On January 4, Jennifer Abbott from Darkness to Light spoke to the Portage Exchange Club. Darkness to Light is a national nonprofit organization devoted to educating adults about the prevalence of child sexual abuse and ways to combat it. At last July’s national convention, the National Exchange Club joined with Darkness to Light - Stewards of Children to further its efforts in the prevention of child abuse.
Unlike many earlier programs that attempted to prevent abuse by teaching children to identify and deflect sexual advances from adults, Darkness to Light places the responsibility for protecting children on adults. Darkness to Light offers education to parents, professionals and other interested adults. Educated adults are more likely to prevent, recognize and react responsibly in the face of child sexual abuse.
Citing the frightening statistics that one in four girls and one in six boys will suffer sexual abuse before the age of 18, Abbott emphasized that it is the responsibility of all adults to educate themselves, so that they can effectively help children.
She shared information from their educational booklet entitled "7 Steps to Preventing Child Sexual Abuse." This has helpful advice such as “Know the facts and understand the risks,” “Minimize opportunities by limiting and monitoring one child-one adult situations” and “Get involved!”
Darkness to Light offers workshops for interested groups. The workshop lasts about three hours and costs $350. The workshops are broken into segments to allow interaction and sharing between facilitators and participants.
Community resource guides and information about hosting a workshop are available on the website: www.darkness2light.org. Information about the National Exchange Club’s programs can be found at https://www.nationalexchangeclub.org
“There are over 39 million survivors of child sexual abuse in the United States today,” Abbott said. “Protection requires action!”