There were some hitches that threatened to derail the 2009 Stop Child Abuse March and Rally. Firstly, the venue switched at short notice forcing a change in destination. Secondly, part of the march route was sidelined to the pavement rather than the street, which we suspect had something to do with an Army parade later in the day. Finally, good old London Underground closed two major subway tube lines allowing easy access to parts of the march route. These factors influenced my decision to go straight to the rally for my very first experience of the event.

Once I got there, having canceled one meeting and fighting off the flu to make the meeting, it was like an open air mass group therapy session to be in the company of so many fellow survivors and their friends and relatives. The annual taking of the mic to speak out about child abuse was a running theme throughout the day although this year the rally also built up to handing in a petition to 10 Downing Street as well.

As well as the great atmosphere brought about by the organisers, marchers and attendees, it was great to have total strangers come up and also share their stories just by dint of having seen the rally there and getting the inspiration to speak out without having had prior knowledge of the event.

Even better was the meeting up with people with whom I had only previously exchanged message board postings and meeting new faces and the people we all knew already from their TV interviews. The merchandise was good quality but only came from one single agency. If you visit the Survivors Manchester website and check out the artwork samples from just one survivor, the second one of which, had been printed on T-Shirts for them to wear – these are good enough to sell and I hope they will print some up for interested parties. What was also lost in the rush was the reminder to newcomers to wear purple, though I didn’t check the site closely enough to spot that running theme in last year’s photos! (though they could spray your hair the right colour if required, at the rally!).

The atmosphere was certainly enough to make me forget the flu and the speaking out was like disclosing for the first time to an individual therapist. Combining the impact of the entire day with the journey home amongst travel delays did wipe out the rest of my night and I slept for 12 hours. That was a throwback to my first ever solo therapy session to become that tired and have the menthol-head feeling, so that is one thing I would say; as a survivor going to this event for the first time, ensure you’ve cleared your entire schedule afterwards, not just for a drink when the rally finishes, but also to really sleep off the event.

So however much of the event you attend or however long you stay, you can view the Stop Child Abuse Rally as an event that you should aspire to attend at least once whether you go before, during or after your healing process. The rally was ten times more cathartic than the group meeting which was effectively canceled by low attendance in the same week. Just don’t forget to wear purple when you go!

- CBG

It’s up over at Mind Parts. Paul’s got a whole section of entries covering relationships for survivors. Looks like there’s a bunch of really interesting ideas being talked about. Go check it them out!!

Tracee from the Reclaiming Innocence Project sent me an email this evening about the project. I went and checked out the website and thought this was worth letting you know about. Granted, taking part in the project will require some time, that I don’t currently have, but I think it’s a pretty fantastic idea:

Please note that there are nearly 140 questions on this form. Some are simple “yes or no” questions, while most of them require multi sentence answers. This will most likely be difficult for you to complete. A quiet place, where you have no time restraints and no likely disturbances is highly recommended. Please remember, that the more you explain your point of view, the more understanding will come from it for future generations. This project is for the children being abused right now. The hope is that when these children are ready, should they pick up this collection of survivors’ stories, it will make their journey through the healing process quicker and easier. Thank you so much for your time and participation.

Hopefully, that goal will be met and this will turn into a great resource for future survivors!

The Invisible Youth Network is an organization that is trying to reach the estimated 1.5 homeless children in America, with a focus on those who are runaways and victims of child abuse. Recently, the director of their Department of Child Abuse Services, Wayneho Kam, sent me an email asking if I could try to help them get the word out about what they are doing.

As this site and the network I created out of this site is more geared towards adult survivors, I wasn’t real sure of whether I could help them out much, but after I got some more information on what they are planning, and hoping that adult survivors might consider, I thought it couldn’t hurt to mention it to this audience. To quote Wayneho:

Part of our organization focuses on the recovery process and we recognize that such recovery may sometimes carry over to adulthood. The main purpose of a collaboration, however, is to expand our audience base and spread awareness about this very important issue…. we hope that adult survivors will join our movement and be willing to help kids who are going through the ordeal that they once had encountered. We are trying to establish chapters in high schools and universities so that students can also get involved in assisting abused victims and advocating for its prevention. An easy way to approach this is through much needed volunteers who can enact departmental programs in their own communities (under the umbrella of our organization) or at the very least, get the word out about our efforts.

So, if you live in a community where there is a lack of resources for child abuse victims, or have connections with local school or other youth organizations, and want to see what you can do to help out, you might consider contacting IYN and see about starting up a local chapter. We all know there are lots of kids dealing with the same things we have been, and that the earlier you can start the healing process, the better! If you do work with IYN, let me know and I’ll be glad to help spread the word about your efforts and how they are going!

So, when I originally starting using Twitter to push out updates on what was going on with the Abuse Survivors Network, I thought I’d probably get a few followers to that account among the members of the network, and maybe have a few tweets about survivor issues, but not necessarily much. As it turns out though, I’ve started getting discovered by other survivors and supporters of survivors, who have been sharing a lot of good information and resources. So, I actually find myself retweeting some good stuff over there, like these two resources that folks were kind enough to share on Twitter.

Child Abuse Effects

American Foundation for Healing for Survivors of Sexual Abuse

Both seem to have a lot of good information and resources for survivors and those who just want to know more about survivors. Go check them out!

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow me there to get all the links I share that I don’t find time to write up here to, @SurvivorNetwork

Living Well is an Australian website packed with general advice and information for male survivors of both child sexual abuse and adult attacks as well, concentrating on the Queensland region with plans to expand into Brisbane over the summer.

Considering that it’s still under construction, it’s quite well-built already with at least one downloadable guide regarding CSA and is as handy a guide as the UK directory for Brits below.

Visit Living Well here.

- CBG

Catroina from the Counseling Directory website, sent me an email today asking if I could let folks know about this resource. As I know there are at least a handful of you who reside in the UK, I thought it might proof helpful. If not now, it’s a handy resource to have around the next time someone you know is looking for counseling!

Here’s what she had to say about it:

I work for a website called Counselling Directory (www.counselling-directory.org.uk) which is an online web directory listing counsellors and psychotherapists all over the UK. Each counsellor has a profile stating what areas they specialise in, a bit about their background, and their qualifications. All the counsellors registered with us will have a relevant qualification and insurance cover or proof of registration with a professional body, so we are assured of their professionalism. The site also has a wealth of information about various types of mental health illness, as well as a blog about the latest health news.

The search facility on the site means you simply type in your postcode or town and the site produces a list of all the counsellors in that area, allowing the individual to browse through them and select and contact one that would be exactly suited to their needs. The site is free to use.

We developed the website when a friend was going through a difficult time, and didn’t know where to find help close by. The site has been running for four years now, and we’re always looking to try and get our name seen by as many people as possible, as we know from feedback that we provide a valuable and much needed service.

I’ve recently added a couple of new links to the blogroll, and thought it would also help if I mentioned them here as well, so that you could go visit and welcome these new survivor-bloggers.

First was Seething Consequence, a poetry blog, and then secondly was Living With Child Abuse, which is gathering up great information and resources, as well as sharing Tara’s story.

Hope both of you keep up the good work!

Rising Rainbow is hosting this month’s edition of the Blog Carnival over at My Clouds, My Storms and My Personality Disorder. There’s been quite the turnout for this edition and there’s lots of good stuff to read through, much covering this month’s theme, “telling the secret”.

Technorati Tags: CarnivalAgainstChidAbuse

@Thriver mentioned this on Twitter today, and I thought I would pass it along. It’s the premeire issue of an e-zine called Light and Shadow.

Light and Shadow is a quarterly e-zine which focuses on moving beyond
psych labels, psych diagnosis and mental health stigma.

There is a whole lot of stuff packed into the first issue, which focuses on Creativity and Mental Health. Might be worth taking a look around and possibly even contributing at some point in the future!