Transcripts For KOFY ABC7 News On KOFY 7PM 20161020

Mineta san jose airport and to two other spots to the south. Its gonna take probably three years to five years to get that system in place. Were looking at moving this as quickly as possible. And it could be seven years before the purified water percolates into the ground and eventually is drawn into the drinkingwater supply. Because of the long timeline, a major focus now is on lawn removal and replanting with droughttolerant plants. Valley Water District pays 2 per square foot, which covers from 20 to 66 of the cost. As i showed earlier, wed only done 160,000 square feet before the drought. Since then, weve done 2 million square feet of lawn, and we need to do millions, millions more. And San Jose Water Company is seeking approval to install hightech water meters to give customers feedback on their conservation. Theyre gonna have instantaneous information as to their water use, very much like pg e. You know, one example i saw was youre gonna know when you flush your toilet. It gets down to that kind of granularity. That plan is awaiti state regulatory approval. In san jose, david louie abc7 news. So many things to think about. A prominent expert on water issues is here with us in the studio right now dr. David sedlak. Hes a professor of civil and Environmental Engineering at uc berkeley and Deputy Director of the National Science Foundations Research center for reinventing the nations urban water infrastructure, and thats called renuwit . Renuwit. Thats right. Yeah. That little acronym. So, were watching, david. So, is it a long timeline to get that happening, to get that water into the aquifers . Well, thats the way Civil Engineering projects go. If you think how long it took us to build the bay bridge, it takes a long time to build these massive projects because theres time to design and finance and build and test before they can be opened up to the public. But were in a crisis right now because and, actually, this has been going on for awhile. This droughts been going on for so long. Yeah, it usually takes people awhile before they get serious about taking action. So, right now, were in the phase where the main thing we can do is conserve water, but if we get a few more dry years, were gonna need to have projects like this in the pipeline, ready to be used. In your book youve written a book called water 4. 0, and i want to show it to the people at home. This talks about all the things that we want to talk about today using reclaimed wastewater, desalination. Which of those two do you think are the most critical . Well, for california, the first thing that were gonna do is reclaim wastewater. So this is the last untapped water stream in california, and its one that weve already been using for a number of years and has a lot of potential to take us through the drought without resorting to seawater desalination. I think a lot of folks are going, wastewater . Ew but its actually you talk about this its already in use. Well, weve been doing this for over 40 years, so if youve ever been to disneyland in Orange County and had a glass of tap water, you may have been drinking recycled water because thats one of the communities thats been using recycled water for over four decades. And nobodys complaining about it now because they have the water resource. Theyre pretty happy that they made these investments, and theyre continuing to invest in this kind of technology. You talked about desalinization desalination i got to get that right and its been in other countries. Its very controversial here, though. Well, is controversial here, but its finally coming. So this year, were opening a 50milliongallonaday seawaterDesalination Plant north of san diego, so well have our first major seawaterDesalination Plant on the west coast just in time for this summers drought. The desalination, why is that controversial . The main reason its controversial is that historically desalination has just used a lot of energy, and that emits a lot of greenhouse gases, and so people are very concerned about any way of producing water that uses a lot of energy and costs a lot of money. And the salt residue from that, is that a problem . Well, if youre on the coast, those salts are released back into the sea, and provided that you have a way to mix the brine that result from the treatment process back into the ocean, it tends not to be a problem. And so other countries who do this have not had any fallout from that . You can look around the world you can look at australia, you can look at israel, spain, a lot of the middle eastern and caribbean countries and they do this without damaging the ocean. Okay, so thats one potential resource, but we have a lot more to talk about. Dr. Sedlak is going to be with us for another segment, talking about the drought, using seawater, and all sorts of other ways that we can save water while were in this big drought. Well be right back. Stay with us. Welcome back to our program on californias drought and the critical need for water conservation. The debate continues about how to deal with the crisis. Some local communities already have an action plan. Drought wasnt on anybodys mind in 2003, but a decision to build a small Desalination Plant in the east bay is actually turning out to be a big help as Water Districts scramble to find new water sources. Abc7 News Reporter david louie shows us how the newark plant came to be and how its helping now. This Desalination Plant is proving to be a major benefit during the drought, but the drought wasnt the reason it was built. It helps to mitigate or offset some of the supplies during a drought, and it is actually a cost savings for us, as well. Were saving about 4 million a year in that we dont have to purchase more expensive water supplies. It was built 12 years ago because of saltwater incursion into the groundwater basins that supply the cities of fremont, newark, and union city. Area creeks and runoff feed into quarry lakes. The water percolates into the ground, but salt water from San Francisco bay has mixed in. Without desalination, the water is undrinkable. There was historic pumping issues here in this local area that drew the groundwater basin down, and so it drew water from the bay, actually, in toward our groundwater basin. And we have an active Recharge Program to continue pushing that water out towards the bay, and the water in this area still tends to be a little bit brackish. The Desalination Plant puts the brackish water through reverse osmosis using a microscopic membrane to filter out salt crystals and other minerals. The water that comes out of this plant then is blended with some well water for taste and then is distributed right through the pipes to residences and businesses in fremont, newark, and union city. And it tastes just like regular tap water. The 10 million gallons of water produced each day gives the district flexibility in its water supply. 40 comes from local sources, while 60 is imported. In newark, david louie abc7 news. Im happy to say david is still with us today even after drinking [chuckling] that recycled water. All right, dr. David sedlak is with us again. He wrote this book called water 4. 0. He is a professor at uc berkeley, and we just saw davids report. We talked about desalination and how that is something that we absolutely have to consider, but you also talk about recapturing stormwater, so if we ever have rain again, thats one way to consider. Sure, i mean, it seems like a tragedy that all this water that falls on our cities just runs into flood canals and back out into the ocean. So if we could capture that and make it part of our water supply, wed be a lot better off. Well, i heard reports that there might be rain eventually, so i was thinking about going and getting a big container and taking off my drain from the roof, and is that not a good idea . It would be a great idea if you lived in seattle, where it rains a little bit every day. But think about it we only had two big rainstorms last winter. Your roof barrel wouldve filled up right away, and then the first week that you needed it for gardening, it wouldve been all gone. What we need to do is we need to build massive rainwatercapture systems and get that water underground into our drinkingwater aquifers if we want to get serious about this. I think that one of the you started to talk earlier about conservation, and theres a percentage that weve been asked to do 25 to 30 . Is that reasonable . It depends where you live. If you live in a suburban area, its quite possible that half or more of your water use happens outdoors, and in that case, cutting back 25 to 30 really just means letting your lawn go brown and not starting a garden or doing Something Like that. If you live in San Francisco or a densely populated city, then its gonna be a lot harder to cut back by 25 , especially if youve already installed things like frontloading washing machines and lowflow fixtures, shower heads, and toilets. That would be a tough go. And, also, how is that going to affect our sewer system if theres not that much liquid flowing through there . Oh, gosh, at some point, the sewers dont work the way they were designed. That is, they were designed back in the days when people were using 75 or 100 gallons per person, per day, indoors the amount that we use outdoors now and that assured that all the stuff we put in the sewer kept moving. When we put in these watersaving conservation devices, the material stops moving and the sewers stop functioning the way they were designed. So thats not a good thing. [ laughs ] thats definitely not a good thing. What about the use of there were times when i was able to use my graywater from my washing machine just to keep my lawn alive when the drought was really bad several years ago. Is it a little risky . Well, no, theres nothing dangerous about it, and its something we certainly can do. It has the problem of not putting the water in the sewer system to flush the solids, but the other thing is its really only those us who are really dedicated who are gonna follow through with that. So i cant imagine more than a small percentage of people in the state actually using the graywater from their showers and their washing machines on the lawn all the time. Its a lot of work cause i had buckets everywhere. Yeah, and i think one might lose the enthusiasm for it after a year or two. So, i know that, in your book, you call for a water revolution. Are we ready for that psychologically . Revolutions happen when technologies become obsolete and when new Technological Innovations are there, ready to be taken up, and i think were primed for a water revolution. And, in fact, you can even see outlines of that revolution here in california. So my prediction is, if we come back in 10 years, were gonna see a drastically different water system thats gonna help us survive future droughts. So, final call to action from you what we can do right now . You talked about some of those things. Yeah, its not really a question of what you do in your home. Its what you do with elected officials being members and being active in your local utility and your city council and advocate not for what we had in the past, but the water system that we need to get us through the future. And we should be prepared for our water bills to go up. Hey, theyre going up one way or another. They might as well buy something thats gonna get us through the 21st century. All right. Dr. David sedlak, author of the book water 4. 0 i want to thank him so much for being here today, and you can find information about him on our website abc7news. Com. Now, when we come back, youre going to see how and why a bay area Womens College is reaching out around the world to raise awareness about water issues. Stay with us. Well be right back. Welcome back to beyond the headlines. Im cheryl jennings, and today were talking about californias water shortage and what to do about it. Mills college in oakland recently held a International Conference on water issues with emerging female leaders from several countries, and i had the great privilege of hosting one of the classes to show them how to use the media and social media to get their messages out to the communities. And the woman who led that conference is with me in the studio right now alecia decoudreaux, the president of Mills College. And thank you for being here today, doctor. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. That conference was so inspiring, getting to meet all those young women who are so passionate about wanting to do something for the world and this whole water situation. So, what inspired you to hold that conference . How did that come about . Well, our students inspire me to do just about everything that we do. But Mills College joined the women in Public Service project a number of years ago. You may know that it was started by secretary of state Hillary Rodham clinton in conjunction with the state department and Womens Colleges across the country. When mills joined, we decided that we would hold an institute to focus on water, recognizing how important water is in general and particularly to women. So our conference was titled women, water, and the world how women can help solve the worlds water crisis, and it was truly inspiring to have 25 women representing 22 countries at this conference, all of whom are in early to mid career level and all of whom are very involved in water issues in their countries. And our students had the opportunity to interact with them for 10 days, to learn from them, to be inspired by them, and to learn from others in our local community, as well. Because we spent a day at stanford, we spent some time here in San Francisco working with a number of government officials here, and it was just an Incredible Opportunity for our entire community. So, now that its been awhile since the conference, what was the feedback from both sides the emerging leaders and from your own students . Well, ill start with the emerging leaders and say that were still hearing from them. They are still telling us what an extraordinary experience it was, how much they learned, how excited they were to not only learn from the speakers we had lined up for the conference, but to learn from each other, as well. And they are very excited about now having this incredible network of other women who are involved in Public Service in various parts of the world that they can turn to on a regular basis. Theyve been in touch with us several times, as well, and continuing to reach out to Mills College, so thats a real plus. One of the things that i was very excited about is that many of them said they wanted to come to mills to go to school they wanted to go back to school. And most of them recognized that that wasnt necessarily a possibility, and so they said they would definitely be sending some potential students to us, so that was exciting. From the standpoint of our students, they learned so much from the delegates. Because we had such an Extraordinary Group of delegates, our students had women who were doing incredible work all over the world, who they could talk to about issues that are very, very much on their minds. Our students are very committed to social responsibility. Theyre very committed to environmental responsibility. They talk about sustainability all the time, and more importantly, they live sustainably. So, how do you do that on campus . cause thats a big campus. It is a big campus. One of the things that our students do is that they recycle regularly. They reuse as much as they possibly can. They also engage in contests, so our Residence Halls will have contests to see who can generate the most compost and who can recycle the most. And so they really do try to make it fun, but theyre very committed to it. We also have opportunities from time to time for students to come and work on the campus. We have been out there digging up plants that require too much water and replanting with droughtresistant plants, and the students participate in that. We, of course, have done the other things that we can do, such as putting in lowflow toilets and making sure that weve got the shower heads such that were conserving water. So we do as much as we possibly can, and much of it is led by our students. That has got to be so exciting for you as a leader to see how theyre taking this to the next level. Yes. Ive learned a lot since i came to Mills College. Im doing more composting than ive ever done before. I am certainly paying much more attention to the amount of water that i personally use, and i think we all are, but i think its our students who helped me to see how important that individual actions could be in the long run. All right, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for that conference, and thank you for inviting me to be a part of it, too. Our pleasure. All right. And we do have to take a short break. Were gonna be right back, though, to continue our discussion on the power of women in dealing with the worlds water emergency. So stay with us. Well be right back. Because she doesnt know that it kills 40,000 californians. Every year. Because she doesnt understand what cancer is. Because she cant spell emphysema. Because she is a butterfly, who fights fires. Because she is my daughter, and the Surgeon General says that raising tobacco taxes. Is a proven way to make sure she never smokes. Thats why im voting yes on 56. Welcome back to beyond the headlines. We are talking about the Global Concerns about water and the role of women in addressing water issues. Mills college in oakland recently hosted a weeklong global conference on women and water rights, and i had the great pleasure of speaking with a few of the conference attendees. Yeah, women suffer most especially coming from a country like kenya, which is waterscarce. So women are most affected by water because they are the ones that have to go out to provide water for their families, which takes up a lot of their productive time that would be used for income generation. If you train a man, then you will train that person. If you train a woman on, for example, how to build water infrastructure, then you build a nation. So women have an amazing capacity to. Build and make countries grow. In the studio with me right now is gemma bulos. She is the director of the global womens water initiative. And, gemma, im looking at this big old yellow thing here. This is what women in countries overseas have to carry for water. Yes, it would be carrying five gallons of water. Its called a jerrican. And that full of water is 42 pounds. 42 pounds to carry this . So i can lift this easily now. You can see its quite big, but very, very, heavy so thats like a sevenyearold child youd be carrying. And on uneven terrain. On uneven terrain. Women carry this on their back, their shoulders, their heads because they dont have other means to transport it. And oftentimes, women can take up to eight hours, especially in Subsaharan Africa and waterstressed areas, up to eight hours just fetching water with their young girl children, as well. So what that means is women cant work, they cant be productive, and girls cant go to school. So you can imagine the kinds of social impacts, how it affects women and girls just not having access to water. And if you have to carry just that small amount of water for your food and for washing and Everything Else that one might need, its horrible because you cant and plus you dont know whether the water is even clean. Exactly. Exactly. The United Nations actually defines access to water as five gallons of water per person, per day, and less than a 15minute walk. And so just that one gallon is only enough water to provide for one Family Member. Can you imagine the 5 or the 6 or the 10 Family Members in that family . And youre right when its dirty, it actually can even affect the women even more because theyre the caretakers of the family. So when a Family Member gets sick, they have to spend monies on medicine, to take the sick person to the clinic. They lose more time because they have to do all of that stuff, so you can imagine. But tainted water also causes Health Problems for kids that are terrible and possibly even fatal. Oh, very much so. Diarrhea is probably one of the highest causes of mortality for children under five. Mm. And 3 to 5 Million People die of waterrelated disease every year. You have a great video on your website that shows some of the women who have to go and get the water and then bring it back, and youve been dealing with this issue, so what can we all do . How can the communities of the world help with this . So, because women are most affected by the lack of water and, actually, also, sanitation and hygiene, all of that is all connected. You cant have access to water and not have it be clean. Youre still at risk of getting sick. Same with sanitation if you have sanitation but you dont have good hygiene practices, youll get sick. So a lot of it is awareness that this is not just an investment in a well. This is an investment in a community that can have access to water clean water sanitation, so toilets, as well as good hygiene practices. So how it affects women and girls is that they are the ones who lose out on all the opportunities because of the lack of access to water and sanitation. So our goal is to train women and girls how to build water and sanitation technologies that can help them so that they can have more opportunities. So its not just about getting water its about teaching them to be leaders. Exactly. Exactly. The United Nations food and Agriculture Organization found that the exclusion of women in water and sanitation projects was the cause of their high rate of failure. Women were not included in an issue that affects them the most. So our goal was not just to have them be the recipients of failed water projects, but to be the actual implementers. So our women who we train, they know how to build rainwaterharvesting systems and waterstorage tanks. They know how to build toilets. They know how to build water filters. They make soap, shampoo, reusable menstrual pads they make everything, and they make money doing it. Oh, boy, i need to know more about this, but unfortunately, we have run out of time. Gemma, thank you for what youre doing. I appreciate it very much. Thank you for having me. And we have more information for you about todays programs and resources where you live. Just go to our website abc7news. Com community. Were also on facebook at abc7communityaffairs. And please follow me on twitter cherylabc7. Im cheryl jennings. Have a great week. We will see you next time. Thanks for joining us. Welcome to beyond the headlines. Im cheryl jennings. Our goal today is to raise awareness about child abuse and how to prevent it. Child abuse, sadly, is a yearround problem, and the effects of child abuse can last a lifetime and can happen to anyone. The perpetrators may be people you know. One of the important things to consider is what will you do if you find out about the abuse . What should you do . Abc7 News Reporter Tiffany Wilson talked recently with a woman who is suing an easy bay School District, accusing them of not doing anything about the abuse she says she suffered from a coach she trusted. Newspaper clippings capture Sherinne Wilson on the court, but her memories of high school are buried in these journals. I lived with shame. I thought it was my fault. Wilson says her basketball coach, leland sandler, started a sexual relationship with her when she was 16, often giving her drugs and writing notes like this to excuse her from class. He was a person in authority, and were still taught, you know, that you listen to people in authority and you respect them, and thats what i did. Eventually, wilson says her parents discovered the illicit relationship and confronted the principal at San Ramon Valley high school. The principal came up with told my parents that my four younger siblings would have to go to a Different School if this came out, and it would just be better for everybody if it didnt come out. So nobody ever contacted police. Wilson says her coach was allowed to stay on the condition he stop any physical relationship with her. What allegedly happened next still brings wilson to tears 30 years later. She says, the principal, james henderson, walked in on sandler having sex with her again. I just remember our eyes meeting, and i remember thinking, hes gonna tell. Hes gonna do something. Hes gonna call the police now. This is gonna be over. And i remember like a sense of relief, and he basically, he turned around [voice breaking] and he locked the door. And he never said a word. In february, wilson filed a 15million lawsuit against the School District and her former principal. Neither the School District, principal, nor former coach have returned multiple requests for comment. We believe the court will rule in sherinnes favor because what happened here cant possibly be supported. Wilson only came forward after reading about kristen cunnanes similar experience with a middleschool coach in moraga. That coach was convicted. Wilson hopes to empower other victims by sharing her story. It takes courage to talk about it, and, you know, if i could if i could help others do the same, theyre gonna become stronger, and theyre gonna take control of their lives back. She also wants her story to serve as a cautionary tale for todays teens, who she feels are especially at risk because of social media and smartphones. In santa rosa, Tiffany Wilson, abc7 news. It took her so many years to find her voice, so i want to thank sherinne for having the courage to talk with us about this, and joining me in the studio right now is a woman who wants to stop that kind of abuse forever. She is executive director of the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center Katie Albright, and we have worked together for many years in this fight. Now, you have two locations one is the firehouse on waller street and, of course, the Childrens Advocacy Center out in the bayview. First, cheryl, thank you so much for having me here today and shining the light. We all have a role to play in preventing child abuse, and thank you for being such a champion in this effort. It is a team effort. You know, it takes all of us to do this, and one of the things that you were sharing with me before we started the program is that the numbers just dont go down, sadly. No, in fact, in San Francisco, there are more than 5,000 reports of child abuse each year, and the Research Shows that actually theres about 40 of cases that are never even reported. Its tragic. You have a place now thats just beautiful. I got to tour it last year, and i want to show people an update of the Childrens Advocacy Center. Advocacy center in the bayview is just beautiful. Its a nice, safe place where kids who have been abused can share their stores one time. Its an incredible partnership that we have with the city and county of San Francisco, where, as you said, children can come in and share their story one time with all the excellent and expert professionals that need to hear that childs story so that we can really help that family find justice and help that child on a path to healing. Its incredible. In fact, since we started this work in 2008, we see a 76 increase in the number of these best practices interviews. Were thrilled to have just gotten National Accreditation earlier this month, and so really have just been very proud of our partnership that we can do to make sure that all kids in our city are safe. I was reading on your website about something that just stunned me. You believe that we can actually end the cycle of violence in families. You have a new program. You wrote an essay about this. Its we have been saying for years that we are going to prevent abuse, reduce it, but now i really believe, we really believe we can actually end it in our generation. We have a terrific program where we provide support for families in crisis. We focus on five protective factors, and these are things that people have researched and defined that families need in order to keep their kids safe. So parent resiliency whether or not a parent can weather the ups and downs of life at any time in any crisis. A childs resiliency, or social emotional competencies. Whether or not a parent understands ageappropriate behavior, and whether or not a family has social connections, or are they so deeply isolated maybe because of violence or mentalhealth issues that they cant seek help, and finally we look at concrete support, so basic family needs food, clothing, shelter. These things together help keep kids safe, and we have a fantastic program that were providing kids with the support and families with the support. We do it through our 24 7 phone support line, our talk line, as well as counseling services, playroom, other child care, other kinds of Group Activities for parents to really engage and get the support that they need to keep their kids safe and break generational cycles of violence. I was reading about how you think two generations it can be done. You did something with the Aspen Institute about this area. We just published an article with the Aspen Institute earlier this week, and we do believe that working with parents and children together, in two generations, that we can really focus on moving families out of generational cycles of violence, and we have the results to show it. About 76 of our families are showing improvement in their protective factors, which means improvement in their ability to keep their kids safe against all odds, against all the risks, against all their own generational cycles of violence that they may be coming through. So were very excited about this program. Katie, we have about 10 seconds left. Most important thought you have you want to leave people with . Parenting is tough, and if you need support and you need help, call our phone support line 24 7. Its 415441kids. And, as we said in the beginning, its gonna take all of us working together to prevent abuse, but we can. Katie, thank you so much. We appreciate it so much. And we had the talk line on the screen for everybody, and we will have that on our website, as well. Now, when we come, youre going to learn about an Educational Organization that offers free material to raise awareness about child abuse prevention. Stay with us. You dont want to miss it. Well be right back. Welcome back to our program on how to prevent child abuse. Were joined by two women who have been longtime partners in the fight against abuse. Patty shimek is a founder of a nonprofit Grassroots Organization called partners in prevention, and kathy baxter, who led the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Council for decades, and she has been my mentor on childabuse issues for three decades. I cant believe its been that long. Wow. So now you have a whole new venture. This is just such a nice supplement to the work that Katie Albright is doing. Shes been my mentor, too. All right, so, patty, let me start with you. You founded this. Kathy, youre the Vice President. So what is partners in prevention and why did you do it . As you said, we are a 501 c 3 notforprofit organization comprised of people who believe that prevention is the way to end child abuse in this country and in our communities. And you also have a lot of products that were gonna talk about in a little while, right . Yes, yes. But, kathy, why did you and patty decide to join forces on this . Well, you know, cheryl, id worked in the field for so long, and i consider myself a civilian now, ive been saying. Im retired. I wanted to do something that i felt could reach out and be able to give things to people. For a long time, all of our programs have struggled with limited budgets, not being able to develop materials, getting a message out there to the community about child abuse, and to say that we believe that child abuse can be prevented. As someone whos now reading the paper, watching tv, i was expecting to see so much this month on child abuse, this april, and other months throughout the year, and you realize that unless theres a sensational case, its very hard to get the message out there, and we want the message to be 365 days a year. Youre right. It is a yearround problem. So who are you working with and who is your audience . Well, we are a Diverse Group of individuals from business, from civil society, from other organizations that work in this area experts and our audience is every adult. Because its a family affair. Its a family event. We all have to be involved. The responsibility is not for a child to be safe in their own childhood. The responsibility is in all adults not just the parent, but all adults. Youre absolutely right. Now, i received a packet of material, some of the things that you all distribute, and it was fantastic, and there was a hashtag in there for those folks who like to tweet, and i do, and its called how we do blue, and i love to show people that because its part of a calendar thats yearround. Yes. So were gonna put that up on the screen right now so that you want to get involved, you want to wear a blue ribbon for the love of a child, but your hashtag is how we do blue. How we do blue. How we do blue yes. How you do blue. I did this in honor of this particular and important story. So, you have been asked by many, many people all across the country and the world now for these materials. Its so exciting that to be a partner in prevention means simply to understand what the blue ribbon represents and to wear it or display it in your life as you go about your day, and through our website, through conferences, International Conferences, people have contacted us from the bahamas, from other states fayetteville, north carolina, throughout the greater bay area, of course, and reached out and said, how do i do this . What does it take . It takes simply to be able to know what the blue ribbon represents and to be united in the belief that the best treatment for child abuse in adulthood is to have not have had it happen at all, to prevent it, so that is our mission preventing it from starting. We usually do the other way. We talk about the abuse and how horrible it is, but we dont talk about this piece of it. So, kathy, when the conversation starts, what do people say to you about getting these materials . Well, they want to know how to get them, and part of it is we have this wonderful network of the 10 bay area child Abuse Councils that weve been working with for years. Now i work as a volunteer with patty getting the materials out. Patty is a great visual person and a great person looking at messaging, and she works with some other excellent people. So theyve created wonderful materials, and its really a pleasure to be able to say, we can give you these materials. We can give you pins, bookmarks, posters, anything you need to spread the word, and people are just grabbing them and saying, what else can we do . What else can we do . And its know what child abuse is. Well, were gonna talk a lot more about this in just a moment. We have to take a break. Kathy and patty are going to stay with us for another segment. When we come back, what you can do to show your support in the fight against child abuse. We are back, talking about ways to prevent child abuse and how you can join that effort. Our guests are patty shimek, the founder of partners in prevention, and kathy baxter, the Vice President of partners in prevention, and both of them are longtime advocates for prevention, and we talked about what it means to be a partner in prevention. Its something we all need to get involved with, but you have so much great material here. So i want to start first with these dolls whom i got to see during a presentation at a school to help children learn about safe touches, good and bad touches. Mmhmm. So, what are these guys names here . Harry and sally. [ chuckles ] theyre so cute. Now, their clothing is just its covering strategic places. Mmhmm, right. Theyre bathing suits, right, on harry, and on sally, the twopiece bathing suit, which are very obvious, clear messages for children to identify these are your private areas. Mmhmm. All right, now you also have this goes in the schools to talk to kids about touches, and the message that you have for them is three easy rules. Right. Yes, yes. Its say no, get away, and tell someone, and keep telling until someone listens. The overarching message is one of empowerment i can. I can do these things. You can. Its safe and correct. And you also have a lot of material. This book is fascinating because it says, enough. Child sexual abuse. Ten conversations. So, kathy, tell me about this. Right. You know, a couple of years ago, the Bay Area Coalition of Child Abuse Council and several other groups merged and talked about child sex abuse, and this is the campaign they came up with. Simple campaign enough. Enough child sex abuse. And we want to make materials available to parents, to adults, and decided to print the ten conversations, which were available online. Many people can go online, but many of our parents and other people do not go online, so these booklets are available for people to read simple, 10 conversations. You can do one a day, one a week with your children and talk about preventing child sex abuse. You also have what i see here. Youve got the calendar that we talked about earlier. Youve got a big calendar, you have bookmarks. You have coloring books that are strategic in their message, too. Patty, tell me about the coloring books. Well, the coloring books are an activity that give children an opportunity to relax and share with their parent, caregiver, their friends, any adult what theyre experiencing in life and hopefully it empowers them. Theyre treated as superheroes for themselves. It gives them a voice, gives them power. You are your own individual, and although we do not expect children to be responsible for their own safety in childhood, it is an opportunity for parents to speak and adults to speak to the children. You work with a lot of different agencies. Were gonna be talking about the contra costa agency in a minute. So, do they ask for advice, support materials, what . All of it. I think mostly materials. I think that is the biggest area where we need more, and i see us, partners in prevention, as a supplement to everyone whos doing the work out there. So anyone can call and say, well, what do you have this year . What are you gonna make available . Pins, bookmarks, ten command Ten Commandments ten conversations. They should be. They should be the Ten Commandments for parents to really know what to do with their kids. The program that you have, its not just gonna be stagnant. I mean, you are constantly evolving. So youve got some future plans. Yes, we do. Well, mostly were listening right now to adult survivors, to people who work in the field, and to children. We want to find the best messaging possible. We want to develop the best messaging possible to end child abuse. We, too, believe that it can be ended. We can stop it. I think that one of the things that people dont know is that they dont have to pay anything for these materials. Right. Theres no office because its in your work office. Right. We have no overhead expenses that most organizations find necessary, so, at this time, these last two years, weve been able to meet the requests of providing these materials at no charge. Thats wonderful. Thank you both so much for what youre doing and thanks for being here today. Thank you. All right, and we do have to take a break. Now, coming up next, were gonna show you a program that has a very Aggressive Program to teach children how to protect themselves from child abuse, so please stay with us. Well be right back. Welcome back to beyond the headlines. We are talking about how to prevent child abuse and what you can do to join the fight. Right now our guest is Carol Carrillo with the Child Abuse Prevention Council of contra costa county, and, carol, thank you so much for being here today. You have a very comprehensive program, and i love this poster because it says if i can just hold this up here. It says, child help. Speak up. Be safe. Prevention education curriculum. And this is for 1 to 6th grade, and there are so many good little pieces of advice for children on here, so walk me through that. Absolutely. Our speak up be safe program is a comprehensive approach to child abuse prevention. We teach 1stthrough6thgrade students a curriculum on child abuse prevention, bullying prevention, and Sexual Harassment prevention. Wow. So its not just child abuse or child sexual abuse. Bullying is a huge problem, too. Yes, it is. Absolutely. So its very comprehensive. It really does touch on teaching kids about all those sort of issues and how to prevent those issues. I want to talk about something that ive been following the issue of child abuse, child abuse prevention my entire career because im very passionate about this. I was fortunate to have a good, safe childhood, and i believe every child should have that. Yes, we do, too. We love the props here. So you have dolls that you use in your curriculum. So do these Little Critters have names . They we use sally and the same names that other programs use. Yes, okay. And but really its really designed to show our younger kids, our 1stthrough3rdgrade children their private body parts, and whats covered by a bathing suit is considered their private body parts, and that no one really should be touching those private body parts or showing you their private body parts unless, of course, its a parent or a caretaker and theyre touching your private body parts to keep you clean and safe or, of course, a doctor or a medical provider thats touching your private body parts to keep you healthy. Other than that, there should never be games around or any sort of tricks around your private body parts because those are yours and not to be shown to other people. So how do you give the kids the language to say thats not okay, especially if theyre already in a situation . Well, what we do, particularly with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rdgraders is we play some really fun games. We talk about safe secrets and unsafe secrets, and we have kids stand up, and we give different scenarios, and we say, if this is a safe secret, give a thumbsup, if its not a safe secret, thumbsdown. So we have different scenarios and different ways to present the material to kids at an ageappropriate level so they can understand and really get a sense of whats safe and whats unsafe. I know you got some good advice from the partners in prevention, and you modeled your program after the one they use in the schools in San Francisco. Absolutely. Yes, we did. And we have bookmarks to sort of help reinforce the safety rules of telling someone, making sure that you keep telling your safe adult until that safe adult believes you and helps that abuse from happening. And i know that youre in a big county big county. Yes. I mean, San Franciscos big, and their numbers are large. Yeah. Well, last year we were looking at about 10,000 reports of suspected child abuse, and we look at about oneinfour cases daily that get investigated for so rises to the level of higher needs and being investigated. So its definitely a problem. Its a problem in every community in contra costa county, and we are really working to spread the word and spread our prevention programs throughout the county. You have a great staff, a great crew. We have some pictures of the folks who work with you, and we wanted to show them and thank them for the work theyre doing. Theyve got the dolls there, and, you know, the cohesiveness of a team like that like, everybody whos been on this program today, everybody works together. Thats so impressive. Yes, we really do. And it is a team approach. We all need to Work Together to prevent child abuse in our communities, and i think were doing a really great job this month, every month of the year to make sure that our kids are kept safe and that are community can really rally around and learn about this issue and learn how they can help protect kids in our community. And i just want to reinforce the message that kids can take with them, for folks who are watching this, if theyre in trouble, if they have to find that safe adult they keep telling, so the words on these bookmarks are . Yeah, stay away. I can i can keep myself safe and to tell a safe adult and to keep telling that adult until the abuse stops. And i think kids dont know that they can say no, that they have the power, the right to say no. Thats right, thats right. And were teaching them that they can, and they can help keep themselves safe. And how many kids do you have in your program now . Well, last year, over the last two years, we trained 3,500 students. We work with their parents and the school staff, so it really is a team effort in keeping kids safe. Oh, thank you so much for what youre doing, carol. Thank you so much for your support. All right. For more information about todays program, go to our website abc7news. Com community, or on facebook at abc7communityaffairs. Have a great day. Last man standing is recorded in front of a live studio audience. Boy, Mother Nature sure took a dump on us last night. Yeah, i love the first snow of the season. Mike right on schedule. Its like natures giving al gore the finger. Morning. Hey, where are you going in such a hurry . To get my snow shovel. The sky dropped a ton of white gold,