One in ten children will be a victim of child sexual abuse before reaching the age of 18.  Those numbers are startling, but even more so when they come in 3’4” slight frame with doleful brown eyes and a voice barely above a whisper.  As a third grader, she and her class had watched the SungateKids SafeKids School-Based Prevention Program.  Like some of the other kids, she stayed back after the presentation to speak to SungateKids’ Prevention Specialists.  “What happened to the girl puppet – that’s happening to me.  And it’s not ok.”

With those two short sentences, this child said enough to trigger all of SungateKids’ services.  SungateKids’ Prevention Specialist was able to work with her school to report her allegations, which the county Department of Human Services and the local law enforcement agency then investigated.  She was brought to SungateKids for an interview with one of our highly-trained, expert Forensic Interviewers, and her family received victim advocacy and support services from one of our Family Support Coordinators.  After the investigation was complete, she and her family received therapy in our Therapeutic Support Program, both individually and in group settings.  With all of these services, she went from silent victim to survivor to thriver.  And SungateKids was there to help at every step of the way.

Each year, SungateKids serves over 1,200 children and families in its Investigative Interview and Therapeutic Support Programs, and we educate more than 3,000 children in our SungateKids SafeKids Program.  We have been doing this work for a quarter of a century.  We learn each day from the children and families we work with, and we use that knowledge to inform every aspect of our programming. 

But we can’t do this work alone – nor should we.  Child abuse is a problem for all of us.  Since the statistics are one in ten, a child you know is being abused.  We need your help to help those who are being hurt or have been hurt – and to stop it before it happens again.

We also know that this is just the tip of the iceberg – how many more children are out there who don’t yet have the words to tell us what’s happening?  Who don’t have a person they can turn to for help?  Who are at risk and don’t even know it?  There is so much more we can do – but we need your help to do it.

Support us and change the odds - and a child’s life, today!