Survivors News and Reviews

The organization behind help4guys.org and the Male Abuse Awareness Week are looking for volunteers. You can learn more about the virtual opportunities from this video or check out the posting over at http://www.idealist.org/view/volop/DttJWJsmhxNp/

For the record, I’m one of the volunteers, running the Male Abuse Awareness Week Google Plus page, at least for the moment. Given the travel demands of my work right now, I am in the process of deciding whether to continue to run the page or turn it over to someone who could devote more time to it. Either way, I’d love to help locate some volunteers to help bring attention to the work being done to raise awareness for male abuse victims.

P. Luna Foundation Volunteer and Comedian Grace Fraga will be aired on 5 CBS radio stations this Sunday discussing MALE ABUSE AWARENESS WEEK, Dec. 1-8. and announcing the MAAW Big Benefit Concert Event in Los Angeles on December 1st. (see help4guys.orgfor more info)

The show will broadcast live on 106.7 KROQ-FM from 6:00 AM – 7:00 AM PST (8AM CST and 9AM EST). It is also simultaneously streaming live on the internet at www.kroq.com. Rebroadcasts will be on KCBS-FM, KRTH-FM, KTWV-FM and KAMP-FM the following weekends.

Please help spread the word!

A couple of years ago I shared some information about online courses to help raise awareness of child abuse. The same folks who designed those have released an iPhone app called Reduce the Risk:

The free app Reduce the Risk shows how to recognise the signs of abuse either in your own relationship or in that of someone close to you, how to keep safe while living with an abuser and what to do once you’ve left. It also provides contact details for local and national support agencies.

You can learn more about the app, from the video on their site.

A few years ago, I took a look at using Disqus for the comments on my blogs, but ditched the idea because of some technical difficulties. Since the move to using WordPress on the site, I had sort of forgotten my desire to use Disqus and wasn’t exactly unhappy with the comments features within WordPress, but I have been thinking more and more about the advantages of having something like Disqus where I can both have a profile that appears on other sites using Disqus that points back to my “communities”, and allow folks commenting here to also get some recognition. If nothing else, maybe it’ll generate some more discussion, right?

So I pulled the switch on that this past weekend. It’s still a work in progress overall, but the comments should be working now. So if you have a Disqus profile, you can use that and if you don’t, and don’t want one, feel free to comment anyway. I’m still tweaking and trying to figure out why certain things are the way they are, and I expect that the features available there will push me to possibly make some other changes as well. We’ll just have to see how it all works out.

The site always has been sort of a grand experiment for me, why stop experimenting now?

Now that we are in to 2012, I want to remind folks reading here that while CBK and I try to post news items and book/TV/movie reviews that are of interest to abuse survivors, we also openly admit that there is more out there than we could ever keep track of. Given that submissions of reviews and/or news items are always welcome. We’d be glad to share the stage, so to speak, with anyone who wants to contribute a book review, or share some important news, etc.

If you’ve got a submission you’d like me to consider, hit the contact form above and send it on. If you are interesting in becoming a regular contributor, let me know that too! I’m open to adding to the talent pool if possible.

I’ve been getting some information on upcoming child abuse awareness campaigns that I wanted to share with everyone here.

First up, Petra Luna, a musician/artist has  declared Dec 1-8 as  Male Abuse Awareness Week.

In her own words:

“Male Abuse Awareness Week December 1st through 8th is a campaign determined to represent male victims of child abuse. Together we can break the silence of boys and men being abused, and stress that THIS topic is as important as discussing the impact of child abuse on their female counterparts. The more people are willing to discuss this taboo subject, the more likely the young males who need treatment will be inclined to step forward and finally accept the help they need and deserve.   For more information on the P. Luna Foundation and Male Abuse Awareness Week, go to help4guys.org.”

 

Secondly, TAALK is conducting their second  TAALK-A_THON on Dec. 10-11:

We will host a 24 hour internet radio show with guest speakers each hour covering a variety of topics related to child sexual abuse awareness, prevention and support. Hear 40+ speakers from around the world with the brightest minds and the biggest hearts. It’s an event you won’t want to miss!

Check them both out!

UK TV Channel 4 has already screened a mini-teaser letting people know about the launch time for the promo, because the campaign revolves around “Michael’s Story”. Being November, the annual Children in Need campaign on BBC television and the Remembrance Day Poppy Appeal of the Royal British Legion will attract a lot more attention and money and crowd out other charities in the same sector across nearly the whole month. In that case it’s understandable that Barnardo’s would want something that would remain relevant ahead of these giants and keep them in mind for donations, especially since homelessness charities would then swing back around in the public’s mind for December.

The charity wants to create feedback and discussion from the ad, so to take part, sign in to Facebook, or just use the following link

http://www.facebook.com/barnardos

and sign in when prompted to Like Barnardos and see the page. Channel 4 plans to screen the ad between 8pm and 9pm, so you’ll have to start watching between the end of the news around 7.55pm and the whole show Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare between 8 and 9 to catch it. We hope that post-premiere, the charity will just host the ad on their site and/or Facebook page as well, including any expanded information about Michael whom we assume is played by an actor in the ad.

- CBG

You might have noticed that the past couple of weeks, I’ve posted a collection of links from various places as a post here. It’s actually an automated post, based on things I’ve seen around the web and wanted to share. A couple of notes about this:

1. Linking to something doesn’t necessarily mean an endorsement or recommendation. Typically, it’s something interesting that I think some of you might get something out of. Be it an article, a blog post, or a resource that someone suggested to me, my linking to it simply means, “hey I saw this and it might be interesting to think about”.

2. The links actually create a way for me to share some of the many, many things people send me through email, on Twitter, Facebook, or other places. Frankly, I get quite a lot of messages asking me to share this or that, or review a book, etc. I simply don’t have time to look at all of them, let alone respond to each and every one or write a blog post about each one too. This way, I can at least provide a link when that’s all I have time to do.

So, I hope the weekly link posts can provide some interesting things for folks to check out, but as with anything else, be careful out there. Use what is helpful for you in your healing, feel free to ignore the rest!

Received an email earlier today and wanted to pass it along for any survivors in New Zealand who might be interested in helping out.

My name is Marilyn Kelly and I am putting filming a documentary in 2012 looking at the very high rate of child abuse in New Zealand.

I want to dispel the myth that it is a ‘cultural’ thing and share peoples stories to help bring about understand and change, so we can stop our children being hurt and killed.

I want to talk to survivors, people who have lost a child through child abuse, or had a child abused as well as people who have been abusers and the support people trying to make a difference.

There will be no judgement and the first conversation will be off camera and you do not need to commit to being in the documentary upfront.

If you know someone who might be interested please pass on

For more information please email me ourchildren.doco AT gmail.com

Please provide the following information

Name:

Age:

Contact Details:

Ethnicity:

Victim, Survivor, former abuser or family member

Thank you for your time.

Marilyn Kelly

Kate1975 is the host this month and has all the details on submitting a blog post to this month’s edition over on her blog. Since the topic is Self-Care, I’m looking forward to reading all about it, and I hope you’ll consider submitting something on the topic, or on the standard topics from your own blogs!