Founded in 2002 by
Pamela Pine, PhD, MPH, an international health and development specialist, the mission is to expose and
stop Child Sexual Abuse (CSA)
and to help survivors heal
worldwide, with the overarching goals to 1) promote healing of victims and survivors, and
2) celebrate the lives of those healed.
They aim to address the relationships between CSA and the broader issues of overall family and community violence, and violence within and between communities. Their focus underlines the importance of a shift in focus on positive development within our social complexes (e.g., the relationships between men, women, adults and children, cultural groups) to support peaceful - and to hinder violence-prone - relationships.
Stop the Silence has proven its drive and capabilities and plans to push forward on all fronts to ensure that children are protected and that survivors get the help they need to thrive.
The group is unique in several ways, including in how it engages volunteers (right through a registration on the web site). It promotes its cause with such efforts as an annual "Race to Stop the Silence" with an
8K race, 5K fun run, and 1K kids' fun, now in its 8th year.run.
Stop the Silence doesn't rely simply on donations and foundation support, it also has associations with for-profit businesses and provides supporters with a "Stop to Shop" on-line mall. The many companies listed there pay Stop the Silence
a small commission from purchases made through their on-line mall store links.
The non profit
provides services such as advocacy, education and outreach, training and numerous resouces related to fighting child sexual abuse.
Overview
What is child sexual abuse?
Child sexual abuse (CSA) constitutes a broad range of behaviors occurring along a continuum from voyeurism to rape, and usually happens over an extended period of time. CSA is possible due to differences in power and control between the offender and the victim.
How common is it?
CSA is occurring in pandemic proportions and causes grave physical and psychological trauma, along with social havoc. In the U.S., CSA affects one-third of girls and one-sixth of boys by the time they are 18 years old.* Many countries have not yet conducted the research to identify the extent of CSA, but, from the research available, we know that it is a worldwide pandemic and that prevalence rates have been identified as high as 60 percent in some places and as low as 2 percent in others.
It is difficult to know the true extent of CSA. Most CSA is never reported (due to shame, fear, stigma, and other factors). The information that does get reported can look quite different depending on who is reporting it—for example, whether recounted by a child to various authorities as opposed to by an adult who has found out as a result of trauma or pregnancy. Also, authorities often minimize or dismiss the abuse reported, blame the victim, and/or protect the abuser. Only one in 10 children in the U.S. actually let someone know that it has occurred. We also know that more than two-fifths of women and more than one-third of men who have been sexually abused in the United States never disclose the experience to anyone.
What are the consequences?
We all privately or publicly know survivors who have not only survived, but thrived; it has taken work for them to get there. CSA often has extremely severe consequences. They include:
- Depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other psychological problems
- Anti-social behaviors
- Decreased school performance and delinquency
- Substance abuse
- Promiscuity
- Teen pregnancy
- Sexually transmitted infections and diseases, including HIV
- Prostitution
- Homicide and suicide
- Incarceration
- Chronic disease
Decades of research documents that adults who were sexually victimized as children have a higher likelihood of being negatively impacted in their adulthood by numerous types of psychological and physiological ailments and sociological pathologies, including post traumatic stress disorder, self-destructive and violent behaviors, and even chronic disease. CSA has been definitively implicated as a precursor to, and a part of, the commercial sexual exploitation of children. CSA costs the nation billions of dollars each year between medical and psychiatric treatment, social services, special education, and legal and judicial and incarceration costs.
What kind of programming does Stop the Silence provide?
Media advocacy. Stop the Silence uses the Race to Stop the Silence and the media to catalyze public awareness and social change. Campaigns run each year, in the spring (before the Race in April every year) and fall. The campaigns have reached millions through TV, radio, and the press with most media time donated.
Service provider training. Stop the Silence has been conducting training for police officers, community-based organizations, and leaders in corporate, governmental, and health organizations since its inception. This training has provided important background and clinical information, as well as created linkages between counseling, legal, and judicial programming.
Community education and outreach. Stop the Silence is reaching out in partnership with community- and faith-based organizations (CBOs and FBOs), as well as schools and public offices. Its goal is to educate audiences about the epidemic proportions of CSA, its root causes, its impact, how to recognize possible signs and symptoms, and, most importantly, what can be done by the public and policy makers to stop it.
National Children's Bench Book (NCBB) Project. The Bench Book is a critical information tool for judges and other professionals to use as they address child sexual abuse and maltreatment cases. The NCBB aims to help the courts and related personnel best deal with the cases brought before them. Stop the Silence looks to bring training to judges and other court-related personnel throughout the nation based on its successful national pilot training in 9/08 supported by the Department of Justice.
How can Stop the Silence work with you?
Stop the Silence aims to increase awareness about and conduct programming to address the prevention and treatment of CSA, and the relationships between this issue and broader societal violence. We can provide short- and longer-term strategic planning and technical assistance to help you set up or develop programming in any one or more of seven areas:
- Provide support for individual and group counseling (to heal what has already transpired)
- Advocacy
- Training of service providers
- Community education and outreach
- Policy development and application
- Research and evaluation
- Other prevention measures (e.g., a focus on appropriately dealing with offenders)
We're always happy to promote an effort as worthy as Stop the Silence, and we hightly recommend them.
And, oh yes .. maybe you'd like to sign their petition?
Sign the "Stop the Silence" Petition HERE
