Sasha Joseph Neulinger, who is the founder and president of Voice for the Kids, was the keynote speaker at the Campbell County Children’s Center’s 15th Annual Child Abuse Awareness Luncheon at Ball Farm Event Center on April 11.
“I’m a survivor of child sexual abuse,” Neulinger said. “I feel extremely fortunate to be living a beautiful life, despite all the trauma I endured. Now standing here today as a husband, father, someone on the other side of that trauma, I just believe that when children get the proper support to confront their trauma head-on, then they don’t have to be defined by it. So Voice for the Kids, we’ve helped raise over $8 million for the fight against child abuse. I travel around the country and around the world, working with groups that are helping children confront their trauma and get the best access to healing. Campbell County Children’s Center is an incredible organization, and they’re doing just that for Campbell County and for Claiborne and for Union. It’s huge.”
The film “Rewind” chronicled Neulinger’s journey of learning about and healing from abuse he suffered as a child.
“What’s crazy is that 90% of abusers are people that the child and the family know and trust,” Neulinger said. “It’s people that we trust, that we think we can trust. Only one in 10 child abuse victims will ever actually disclose what has happened because it’s so scary to talk about, but if a child is able to talk about what has happened to them, who is listening and who can support them is critical. If they’re finding the courage to disclose but they aren’t disclosing to the right people who can help them, then that courage isn’t often honored by the community. Campbell County Children’s Center, forensic interviews, which is what happens there, is a huge part of being able to get the information in an interview that’s being conducted in a neutral, non-leading, developmentally appropriate way. It gets all the information that law enforcement needs, that Department of Children’s Services needs, mental health professionals, physicians. From the moment that child discloses at the center, there is a group of people working to help them, pretty much at every facet of that child’s existence, recover, make sure they’re protected and give them the best access to justice and healing.”
Neulinger noted how great the community support is for the Campbell County Children’s Center.
He then challenged the community to continue taking steps to support children in the community and the Campbell County Children’s Center.
“There’s three tiers of support,” Neulinger said. “While it’s amazing that 53% of the financial support for the center comes from the community, I have traveled the world. I have seen hundreds of child advocacy centers. The centers that get to truly advance to the next level in terms of outreach, education, amount of services they can provide, when the community is able to support 70-80% of the funding, that’s huge. Funding is one part. The other part is, this is a really uncomfortable topic. It’s uncomfortable to think that one in three girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before they turn 18. It’s uncomfortable to think that only one in 10 children that have ever suffered abuse actually steps up and gets help. It’s uncomfortable to think that 90% of abusers are people we know and trust. If it’s uncomfortable for us as the adults to talk about, how uncomfortable is it for those children who are going through it? We have to not just support the center financially, but we need to shine light on this topic by talking about it because child abuse is perpetuated and festers and becomes more insidious in silence, in turning a blind eye because it’s uncomfortable. So when education is an opportunity in the community, when people aren’t afraid to talk about the issue, it starts to shine a light in those dark, shadowed areas. It makes it harder for abusers to get away with things. It makes abusers think twice about perpetrating, and it gives children a community that they know if, God forbid, something happens, there is a community that knows what this is and can help validate what they went through and give them the support they need to grow. The third part is even just about the conversations with the family on the weekend. There is funding. There is community awareness in conversation, but even on the more intimate level, there is hey, if you’re impacted by this message, by this work, if you believe children need support when they’ve experienced that kind of trauma, then talking about child abuse and Campbell County Children Center at a Sunday dinner with your family and friends, bring the topic into the house. Demystify it, and take the stigma and the shame away from it. That helps.”
