ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Attorney James Carrigan, Jetta Bernier, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Children, and Birgitta Damon, executive director of Lynn Economic Opportunity, from left, talk before the sexual abuse presentation made at Lynn City Hall on Tuesday.
BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE
LYNN — Local agencies that work with children are teaming up to say “enough is enough” with sexual abuse in the city.
After seeing one too many cases involving issues stemming from childhood sexual abuse, James Carrigan, a Lynn attorney, organized a group of nonprofit agency directors to help combat the problem.
Birgitta Damon, executive director of Lynn Economic Opportunity; Dianne Kuzia Hills, executive director of My Brother’s Table; St. Mary’s School; The Lynn Housing Authority; Catherine Latham, superintendent of Lynn Public Schools; and All Care VNA are working with Jetta Bernier, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Children, on what they call a preventative movement.
The group will host training workshops April 27 and 28 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the City Council Chamber.
The goal of the movement, dubbed the Enough Abuse Campaign, is to train child care workers to recognize the signs of sexual abuse, Carrigan said. As an introduction, Bernier spoke with representatives of several organizations about the campaign Tuesday afternoon at City Hall.
She presented a slideshow of research gathered from various agencies, including that one in 10 children have been sexually assaulted, 90 percent of cases are never reported and 39 million Americans have been victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Sexual abusers use grooming tactics to make sure kids won’t tell, she said. Often times they spend up to a year gaining the trust of their victims.
“We realize we are really dealing with a silent epidemic across the country, across the state and in our communities,” Bernier said.
LEO, a childcare agency, has seen a 300 percent increase in mental health referrals, according to Damon. While it can’t be said that the referrals are linked directly to sexual abuse, the jump to 27 referrals this year from nine is something to be concerned about, she said.
“We, as child care providers at LEO, are compelled to do all that we can to prevent sexual abuse,” Damon said.
The movement involves a three-pronged approach: prevention, prosecution and treatment, Carrigan said.
“I represent a lot of people, particularly women who were sexually abused as children,” he said. “It has lifelong effects. I see a lot of it in women in their 30s. They bury it, it gets repressed, and (then) they have an event in their life that brings it all back. It could be (something like) a car accident.”
Victims often have difficulty going to work, seeing their friends, have nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, can’t concentrate, or have difficulty meeting people, Carrigan said. He hopes to find a way to recognize signs in children before they become problems for them as adults and prevent the sexual abuse from happening in the first place.
The Training of Trainers workshop will include a series of informational videos, seminars on healthy and unhealthy behaviors, educator boundaries, yellow and red light behaviors, modeling good communication, empathy and accountability, and several other topics.
Guest speakers will include Lt. Marie Hanlon of the Lynn Police Department’s Sexual Abuse Unit and a representative of the Lynn Community Health Center’s Mental Health Department.
Participants can pre-register for the workshop by calling 781-309-5619.
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BridgetTurcotte.
