[Applause]
good morning so we are gonna talk about
something that most people never really
want to think about but I’m gonna ask
you to think about it I’m gonna ask you
to talk about it and I mean I can ask
you to do something one in 10 children
by the time they turn 18 will suffer
some form of sexual abuse yet less than
one in ten of those kids will disclose
sexual abuse as a child because 90% of
kids are sexually abused by someone that
they know love and trust and every day
in our country almost five kids die from
child abuse and neglect five kids don’t
die in our country every day from
juvenile diabetes or MS or cystic
fibrosis five kids don’t die in our
country every day from cancer but you
know the difference is between those
diseases and child abuse child abuse is
a hundred percent preventable you don’t
need to beat or rape or sodomized your
kids you don’t need to do that to give
you a perspective if you have a daughter
your daughter is just as likely to be
sexually abused as a child if she is to
get breast cancer as an adult wrap your
head around that fact for a minute think
about what we know and how far we have
come when it comes to breast cancer the
fact that we can say the word breast and
people not go oh but we’re worried about
saying vagina or penis think about that
think about the fact that there is not a
soul in this country that doesn’t know
what the pink ribbon stands for but do
people know what the blue ribbon stands
for you all have one in your bag
the Blue Ribbon is the symbol for child
abuse awareness and education and
prevention I have a twelve-year-old son
he’s a sports freak what’s Jonah that’s
his name
what did Jonas favorite color it’s hot
pink why is that because Jonah loves
football
Jonah every Sunday watches football and
if allowed to stay up Monday nights or
Thursday nights he’s always trying to
negotiate that but every Sunday he’s
watching football in an October guess
what every football player is wearing
hot pink imagine a world imagine us if
in April every major league baseball
player was wearing a blue ribbon or
highlighted their uniforms in navy blue
to show us show the world how prevalent
this issue is because once we know about
it once we educate ourselves then we can
start taking action that really is what
this is about we have got to get to a
point where we talk about it we have to
be able to say to our friends and our
families and our colleagues and our
neighbors and our people that we go to
worship with we’ve got to talk about
this issue openly we can’t be
embarrassed in shape ashamed we can’t
continue to bury our heads in the sand
or sweep it under the rug I told you
earlier 1 in 10 that means there’s about
15 people sitting in this audience this
is very personal for and if I had to
take a guess it’s more than 15 and if I
had to take another guess there are
people sitting in this audience that
they’ve never told a soul and the
reality is this I would also take a
guess that while this is personal for 15
of you or maybe more I’ll bet you
everybody in this room knows someone who
spent sexually abused you just don’t
know it because people don’t go with a
stamp on their forehead talking about it
we have got to talk about it and when we
talk about it we have to talk to our
children right
what we can’t be doing is being ashamed
or Oh use those words we have to be able
to say penis and vagina penis and vagina
and know that that’s okay because how
are we going to expect kids to talk to
us if something happens to them and they
don’t even know how to articulate it how
are we gonna do that
the other thing we can all do is we’re
gonna educate ourselves there’s an
organization called darkness to light
it’s based out of South Carolina they
have what we call the stewards of
children curriculum it’s two hours it is
the most nationally recognized child
sexual abuse curriculum in the country
two hours of your time to learn about
the signs and symptoms of sexual abuse
how to report it how to identify it how
to prevent it from begin with that is so
empowering not a scare tactic something
that we can all really take action on
and actually do something and possibly
prevent a child from being sexually
abused two hours of our time think about
that the other thing is in our country
there are organizations called child
advocacy centers see ACS and those
organizations work with lots of
different partner agencies to have all
of a child’s investigation evaluation
and treatment services in one place
so that children are not having to tell
their victimization over and over and
over again so that they’re not going to
the emergency room or social services or
the police station and having to tell
what happened locally here in Rochester
New York that Child Advocacy Center is
Bivona Child Advocacy Center we’ve been
around for 12 and 1/2 years we have
evaluated over 16,000 children 40% of
those kids are under the age of 7 35% of
those kids are boys and 40% of the
children that we evaluated Bivona Child
Advocacy Center here in Rochester New
York are from the suburbs so if you’re
sitting there
thinking this is not my problem this is
only an inner-city problem this is just
rural community problem this is
happening in our neighborhoods and our
schools and our places of worship on the
sports fields this is our problem but we
have the power to do something because
we have the power to be able to educate
ourselves talk openly about it we can do
that the other thing I want you to do of
course I want you to take the class of
course I want you to talk about it I
want you to leave here today after
you’ve heard wonderful speakers and I
want you to tell three people what you
learned I want you to tell three people
that the issue of child abuse is
prevalent and what is it that you can do
get involved volunteer advocate educate
donate do something and if you’re one of
the ones here sitting in suffering in
silence we are here for you so I want
you to think about it I want you to talk
about it and I sure as heck want you to
do something thank you [Applause]