Agency Fighting Abuse
One Lowcountry agency wants to shed light on sexual abuse and instill hope in the hearts of the children and adults who have endured it. From Darkness To Light, founded in 1996 as an annual conference-based entity intended as a forum for adult survivors of sexual abuse, is now a primary prevention program aimed at reducing the incidence of child sexual abuse. The agency, located at 1061 King St., has launched a media campaign highlighting the prevalence of abuse in the Charleston community. Although the program began and incubated in the Lowcountry, it has plans for national expansion this year.
The Lowcountry Children's Center gave From Darkness To Light a boost when it agreed last February to pay start-up costs and provide the agency with office space inside its King Street building. Anne Lee, From Darkness to Light's executive director and an adult survivor of child sexual abuse, said the program is about one heart touching another. She added that Lowcountry Children's Center went out on a limb because it believed in From Darkness to Light's mission and realized the importance of being in a building where all staff members are working toward reducing the incidence of child sexual abuse.
The campaign is step one of a three-part abuse-prevention program aimed at bringing about local awareness and education in the community and helping survivors of abuse break the abuse cycle. Lee developed the public service announcements in cooperation with award-winning director Stewart Birbrower. Actor Perry King, of TV's "Titans" series, provides the voice-overs. Lee said it is exhilarating that the issue of sexual abuse can finally be discussed. "The depressing part is the generations of people who would not talk about it for so long due to guilt and fear," Lee said. "If we as adults can't stand up and claim our shame, how can we expect kids to do so."
According to Lee, the agency's goal is to protect children who have not yet been hurt as well as reach out to those who have been sexually abused and are suppressing it with alcohol, drugs and denial. Driving the agency forward are the following statistics: One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they reach age 18. Fewer than one in ten of them will tell. Of all teen pregnancies in the United States, more than 50 percent are the result of adult men having sex with underage girls. A large percentage of adult survivors experience alcohol and drug problems and mental disorders and many sexually abuse others.
The agency uses these statistics, all on the conservative side according to Lee, in the four 30-second television spots aimed at pushing the prevalence and consequences of child sexual abuse to the forefront. Each spot has a four-week run and airs on local television stations. "I hope this goes national because this issue is pushed in the closet, and it is a big problem," Birbrower said. "I wanted these spots to be noticed and remembered, and I think we did that." One spot, titled "Faces," features people from the Lowcountry community, young and old, who have survived childhood sexual abuse and reveal the identity of their abusers.
The agency's aim is to relentlessly send a message that will inform the public about what heinous things are being done to children. Although Lee admits this makes some viewers uncomfortable, she insists it is necessary to use a medium from which people cannot run. The agency encourages the community to act, providing them with a mechanism to react legislatively via their Web site. "We're rocking the boat," Birbrower said. "I sold a lot of Jell-O, Coca Cola and Band-Aids, but none of my 1,000 commercials were as important as this."
Lee said that the drug of choice for many adults is having sex with children, and that this reality has become an epidemic that must be challenged and met with zero tolerance. "Our first inclination is to say this is only happening in New York or Appalachia, but the Lowcountry Children's Center alone saw over 1,000 children in the past 12 months. "If we are seeing that many children and less than one in 10 ever tell, how many perpetrators are in our community?"
The agency launched a billboard campaign in the North Area this past December, but the electronic transferring of artwork resulted in a misprint of the agency's 800 number. Ironically, the number printed on the billboard was that of an adult chat line. Horrified, Lee and the agency's board members had the billboards were removed in less than two hours.
Lee said the organization's mantra is to be a flashlight on the issue of child sexual abuse and to support all other organizations that seek to help individuals heal. She added that one of her heroes in the fight against sexual abuse is Guerry Glover, who testified in the Porter-Gaud case several months back. "He and the other young men who testified have forever changed the climate and safety our children have in the community," Lee said. "The verdict speaks volumes and sends an important and loud message that we value our children."
According to Lee, if treatment occurs soon after an instance of child abuse, many scars can be healed. "I am floored by the number of kids and families that come here," she said. "This isn't cancer, and we don't have to raise billions of dollars to find a cure - we simply need to establish zero tolerance."
|
