The more we talk about mental illness, the more we combat the damaging stigma that keeps so many from seeking help and finding support. It’s not hard. It’s a conversation that needs to continue all year long, but January 28th is a good day to begin. Watch for events where you live or work, check social media, and have a conversation about mental health with someone you care about.
Simple conversations can make a big difference.
Add your voice to the national discussion. #BellLetsTalk
A just-published, first of its kind study has found what many in the field have known for some time – child abuse has a lasting impact on many Canadians. This new research confirms the link between serious adult mental health problems and experiences of childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessing intimate partner violence.
Findings from the national study highlight the urgent need for a child abuse prevention strategy in Canada. Lead author Tracie Afifi of the University of Manitoba told CBC News that her team’s findings “indicate that 32 per cent of the adult population in Canada has experienced child abuse (i.e., physical abuse, sexual abuse and/or exposure to intimate partner violence) and that child abuse has robust associations with mental conditions”.
The study, published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found physical abuse to be most common (26%), followed by sexual abuse (10%) and exposure to intimate partner violence (8%). The authors highlight the need for reporting child abuse as well as understanding treatment implications.
To read the full journal article, visit www.cmaj.ca
It’s about helping children after the trauma of abuse. The focus is supporting parents and caregivers. And we all benefit.
That’s the winning combination behind the Community Child Abuse Council’s entry in the AVIVA Community Fund competition this year. It’s a simple concept that, with your support, could do a great deal of good.
The Community Parent Support Program
Now, the Council has an opportunity to share this proven model with others, supporting parents and caregivers in any community (even remote ones and those without specialized treatment options for children). The proposal will see the program published, packaged, and distributed widely, together with the materials and supports needed by facilitators to deliver these groups in any community. These innovative resources will be affordable, adaptable, and ready to implement in any community, anywhere. And, to make this a win-win-win scenario, any revenue from the project will be reinvested into the Council’s child abuse prevention, education, and treatment programs. That means more treatment for local kids in need, more prevention work, and more community-focused educational initiatives.
Voting begins today – September 30th – and it’s easy to vote. Just go to the AVIVA Community Fund web site, find the “register” button at the top right of the page (takes 30 seconds, and only required on your first visit), and once you’re registered, select the Community Parent Support Program and vote!
Here’s the link: http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf17152#.UkHqha-RE2Y.email
You can also search for the Council’s project on the AVIVA Community Fund web site using (idea) number is ACF17152.
Please tell your friends, use your social media connections, and help generate as much support as possible for this proposal – with your help, and enough votes, it will move on to the next rounds and one step closer to the funding that will make this important project possible.
In the first round, you can vote 15 times (but only once per day for the same project). So, please, use those votes to help put valuable and vital resources in the hands of caring communities where they can do the most good for families who need them.
Thank you so very much.
Strong kids = Strong families = Strong nation. That simple but powerful mission is behind Canadian Tire’s new campaign to bring play back to childhood. It is an inspiring and welcome partnership to get youngsters active again with the help of influential athletes and players of all types. It reminds us about our longtime “passion for play” while pointing out that “play doesn’t come out to play as much anymore”. Nostalgic and iconic images of children at play are appearing on the company’s TV commercials, and supporters of the campaign are posting their own videos and photos online showing how and where Canadians play.
Confidence. Creativity. Strength. These qualities, cited as goals of the campaign, are ones we can all encourage in children of all ages. “A country without strong children cannot stay strong”, says the campaign. No argument here.
Play on!
Street Kids International (Street Kids) was founded in Canada in 1988 (and now has offices in the UK and US). Its mission is to provide vulnerable youth with the tools they need to move themselves out of poverty and into gainful employment.
Today, April 12th, marks the annual International Day for Street Children and as part of their campaign this year Street Kids International has created a two-minute animation to raise awareness and mobilize action for the estimated 100 million street children in the world. They want the world to see it, which is why they’re asking websites and TV stations to air the clip and spread the word through their networks.
This short animation engages youth throughout our global village, zooming around the globe from The Philippines to Sierra Leone, and finally in front of the CN tower in Toronto. It shares the important message that even though poverty exists everywhere, street youth are resilient and creative and, importantly, that we are all connected. In doing so it challenges the common myth that street youth are delinquents or lazy, and welcomes viewers to “Challenge Perceptions and Change Reality.”
The video is being shown online as part of a social media campaign coinciding with the International Day for Street Children. By sharing the video, we can help to raise awareness of this worldwide issue.
View/download the animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kltKwly3qLw&list=UUHCejrlblzmE7JJ_yJPtzuw&index=1
Let the change begin!
Borrowing from another excellent message distributed today by Miss Representation (www.missrepresentation.org), here’s a reminder to think about change as we celebrate women and girls in all their potential…
Today is International Women’s Day, so let’s take this collective moment to pledge to end the oppression of women worldwide – in all its forms. Let’s pledge to end not only the overt violence directed at women daily, but the institutional sexism holding us back and the destructive representations of women in the media which contribute to that same culture of negating women and denying them their equal seat at the tables of power. After all, as long as the media hypersexualizes and objectifies women, they normalize treating women as second-class citizens and objects for the male gaze, which further contributes to violence against women.
We encourage you to spend this special day not only supporting those organizations creating change in the treatment of women globally, but thinking personally about how you can make an impact on the lives of women and girls everywhere. Each of us can play a small part in transforming the way our culture views, values, and treats women and girls.
On the eve of the Family Day long weekend here in Ontario, sexual crimes against children are once again prominent in news headlines. Very prominent. Today’s newscasts are featuring at least four major stories, among them:
These cases echo the broken trust that so often surfaces in sexual crimes against children. All instances of sexual abuse are unacceptable, but those committed by adults in positions of trust or authority, including teachers, police officers, coaches, parents, and celebrities, are betrayals of the worst kind. They raise questions not only about those who would perpetrate these worst of assaults against innocence, but also about the failings of society’s efforts to protect vulnerable children.
This Family Day, how about asking what more we can do to value children? If we believe children are indeed the future, and if we recognize that crimes against them ultimately are crimes against tomorrow’s hopes and aspirations, then this seems the right track to changing how children are viewed and treated. If everyone valued children – honoured them and protected them – what would change? Would we find new thinking or effective ideas that could be harnessed in order to nurture these seeds of the future? Could we better understand and address the threats and expose the root causes that have led us to a point in history when the youngest among us face so many dangers? Certainly seems worthwhile asking the questions.
Happy Family Day.
Last Sunday, during the biggest media event of the year, supporters of Miss Representation came together to put sexism in advertising in the spotlight and make it a topic of conversation. As a result, over 4 million people heard or saw their critiques of Super Bowl commercials and their message was picked up by numerous major news outlets, including CNN and National Public Radio (NPR). As a result, countless thousands have been inspired to be more aware of the representations of gender they consume daily. That’s what I love about Miss Representation – they’re continually bringing solid information to new audiences what are then able to decide for themselves about the values that are important to them.
Go Daddy alone received more than 7,500 tweets in just 5 hours concerning their stereotypical and demeaning Super Bowl ad. This was accomplished by thousands of individuals deciding to take a break from watching the big game to use their consumer voice to let advertisers know: when it comes to using sexism to sell, we’re #NotBuyingIt! (that’s the Miss Representation campaign, by the way).
And it works. After Teleflora’s highly offensive and degrading Super Bowl commercial, which implied that women would exchange sex with any man who could afford a few flowers, hundreds of folks took to Twitter to express their dismay and disgust. In a show of the increasing ability of social media to create real change, Harrod’s in London removed two children’s books from their children’s reading room after users on Twitter, with the help of the #NotBuyingIt hashtag, let the store know that the items promoted gender stereotypes.
Next Thursday, on Valentine’s Day, Miss Representation is helping to coordinate another effort aimed at showing what we’re capable of when we band together under a common cause. On February 14th, Eve Ensler’s V-Day organization is organizing one billion women, and those who love them, to rise up and demand an end to violence against women.
“Today, on the planet, a billion women – one of every three women on the planet – will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION mothers, daughters, sisters, partners, and friends violated. V-Day REFUSES to stand by as more than a billion women experience violence.”
The worldwide event, One Billion Rising, is being held in cities and towns across the globe, and will feature performances, dances and women speaking out against violence in unity. To find out more, go to http://www.onebillionrising.org – and if you haven’t already become familiar with Miss Representation, visit their site at http://www.missrepresentation.org.
The Valentine’s Day, spread the love and spread the word – 1 billion women violated is an atrocity. 1 billion women dancing is a revolution.
On Remembrance Day, an opportunity to take a moment to pause and consider our history in a thought-provoking and informative way…here’s an online quiz, courtesy of the Globe & Mail: http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/v5/content/features/quiz/remeberanceday07/.
People in power (and men, in particular) continue to make news headlines for their abuse not only of influence but of children. First we saw the horrific video of a Texas family law judge beating his daughter while spewing a venomous tirade of foul and hurtful language. Next it was former Penn State athletics official, Jerry Sandusky, charged with sexually assaulting eight boys between 1994-2009. In this latter case, other school officials have been charged with perjury and with failing to meet their duty to report suspected or known threats to children and an ongoing investigation continues.
Adding to the Penn State scandal, the accused continued to use the university’s facilities after his retirement in 1999 for his work with The Second Mile, a charity he founded in 1977 for at-risk kids. The organization’s web site lists a who’s who of sports icons and hall of famers on its honourary board (including golf great Arnold Palmer, Heisman Trophy winner John Cappelletti, former Steelers Jack Ham and Franco Harris, retired football coach Lou Holtz, current Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, baseball’s Cal Ripken Jr., actor Mark Wahlberg, and corporate notables from Hershey Foods, Quaker State, Ortho Pharmaceutical, and KMart). One wonders how their potential power and influence might be wielded given the circumstances.
“This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys,” said state Attorney General Linda Kelly. Despite being arraigned on 40 criminal counts, Sandusky has been released on bail.
The Texas judge, meanwhile, will apparently not face charges due to the length of time that has elapsed since the (videotaped in 2004) beating took place. Police in the Texas jurisdiction where Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams resides have announced that they “believe that there was a criminal offense involved and that there was substantial evidence to indicate that and under normal circumstances … a charge could have been made” but that the statute of limitations for such charges stands at five years (CBS News). An investigation by the state’s judicial conduct commission and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is still pending.
These are headlines that have crossed international date lines, but will soon simply become state, and then local, coverage as yet another round of high profile cases dims from the spotlight. Whether you live in Texas or Pennsylvania, or in Ontario, it’s ultimately up to us whether the conversation continues…what do we think about a statute of limitations on crimes like child abuse (that often don’t surface for many years)? How do we feel about sexual predators successfully using youth programs to connect with kids? And what do we imagine is the best we can do to help the children who fall prey to these criminals (or may)? What’s our potential influence here, and are we wielding it in the best interests of children?
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