First Light Child Advocacy Center quote from this website…
WHAT WE DO
“First Light is a place where people, children, and caring come together. The center provides a location for members of a multi-disciplinary team to come together and perform a forensic interview of a child who is alleged to be a victim of abuse or neglect. The objective is to provide a quick, professional response by law enforcement, child protection services and the prosecutor’s office to a case, so the trauma to the child can be minimized and an appropriate course of action to the specific case can be charted expeditiously. Since first opening it’s doors, February 16, 2004 the center has served well over 2000 local children.”
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I know from my own childhood experience that a toxic home means kids can be affected with the same symptoms of PTSD as parents who suffer from traumatic events in life…including combat stress… The part that worries me more than anything is we kids back in the day didn’t get it and were silent and scared all the time… Mental and physical abuse was a big secret in our home as a young boy growing up following WWII and Korean War. It was a lonely and isolated world. A no way out feeling. We didn’t talk about it, we lied to our friends, coaches, and teachers. We didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. We siblings even took it out on each other to vent our anger toward the crazy world at home.
It was a challenge to get up each day and face the world as a young boy. The name of the game was dodging bullets and hiding while our parents acted out in anger and emotional numbness. We didn’t feel loved or cared about that much. My goal was to survive until age 17 and join the US Navy to get away from all of it forever! Joining the Navy was a good thing, but we abused children carry the emotional baggage forward. It took me most of my adult life to get all the emotional garbage and baggage sorted out and achieve some peace of mind…
We must work harder as parents and as a community to stop child abuse. The silence still persists today…it is deafening… The denial is still a huge problem along with the stigma of living in a toxic home culture. I will continue to speak out on this subject and make a difference in all the avenues possible to achieve more awareness. Your support is critical… Think about the children who suffer in silence each and every day of the year… Contact First Light Child Advocacy Center…
Steve Sparks
Author
Reconciliation: A Son’s Story click to order…
