In this episode Ginger and Julie invite Tracy Leonard into the studio. Tracy is the Programming and Partnership Manager at the non-profit, Darkness to Light.  Darkness to Light empowers adults to prevent child abuse.  She is also an authorized facilitator and certified instructor at Darkness to Light. The curriculum focuses on how to recognize, react, and respond to child sexual abuse. Tracy is also vital to ATN as a board member and the leader of the development team.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, so this episode is very timely. The US Department of Health and Human Services recently put out their report for 2021 stating that 76% of all children experience neglect. 16% experience physical abuse and 10% experience sexual abuse…  And realize - these are the reported cases. 

Darkness to Light believes that it is an adult’s responsibility to protect children and it is a child’s responsibility to be a child. Listen in to learn more about the curriculum that Darkness to Light developed and presents.  They focus on how to minimize the opportunity for sexual abuse.  If it does happen, adults are taught how to react. Adults are also taught how to intervene if they see someone crossing the boundary by being an active bystander. Tracy says that it is amazing to see all the light bulbs go off during the training.

To learn more about the Darkness to Light program, to go https://www.d2l.org/  .