In a survey of 17,000 adults, more than 2 in 5 said they had been sexually abused by someone before they graduated High School. The perpetrators were sometimes members of their family, or sometimes an adult or much older child from the community. But almost always someone they, and their families, knew. Most never told and had been living with it much of their lives.
These statistics are sobering, and can make us feel powerless. But in order to fight this threat to children, we need to feel the opposite. We need to be empowered.
For years, adults thought that programs like “Good Touch, Bad Touch”- teaching kids about body-safety, were all we needed to do to keep children safe from sexual abuse. But the research, and our experience, shows us something quite different. Asking a child to be on the look-out for potentially dangerous adults, and then expecting that child to tell if anything abusive happens to them, is unrealistic. Remember, the perpetrators are usually people they know and trust, often adults they depend on. Kids aren’t able to “Just Say No” to sexual abuse, it’s not up to them.
So the responsibility of keeping children safe from sexual abuse must fall firmly on the shoulders of adults. It is an adult’s job to create safer environments where children can learn, play and grow; and an adult’s job to spot potential dangers that could indicate someone may pose a risk to the safety of a child. But how do we know what to look for? Would you know the warning signs of a child who is being sexually abused? Or of an adult that wanted to harm a child?
This is where the Enough Abuse program comes in. This past year, Nassau County was chosen as one of five counties statewide to pilot an exciting new program to combat childhood sexual abuse called “Enough Abuse Nassau”. The program is evidence-based, and is designed to teach adults how to better protect kids from sexual abuse, and energize them to create a safer community where the threat of sexual abuse no longer exists.
The program is simple. In December of last year, we trained 40 volunteer facilitators to be official presenters of the Enough Abuse curriculum. Their job will be to go to PTAs, places of worship, business lunch and learns, community centers and human service agencies, and train adults in how to recognize warning signs of child abuse, and challenge them to make changes in their homes, neighborhoods and schools that will keep kids safe from sexual abuse. The trainings are free, last only one or two hours depending on the group, and are a powerful way to mobilize our county to take a stand for children.
What can you do to protect kids from sexual abuse? As it turns out, a lot. You can start by booking an Enough Abuse training for your group or organization. Recently, Bethpage Federal Credit Union has pledged to offer the program to all of its employees, and other businesses and organizations are planning to follow suit. If you’d like to join with other Nassau residents who are working to stop child sexual abuse, contact Heather Gilmartin at The Safe Center to book an Enough Abuse training for your group today: hgilmartin@tscli.org
Anthony Zenkus, Director of Education