Survivors News and Reviews

Saw this news release in an email this week and thought I would share. Don’t know much more than this, so if you do, be sure to leave us a comment with any information you might have.

The movie Boys and Men Healing, which has been screening in various places, and gotten pretty rave reviews from the male survivor community, is now available on DVD. You can order it over on the Big Voice Pictures website.

If you’ve seen the movie, or get the DVD and watch it sometime soon, let us know what you think!

Whilst it’s good to keep track of the new survivor websites opening up for both genders, it’s also important to mark the end of an era where one particular site is concerned. The Foundation of Survivors, backed up and run by the author Joe Peters, reached its 10th Anniversary last Saturday, 24th July, but has had to massively scale down its activities for the moment due to the recession.

As this webmaster has found with the Ning situation at the Community site, the recession is forcing people to think about service delivery in the face of the collapse in donations. The Foundation was partly operated using proceeds from book sales. The fact that his publishers will sit on his new book until the Autumn season is par for the course in the book trade, but unfortunately doesn’t help the Foundation at all. During the hiatus Mr Peters is mulling over different options for the future. In my opinion I’d always advocate balancing out your own health and wellbeing with the zeal for helping other victims and survivors – and a decade of such work is an excellent legacy which we’d hope could form the basis for another book to aid the fundraising.

The announcement details are here.

- CBG

Got an email from the admin about a new site specifically for male victims of childhood sexual abuse, Betrayed Boys. Looks like they are just getting started over there, but if you’re interested, go check it out!

http://betrayedboys.com/

Cynthia Cox was kind enough to let me know that her new novel about surviving childhood sexual abuse, The I in Me, will be available for free starting Aug. 1. You can go check out her website for more information.

Since I’ll be traveling at the time, if you get a copy and want to let us know what you think, feel free to leave a comment!

There’s been an ongoing debate about the memory of child sexual abuse and whether it would be better to have forgotten entirely and never have remembered after shutting down the initial trauma, compared to processing the experiences through therapy.

The Guardian newspaper ran a Weekend magazine article today about a survivor whose memories had to be recovered by his siblings following an accident, which provides one viewpoint on the subject. You can read that here.

- CBG

Survivor Island is another resource aimed at male survivors of child abuse with a members-only section to the wider forum. However the initial concentration started with teenagers though the site is open to all ages. Further resources are planned in future. The link is as follows;

http://forum.survivorisland.org/index.php

Meanwhile, back in the UK, AMSOSA, formerly Survivors Swindon continues in the same vein as SI, though it’s essentially members only by default and the UK definition of adult starts from 18 with less of the grey area that arises with American sites. We mentioned it earlier but didn’t link a few articles back, so should you wish to post at the latter forum the password would have to be requested. Follow the instructions on the index page at the following address;

http://www.amsosa.com/

- CBG

From my email today, thought it might be of interest to our UK readers:

Tackling Child Abuse Conference
Prevention, Investigation and Prosecution
Monday 27th September 2010 – Central London

http://www.capitaconferences.co.uk/public-sector-conferences/police-criminal-justice/full-conference/article/tackling-child-abuse-conference.html?code=MKRG

The police and partner agencies are under heightened pressure and scrutiny to effectively crack down on child abuse following a series of damaging high profile cases. Capita’s Tackling Child Abuse Conference is tailored to address the needs of those working in, and with, criminal justice agencies to ensure the safety and protection of all children.

This event takes a holistic view of the pressing issue of child abuse, from prevention to investigation, prosecution and multi agency learning. With input from the key stakeholders including the Association of Chief Police Officers, Police Forces, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, the agenda will cover crucial issues including:

•Joined up working to identify and manage risk
•Engaging local communities to raise awareness and prevent harm
•Detailed guidance on investigating child homicide
•Insight into the forthcoming changes affecting the prosecution of child abuse
•Embedding learning to improve processes and enhance partnerships

This conference provides essential guidance on collaborative working between agencies within and outside the field of criminal justice work to prevent children from experiencing abuse. Safeguarding children is a priority across all agencies in the public sector. Ensure that your organisation is best equipped to meet your duty to protect.

For more information please visit the website: http://www.capitaconferences.co.uk/public-sector-conferences/police-criminal-justice/full-conference/article/tackling-child-abuse-conference.html?code=MKRG

Or contact richard.goddard@capita.co.uk or  44 (0) 20 7960 7719

There are two further good message board-based support sites out there for male survivors of child sexual abuse. Since the first one launched itself only a week ago, we’ll wait for permission to come back to link up to them.

The other one is MenThriving.org ,which was founded, built by and for adult male survivors of sexual abuse over the age of 21. To balance the walled-off nature of the site there is a Facebook section as well which can be viewed without an invite. We could view it without signing in but to become a fan of the page as you can with this portal and see their updates and announcements, you will need to be logged in to your own Facebook account. The location is;

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=168051679862&ref=ts

- CBG

Note: This episode is from the last complete season and the first half of the plot is discussed below.

In order to shake up the franchise right before the end of season two-parter, CSI takes one of its traditional two cases, a drink-driving car wreck and almost wraps it up in the teaser. Then it concentrates on the second case which has gone cold rather than having just happened in real time, even though the central character from the cold case was hit by the car.

As she recovers from being clipped by the car, we learn that her family was carjacked, with one of her children presumed dead due to the condition of the abandoned car. The evidence review bears this story out although her status as a suspect has never gone away, not even when she roams the same section of highway where the alleged kidnap occurred three years in the past.

Once the CSI team takes another look at the house there’s no good news for the mother. The episode harks back to If These Walls Could Talk from season 1 but unlike the older story it also doesn’t end with the shock point, though it’s a slight American TV cliché in response to something the audience already know but which hadn’t been communicated properly to all the characters.

Once the twists and turns come to the conclusion we get a story with no happy endings for anyone and essentially, a second very quickly wrapped-up new case for the team, with unresolved plot strands and no giftwrapped ending in the same style as Death and the Maiden from earlier in Season 10. Writers Corinne Marrinan with Richard J Lewis (and exec creator credits) do just as well as Death and The Maiden writer Jacqueline Hoyt, in keeping you guessing. Therefore it’s more realistic than the season 1 story by giving us an aftermath, showing how the series has grown up and moved on, aware of its audience reach of nearly 20 million viewers and aware of its duty to handle child kidnappings/murders sensitively.

If you’re a CSI fan you’ve already watched it but if not, I’ve deliberately left the spoilers out. See it as soon as possible and make up your own mind.

- CBG

Episode Tracking: TV.com, IMDB.com