Ashley, let me start with you. Child sexual abuse, how bad is it . We hear about it on the news. We know about it happening in our communities. What do the numbers say . Unfortunately, pat, child sexual abuse is something happening to children before their 18th birthday, affecting one in ten children nationwide. D. C. Specifically has a really staggering rate of child mall treatment, the second highest rate in the nation. Child sex abuse and trafficking, are they related . Absolutely. One thing we do know about children who are affected by child sex trafficking is oftentimes theyve already experienced child sexual abuse at some point prior to being trafficked. Adrian, you treat children. Most of us think its the most horrible thing that can possibly that we can possibly imagine. Most of us cant imagine how it is that an adult abuses a child. How does it affect a child to be violated this way at such an early age, at an age when theyre still developing physically, mentally, spiritually emotionally. It affects children in different ways. I think thats what makes it so difficult to treat because a child might show up with irritability, anger, external lizing behaviors, doing things on people or out in the community. Other times kids turn inward, a lot of depression, sadness. You see younger kids not hitting developmental milestones or not doing what they would be doing typically at that age. Other kids just really taking a turn for the worst, building in to more risk taking behaviors and not performing the things they should be doing. School falls off, things like that. So is it easy to spot a child who is having a problem, or do you really need to know the specific signs . I think oftentimes it would be easy to spot a child who is suffering from something. Being able to pinpoint what the specific problem is a little more difficult. A lot of kids we see come in and have, in my word, more prototypical behavioral problems. Its not we use a trauma focus lens so were able to identify what theyre doing. Children, for example, will act out in school or a child wont do their homework or they wont do what their parents tell them to do. Sometimes it seems its misunderstood. It often is, isnt it . Very much so. Why wont johnny do what i tell him to do . Why wont he do his homework . Why wont he listen when the teacher talks . Thats a big part of the therapy i do, working with caregivers and parts of the Community Schools and informing them what it means to be going through a trauma. If all things being equal, johnny is not listening to the mom, we can talk about what we can do on both sides, johnnys side and moms side. If we know johnny went through a trauma, the behaviors coming from it arent as easily identified and a lot of times these children go mislabled. We see kids that have stopped at other places and have had diagnoses and unsuccessful treatment. When they come here, we say, just look at this child through this lens. It makes sense to the caregiver, the parents, the schools. Actually, i understand d. C. Has the second highest level of ma maltreatment in the nation . Thats right. It covers neglect, child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, certainly child sexual trafficking as well. Safe shores specifically treats children facing child sexual abuse as well as physical abuse. Weve worked with a number of child sex trafficking cases as well. Is there any indication or are there statistics that tell us why the number is so high in the Nations Capital . I think thats a great question. What we do know is that there are many different causes contributing to child sexual abuse, and certainly on one level its a decision an individual makes to violate that child. But one thing that safe shores has become focused on is our prevention effort. Were looking to train concerned Community Members to respond to and notify the appropriate authorities when theyre seeing these risky indicators. Weve got to take a break. Well continue talking with safe shores right after this break. Why let someone else have all the fun . The sometimes haphazard, never boring fun. The why cant it smell like this all the time fun. The learning the virtue of sharing fun. Why let someone else have all the fun . Thats no fun. Unleash the power of dough. Give it a pop. Welcome back. Were talking with safe shores this morning, Advocacy Center in the district of columbia that helps children who are victims of physical, sexual abuse and trafficking. Ashley harrell, when it comes to child sexual trafficking, the National Center for missing and exploited children say now its a bigger problem, trafficking, that is, because its moved from the street corners. Its no longer out in the open. Its moved to the internet where its much darker. I think the internet is now a tool being very effectively used by child sex traffickers to advertise victims and to arrange opportunities for victims to be seen by customers in a way that is a lot harder to catch and to find. Theres certainly a lot of efforts being made by Law Enforcement to kind of go in and catch people in the act, but it is a new kind of frontier. Its a difficult change in the landscape of human trafficking. Is there a typical victim . Is there a profile of a child, adrian . For sex trafficking . Or for sex abuse. No. I dont think i think it permeates all types of walks of life, socioeconomic, high or low, educated, noneducated. Theres no type of person at greater risk. Doesnt matter the sex, the race, the economics . We see family background . We see wide ranges of everything. I think in this work, unfortunately what you find is that the Common Thread is that there is no Common Thread. We have to actually be willing to meet every family where theyre at because you can so often say, well, i know this family, i know the type of victim that will walk in my door, and thats never the case. Talk about your clients, where they come from, the experiences that they had and how you start down the road of he holing and help for them. Typically when they come in, theyre coming for a forensic interview, for the child to give their statement to Law Enforcement and Child Protective Services about what theyve been through. It is often a moment of crisis for families. The families coming to see us typically are very new to the Law Enforcement process, often coming in a state of confusion or fear if theyre not sure if theyre safe at that point from the perpetrator. As adrian already mentioned, we do see families from all walks of life. I think poverty is certainly a risk factor. We do see a lot of children and families coming from socioeconomic statuses where the parents or caregivers are having to focus so intensely on meeting their childrens financial needs and physical needs that they might be at a greater risk for victimization because of exposure to people. Adrian, obviously many of your clients come to you via Law Enforcement. Do you have people who report this kind of thing to you directly . And do you intervene in that case . At safe shores, the referrals come specifically through that portal. We get the phone calls and go through that kind of gateway. Law enforcement, social services. Other agencies like that. Every so often there is something that some call will be made and come in, and then well have to make sure its appropriate and send it through the appropriate channels and then theyll come to us. It takes obviously a lot of coordinati coordination, a lot of different agencies and organizations to deal with this problem. Tell us about some of the other groups that you work with. The Multidisciplinary Team in d. C. Is comprised of safe shores, the childrens Advocacy Center, the office of the attorney general and the u. S. Attorneys office, metropolitan Police Department youth and Family Services division and then a segment of child and Family Services, their Child Protection services. We work closely with the child and adolescent protection center. They do the medical evaluations and their patheyre a part of Childrens National medical center. Talk about some of the outcomes, the children you work with directly. In the clinical side we try to build resiliency in these children and that comes from showing up, the environment showing up, the caregivers showing up and the individuals. Its a slow process in which we take the child with the presenting problem, the traumas theyve experienced and give them some skills. Sometimes its breathing. Sometimes its ways to focus their attention. What their skills will do in the presence of us continually talking about the trauma, its slowly working into a cold pool. If you jump right in, its overwhe overwhelming, too cold, shocking the the system. But what we do, once we build the skills, we slowly walk them in to this. Eventually theyll be able to sit with what happened to them, not be shocked by the immediate trauma, not be shocked by the things going on around them and have a skill set to help them regulate the process. Once they get to that piece, true healing can happen and they can move on because theyll be able to deal with that and know the trauma doesnt define them, but also take that with them, because thats what life is, theyll have skill sets to help them as well. Well continue our talk after this break. Stay with us. Welcome back. We are talking with safe shores this morning on viewpoint. Ashley, relisha rudd was failed on so many levels, social services, the schools, other adults in the shelter where she and the family lived. Talk about her case, where you think everybody did fail, and has there been improvement as a result of her case in communication, coordination between the agencies involved . Thats a great question, pat. I cant agree more that there was essentially a failure of multiple systems to recognize what she was experiencing and to respond appropriately in time. Fortunately there have been changes made. Since that point i think theres been a strong push for prevention programs and trainings so individuals in the Community Shelters like where she was living or even within the schools have more knowledge and tools to be able to respond appropriately and notice the red flags of child sexual abuse. Luckily thats something that safe shores is now providing and doing actively out in partner agencies, but we also offer it to Community Members as a whole within our facility. If anybody is interested, they can visit safeshores. Org to find out about that training. Adrian, there are many children who are victims of abuse and there are children who witness abuse. Are those children just as traumatized . Yes. I think the trauma we can categorize it as different, but responses are very similar. We see people who witness violence or witness other types of abuse lose a part of them in the same manner as someone who is a victim of that abuse. I see plenty of kids who in their play which is how they work a lot of it out, if you put a g. I. Joe in the hands of a young guy and say play, instead of building a bridge or attacking an enemy or Something Like that with their imagination, you see a lot of vebl abuse, a lot of mirrored physical abuse. When you understand in his imagination, in the core of who he is conflict. This is how you engage with people, how you do all these other things, that man will go on having problems Building Bonds with friends, engaging with teachers, taking commands, being a part of the team, along with the safety that he does not have. Witnesses abuse is just as traumatic because everything is there. You get that startle response. You get that fear. You actually have somebody who you are afraid of even if its not happening to you. It has all the hallmarks of being abused, just missing that physical violence towards yourself. Do you treat that child the same way, as a child who has been abused . Yes, definitely. A person who has witnessed trauma has trauma symptoms, has been traumatized. So we treat our treatment is better defined for helping kids deal with trauma. Trauma will manifest itself in a lot of different ways. Just because they arent the, quote, unquote, victim of a particular act does not mean they dont need our services and doesnt mean we cant treat them. We treat them and assess the issues the same way we would the same as someone who is actually a victim. Ashley, do children who are abused or witness abuse become abusers in the majority of the cases . In the majority of the cases, no. I think thats a common myth about children who experience abuse. Healing is very possible. Many children who experience abuse will go on to lead normal, healthy, happy lives. They need support and appropriate Therapeutic Services to get there. The children range in what are the ages . From as young as 4 to the age of 18 that we see. You provide counsel for 4yearolds . Yes, its a different process than what we might think. A lot of it is engagement to communities, engagement to caregivers and parents and really creating a safe space for that child so they can be held in a safe environment. So once those children find that safe environment, then theyre able to either work through some of the trauma through various modalities, either play, artwork, things like that, and then kind of work through that process, maybe nonverbally because a lot of those kids dont quite have the words to talk about how theyre feeling. Ashley, you told me one of the services you provide is prevention. How do you prevent this . I think child sexual abuse thrives in a culture of silence. Part of the way to prevent child sexual abuse is to become more comfortable talking about it, both with other adults as well as with children. Certainly we dont want to scare our children. But telling children what the appropriate names of their body parts are is one way to confront child sexual abuse because it allows children to identify where theyre being touched and feel its an okay thing to mention. Another thing adults can do is learn to recognize the signs and symptoms. Rather than attributing them to bad behavior or misconduct, acknowledging this could be the sign of a deeper issue and making the appropriate report. Of course, if they see signs, that would generally mean that the abuse is already happening . It could mean that the abuse is already happening. One thing we know about child sexual abuse is that it often takes place through a process we refer to as grooming. Grooming is a slow and steady process, so its hard for the child to identify when the abuse really occurs. So it might start with some touching of the thigh or soming tickling or secret games and slowly build into something that you or i would identify as child sexual abuse. Well take another break, but well be right back. Stay with us. Continuing our talk now with safe shores. Ashley and adrian, weve talked about a lot of the services you provide. Talk now about how important the family is, and tell us about the kind of support you offer the family, because thats key, in a child who has been abused, is being abused and preventing abuse. Absolutely. With children the primary sense of support often comes from the family. One of the things safe shores does is to work to support parents and caregivers through the process, so they not only understand what their child is going through, but theyre in a better position to respond to any future instances of abuse or attempts to abuse. I think for children, the response of their caregiver has a huge impact on how theyre going to perceive their abuse in the future and their ability to heal. We try to help parents have a sense of what to say to their children, how to respond, either in the immediate aftermath or much further down the line. I think parents are often concerned about their ability to deal with child sexual abuse because its not something any parent wants to prepare for. Its a difficult thing to even think about, let alone talk about. It is, certainly. A big role that the Family Advocacy program at safe shores plays is to empower the parent, give them language, things to say that will be reassuring to their children but also comforti comforting. Because that sense of safety is what the child is looking for. Adrian, its hard to provide the therapy for the children without helping the family, siblings. Oh, yeah. It continues straight into the clinical side where we see we see the family unit. A lot of times well have one caregiver, one mom, one dad, both or neither. A lot of times these children are in foster care, and we have to learn to work around those barriers for that child. A lot of times we spend almost as much time with the caregivers and whoever comes and brings the kid than with the child themselves. We do a lot of debunking of myths, battling cultural and racial stereotypes they might already have, empower them to get their own treatment if needed, be able to have the language. What i often say is the child will not be able to outgrow that caregiver. Adrian thompson and ashley harrell, thank you so much, from safe shores. We have indicated put the website up there for people who want more information about your program and your child abuse hotline 2026717233. Thats 202671safe. Thats 202671safe. Thanks for being with that sound. Like nails on a chalkboard. But listen to this family talking thats a different kind of sound. The sound of the weekend. Unleash the power of dough. Give it a pop. Its always worth remembering. That icing the Cinnamon Rolls is a privilege not a right. Unleash the power of dough. Give it a pop. Imagine a world where the holidays were about people again. Where doorbusters referred to loved ones pouring through the front door. 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