes of adult mortality in the United States. It documents the conversion of traumatic emotional experiences in childhood into organic disease later in life. How does this happen, this reverse alchemy, turning the gold of a newborn infant into the lead of a depressed, diseased adult? The Study makes it clear that time does not heal some of the adverse experiences we found so common in the childhoods of a large population of middle-aged, middle class Americans. One does not ‘just get over’ some things, not even fifty years later(3).”(4) www.Acestudy.org

Listening to Dr. Felitti present this study was an experience that I will never forget.  Please visit the Ace study web site and learn more about it.

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention starts by getting to know the facts.  Here are just a few.

  • 1 out of every 4 girls and 1 out of every 6 boys is abused sexually before the age of 18 (darkness2light.org).
  • 93% of all victims know their abusers (darkness2light.org)
  • Only 29% of parents ever mentioned or discussed sexual abuse with their children (Darkness2light.org).
  • Victims of sexual violence face both immediate and long-term psychological consequences (Ackard and Neumark-Sztainer 2002; Faravelli et al. 2004; Felitti et al. 1998; Krakow et al. 2002; Ystgaard et al. 2004).   http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/svfacts.htm

Understanding Child Sexual abuse please visit this link at the American Psychological Association http://www.apa.org/releases/sexabuse/homepage.html

If you would like to become educated about what you can do to prevent child sexual abuse, I highly recommend the following: 

Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children is a revolutionary sexual abuse prevention training program that educates adults to prevent, recognize, and react responsibly to child sexual abuse, and motivates them to courageous action. The Stewards of Children program is designed for organizations and corporations that serve children and youth. 

This training is available on-line at www.darknesstolight.org or led by a trained facilitator.   See a list of trained facilitators on the d2l web site or you can contact me svavabb@gmail.com to learn more.

If your organization or business is looking for a presentation on the issue of child sexual abuse and prevention, I offer few presentations.  The focus is always prevention and/or healing and can be tailored to your audience.

1. Child sexual abuse awareness and prevention. 1-2 hr presentation.

2. Child sexual abuse awareness and prevention for parents. 1 hr presentation. Darkness to Light - Step Up & Speak Out - A Parent Guide for Selecting Youth Serving Organizations -
This presentation and guide teaches parents about their personal power and responsibility to protect children from sexual abuse. It also gives them specific direction to understand and improve the protection practices of programs that serve children.  http://www.darkness2light.org/PG4P_flash/preventionguideforparents.asp

3. Darkness to Light Stewards of Children prevention training. 3 hr prevention training.

4. Darkness to Light Stewards of Children facilitator training.  1 day training.

5. The healing journey.  I will share the books and tools I have learned to use over the last 14 years in recovery from child sexual abuse.  Love is the Lesson!  1-2 hr interactive presentation. This presentation can also be given as a keynote address.

For more information, bio or outline of presentation please email svavabb@gmail.com.

Testimonials:

To learn about the issue of child sexual abuse, facts, consequences, information for survivors and their families on recovery, good books, DVD´s, music and more go to www.ethicalife.com radio show.  This program is hosted by Dr. Kathleen Brooks.  There are about 2 years worth of programs on the archives.  You can choose the one you want to listen to download and listen to it when you have time. 

Resources:

http://www.beachildshero.com/

Child sexual abuse prevention guide for parents:  http://www.darkness2light.org/PG4P_flash/preventionguideforparents.asp 

Treatment for young offenders.  www.roblongo.com  Robert E. Longo, MRC, LPC , is Director of Clinical Services; Old Vineyard Youth Service, a Psychiatric Residential Hospital, in Winston-Salem, NC. He also serves as a consultant, educator, and author dedicated to sexual abuse prevention and treatment. He was previously Corporate Director of Special Programming and Clinical Training for New Hope Treatment Centers, Charleston, South Carolina. Rob’s focus is on sexual abuse prevention and treatment with youth, and the treatment of youth with serious behavioral problems.  Robert has traveled to Iceland a couple of times to participate at our annual conference.  He shares his success in working with young people.  I am also including here a link to an interview with Longo done 5/31/2006 Sexually Aggressive Youth

….more …a lot more to come.