Survivors News and Reviews

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!

I just wanted to take a moment and mention, once again, that if you are interested in guest blogging a book or movie review on the site, drop me a line and let me know. There are so many good survivor stories being published every day, and Comic Book Guy and I can’t possibly read and review as many as we’d like to. (Not to mention trying to purchase all those books!)

Just this week I was contacted by a couple of authors to let me know about their books, Toilet Paper People, and The Citizen Chronicles; Citizen Out. I’d love to have a chance to read and review both of them, but I also know the limitations of my own schedule. If any of you out there are planning on reading them (I don’t believe Citizen Out has been released yet), or other books about surviving abuse, I’d love to give your review a home right here.

Plus, it’d be great if I had a group of folks willing to be contacted by authors. I get offers for free copies of books pretty frequently that I have to turn down because I simply don’t have the time to read and review them properly. I’d love to be able to drop an email to a few folks who might pick up the slack and keep new reviews coming around here. Let me know if you’re interested!

We knew that the recordings were happening around the end of last month but recently Malesurvivor.org advised us that not only has the show grown into a two parter, with dates of 5th and 12th November mentioned, but that 200 members of the audience will also be male CSA survivors as well. Hopefully this will discourage the usual ignorant comments and voyeurism that might otherwise occur.

Since Tyler Perry had already been on the show talking about his own story as of 20th October, he will return for at least one of the recordings. Naturally we hope that the shows will be available online for international viewers.

You can read the press release here and the comments feature information on other online male survivor resources.

- CBG

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.

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!