Hello everyone! If you did not know, April is both sexual assault awareness month and child abuse prevention month—two issues that I am extremely passionate about. Today, I’d love to share why I value my role as an advocate for victims of sexual assault and/or child trauma, as well as brainstorm ways that we can raise awareness for these prevalent issues.
To give some background, I started working with victims of trauma through Royal Family Kids Camp, a camp for abused and neglected foster children. (I have written about camp extensively. Check out my blogs here.) This camp truly has fueled a fire within me to want to make life better for these kids. Over the past five years, I have seen firsthand how differently trauma affects each child. Despite that trauma, kids can be extremely resilient if they are given the resources they need to flourish. Seeing this blatant disparity in resources for vulnerable youth is what propelled me to apply for MD-MPH programs. My intent is to use my medical and public health education to serve as a child abuse pediatrician or as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, while also working to implement policies or programs to promote trauma-informed care in the health field.
This year, I began volunteering with Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin as a sexual assault advocate. After using fall semester to complete my training modules, I officially started taking shifts in January. One of my roles as an advocate is to manage the sexual assault hotline if someone were to call seeking support. My main role, however, is to respond to callouts—where I meet the victim at the hospital, police department, or crisis center and provide the victim with resources and short-term support. Typically, I am the one talking to the victim about his/her options when it comes to seeking medical or legal support. During the callout, I work closely with police officers, members of CPS, social workers, counselors, and nurses. Once the callout is over, it’s my job to turn in paperwork to Family Services so that the victim can be assigned a long-term advocate, especially if the victim decides to report the event.
In my few months as an advocate, I have seen a wide array of cases—ranging from children as young as 4 years old to middle-aged adults. Being an advocate is extremely rewarding. Even if I can’t know 100% how a victim may feel, I love serving as a rock for each person I meet. As an advocate, I don’t have to decide who is at fault. My job is to simply listen, support, and believe the victim as best as I can. It’s rewarding to know that I can be there for victims at a time when they feel most vulnerable.
At the same time, this role is extremely challenging. For one, at times I feel inadequate because I’ve never been in the victim’s shoes. This week, I also had two extremely challenging cases. The victims varied in age, but they both struggled with mental health issues in addition to being sexually assaulted, and both cases left me feeling very unsettled. With the first case, I was shocked with how the police and nurse treated the victim with such insensitivity and disrespect. They had some reasons behind their behavior, but it made me think about the idea of human dignity. I believe that in no matter what circumstances, the dignity of the human person deserves to be honored, so seeing this interaction made me really upset. The second case left me rattled due to all the uncertainty in this young girl’s future—uncertainty about where she would stay the night, uncertainty about getting mental health care, uncertainty about her long-term safety. Being an advocate requires a certain amount of faith, whether that’s in God, the government, or in humanity in general. My time with each victim is so brief, so I just have to trust that after my work is done, others will continue to support the victim as they try to cope with this trauma.
What can we each do to help?
Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, abuse and neglect are prevalent in every community. However, there are practical things we can do to make our communities safer. First, if you are a parent or if you interact with children, talk to them about how to keep their bodies clean and healthy. Teach them about safe boundaries and about who they can turn to if anything bad were to ever happen to them. These conversations can be awkward, but children are sponges, and they want to learn about the world. I think that if parents had these conversations with their kids and if schools utilized more abuse prevention programming, we could all become a little more comfortable talking about this topic. Last week, I helped run a child abuse prevention class called Kids Can Be Safe, and I saw how little 3 to 5-year-old children were completely open to learning about how to keep their bodies healthy and safe. It gave me so much hope.
Also, if you have the time, reach out to your county’s sexual assault center to see if they have volunteer availabilities (which they probably do). For me, training for becoming an advocate was self-paced, meaning that I could prioritize school first. Had I known about Family Services earlier, I would have become an advocate years ago. Just think about how amazing it would be if you personally knew of friends, family, professors, etc. who were advocates. It would make our communities safer, more educated, and more prepared should a sexual assault occur in the community. If you don’t have the time right now to volunteer, consider donating to your local sexual assault center or child advocacy center.
If you are looking for small ways to stand in solidarity with victims, consider changing the way you dress this April. Try wearing teal, which is the color that symbolizes sexual assault awareness. Also, April 24th is Denim Day. On this day, supporters wear jeans to spread the message that the way a person dresses does not justify sexual violence.
Finally, if someone discloses to you about a sexual assault, listen to them, love them, and honor their dignity. It’s not your job to determine who is at fault. Just be there for that person.
I hope that this (long) post was helpful and clarifying about my role as an advocate. I just want to remind everyone that anyone can be an advocate, even without formal training. I will leave any helpful links down below in case you are looking to get more educated about child abuse or sexual assault prevention. Happy April!
Peace,
Hannah
Resources
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673
Brown County Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-920-436-8899
Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin
Willow Tree Child Advocacy Center
Curiosity and a Cat 