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“The benefits of school-based education programs include developing “skills such as how to identify dangerous situations, refuse an abuser’s approach, break off an interaction, and summon help… Research shows, for example, that young people can and do acquire the concepts.”
— Finkelhor (2009)
“1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused in their life time.”
— Sekhar, Kraschnewski, Stuckey, Witt, Francis, Moore, and Noll (2018)
“About 9 in 10 (88%) victims knew the accused and for the remainder (12%) the accused was a stranger.”
— Cotter and Beaupré (2015)
Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Parenting the Next Generation.
Childhood Sexual Abuse has long-lasting effects on individuals as well as families and communities at large. It can impact anyone anywhere in the world, and more often than not, signs of abuse are dismissed or misdiagnosed. Survivors are often left to navigate systems that require a level of trust that was broken repeatedly from a young age; and experience further physical and mental health challenges as a result
Women of colour are disproportionately victims of sexual violence and the lasting physical and emotional produced by such violence. "Adverse childhood experiences related to sexual trauma are the most basic cause of health risk behaviours, morbidity, disability, mortality, and healthcare costs...Research on the long-term effects of sexual violence in the lives of women of colour, across the spectrum-child sexual abuse, incest, sexual assault, sex trafficking and sexual coercion, rape- show an increase in occurences of physical issues like obesity, cancer, high-blood pressure, fibromyalgia, fibroids which are often the cause of hemorrhaging, preterm labour, miscarriages, fetal growth issues, placental abruption, and frequent c-sections."
-Tanis, F. (2019). The Sexual Abuse to Maternal Mortality Pipeline A Report by Black Women’s Blueprint.
Beyond supporting survivors transitioning into parenthood, this project aims to further interrupt the cycle of violence by providing tools and resources for parents to help prepare children and youth to engage with and think critically about the world around them.
What do you imagine raising children in a culture of consent would look like?
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Connecting participants to birth and postpartum care that is trauma-informed, committing to a practice based in consent culture with the intention of interrupting the cycle of violence. Birth Workers support people by modeling consent culture and building capacity within families as a unit. A Doula's guiding principles are to Nurture, Educate, Assess, and Refer. In the context of interrupting the cycle of violence, the role of doulas in this project is to
Nurture: Build a sense of safety in knowing your body's capacity to transform & heal as you need it to. Prioritize your rest & mental health, and the needs of your family to set you up for success
Assess & Education: Recognize physical and mental triggers and coping strategies and their impact on your relationship with others. Connecting you with evidence-based strategies and tools.
Education & Prevention: Recognize signs that are often overlooked, but are strange behaviours from care providers and other adults.
Refer: Access to relevant supports and resources
The societal impact of birth and postpartum support includes increased advocacy and awareness in the medical field and communities about the impact of trauma on individuals and risk factors, which relates to a decrease in infant and maternal mortality. Parental respite and support also lead to decreased stress and increased capacity for each family as a whole.
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Focus groups and closed discussions with survivors of CSA, children of survivors, professionals such as CYCP's/CYWs, ECE's, and SSWs, and parents in general. These conversations will be focused on what consent culture could look like - skills and concepts parents should be prepared for and kids should grasp by certain stages of development.
The intention of these workshops and toolkits is to help parents feel more confident talking to their own kids about their bodies, consent, communicaton & body language, sexual health and more.
These Community Consultations are designed to understand what questions, concerns, and information parents are and are not comfortable with (and why), and how we can help facilitate or prepare parents for those conversations.
Feedback will inform program development and resource tool kits - Birds, Bees, & Board Games.
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A 15 Week Peer Support Program designed specifically for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) to unpack the impact of trauma on the perinatal (fertility, pregnancy, loss, birth, postpartum) and parenting experience.
In unpacking the long-term impacts on our own lives, we can change the ways we talk about consent, sexual health, body autonomy, communication & body language, and healthy relationships.
Providing a space where survivors can come together and share about the impact of trauma on their own journey through parenthood, access relevant resources, and connections to their local community.
Weekly sessions are divided into purposeful sections to focus on the impact of childhood trauma on different stages of fertility, pregnancy, loss, birth, postpartum, and parenting. Participants will focus on healing through certain experiences, identifying triggers and maladaptive coping strategies, as well as provide tools and strategies to help with conversations around consent, body autonomy & safety, communication, and media literacy.
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How do we find a balance between keeping kids innocent and protected while building their capacity to engage with the world around them?
What information are they unintentionally taking in without context or a safe space to talk about the conflicting messages they are receiving?
How will you teach them to critically think about the media and behaviours of those around them - both peers and adults?
Evidence-based and community-focused workshops, activities, and conversation prompts created and informed by survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Designed for parents to use as a guide for conversations around consent and sexual health, body autonomy, setting and maintaining boundaries, and media literacy. These events will also serve to connect people to organizations and professionals in their community.
Ways to get Involved
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Participate in Surveys, & Program Development
Your lived experience is expertise, and there are things that we are all working through understanding. Participating and giving feedback based on your experiences, can help inform professionals of how to better support families in transition
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In-Kind Donation
Donation of time, money, materials, space, networking connections.
Training & Professional Development
Program Materials
Monetary donations
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Partnership
Want to actively work with me on this project? I’m looking for organizations and professionals to partner with to make this program what I envision it could be.
Letters of Support
Partnership or Sponsorship Agreements
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Participate in Workshops & Events
Don’t have experience with childhood sexual abuse, but want to be more informed or take preventative measures to protect your kids? Sign up for workshops you would be interested in so we know how to best support you as the program grows.
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Stay up to Date on Legislation & Policies
Loverin’s Law: A bill which enacts the Abuse Prevention Week Act making the first week in October Abuse Prevention Week. It establishes an Abuse Prevention Framework Advisory Committee to provide recommendations to the Minister of Education to issue curriculum guidelines.
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Connect with Community
share what you learn and the resources you have.
