Month: September 2019

Powerhouse Panel of Keynotes

Powerhouse Lineup

I am excited to announce the keynote speakers for the March to End Child Abuse on Oct 5th.

We will have the honor of marching with Jan Broberg, Tanya Brown and Matthew Sandusky.  In turn, they will have the honor of marching with thousands of you.

The members of our powerhouse panel are nationally recognized child advocates.  They are pursuing the very same goal as Protect Every Child:  A world free from child abuse.

Don’t miss this historic moment in history.  The very first national march to stand up for the human right of every child to grow up safe from abuse.   As of this moment 1,048 have registered, coming from 27 states and 9 countries.  This truly is a ‘national’ event that will be epic in the annals of protecting our children.   Please register HERE.

Matthew Sandusky

Watch Matthew’s worldwide TV exclusive on Oprah Prime.

Matthew Sandusky  was a victim of childhood sexual abuse from the age of 8 to 17 at the hands of his adopted father, Jerry Sandusky.  Matthew has turned his traumatic personal experience into a mechanism to prevent childhood sexual abuse and help other survivors heal.

Matthew raises awareness around child sexual abuse in local communities, supports the life-saving work of children’s advocacy and sexual assault treatment centers, and advocates for legislative changes.  Matthew also works with researchers, clinicians, the media, politicians, social workers and child protection professionals to raise awareness and improve the quality and availability of services to survivors nationwide.

In addition to his advocacy work, Matthew is committed to empowering and educating children to use their voices and help protect them against abuse.  He is working with other advocates to implement an in-school curriculum to empower children to use their voices as a first line of defense, along with parents and teachers.

Jan Broberg

Earlier this year, Jan Broberg became known as the subject of a movie chronicling her horrific kidnapping at the age of 12, and again at 14, by a trusted family friend.  The documentary film Abducted in Plain Sight was released by Netfix and is still available for viewing.  It recounts a jaw dropping tale of manipulation, brainwashing, kidnapping and child sex abuse.  All at the hands of a man who successfully groomed young Jan, her parents and the entire church community for his malevolent purposes.

Her triumph over those early, unspeakable events was instrumental in her speaking out to “end the abuse of every child on the planet. ”  She views this cause as a primary driving force in her life going forward.

Jan is an actress, singer and dancer who has appeared in more than two dozen feature films, numerous television series, and countless stage productions.

Tanya Brown

Tanya Brown is no stranger to adversity or trauma.  Her family name was seared into the national consciousness at the time of the O.J. Simpson trial for the murder of Tanya’s sister, Nicole Brown Simpson.  With the loss of Nicole, she has faced overwhelming life challenges but used these obstacles to ultimately improve the quality of her life.  Tanya became a domestic violence advocate, doing speaking engagements and training that would inform people about the horror of abuse at home.

Ten years after the loss of her sister, Tanya suffered a mental breakdown; and as a result, she has made a personal commitment to speak on the issues of how to overcome adversity and promote HEALTHY mental health for overall well-being.

 

High on a Mountain Top–Two Weeks to Go

 

Cindy Wells Hayes-TimpGreetings my FRIENDS!

Many adult survivors of child sexual abuse have written to Protect Every Child (PEC) expressing gratitude for all that you are doing through your activism, to help change the world.  You are lifting up the rocks and shining a bright light upon the darkness of child sexual abuse.

On their behalf, and on behalf of today and tomorrow’s children…THANK YOU!!!

A week ago we announced the Fall Color Tour of Protect Every Child banners, posters and signs. With the march now being only 14 days away, I would like that day to dawn BRIGHTLY.  I know it will.  The October 5th Children’s March will be triumphant in part because it was preceded by 9 months of climbing mountains, hills and driveways to save children.

A week ago, we requested that supporters invite a friend to unfurl a banner. Whether or not you go to your mountain together, on the same date, or separately, your participation and publication of your efforts will continue to help raise public awareness.

A week ago we expanded the definition of a mountain to include any institution that had the power to harm or to help a child, the power to hurt or to heal a child. The difference, of course, lies in the human element. What safety policies does the institution have, and are the people who run that institution following the policies?  The first place to start, of course, is with having proper institutional child safety policies for people to follow within every organization that deals directly with children. 

Months ago, Protect Every Child was perceived by some as a Utah movement.  Perhaps even a Texan movement because of where I am from.  Some perceived PEC as being a Mormon movement, because it was born out of the Protect LDS Children movement. The truth is that Protect Every Child is an ecumenical movement whose influence is felt across the country and around the world.

Protect Every Child is now a SIXTEEN-member coalition working to change things for our most vulnerable.  Our coalition partners are actively engaged in prevention, training, recovery, research, justice and legislation surrounding the issues of child abuse.  They all support the mission of PEC and the historic March to End Child Abuse.

So far in America, our banner has flown in the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming , and Washington D.C. 

Across the world, our banner has been raised in the continents of Africa, Europe and North America. In Africa, our banner has been raised atop Mount Kilimanjaro.  In Europe, our banner has been raised in England, Norway, Scotland and Switzerland.  In the continent of North America, our banner has been raised in Belize, Mexico, Canada and the United States. 

The Spirit of Determination to Protect the Children is awakening around the world! On the same day that Protect Every Child will be marching in Salt Lake City, the Catholics will be staging a protest at the Vatican and ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses will be marching in multiple locations on multiple continents.

During the next two weeks, I would like to challenge PEC supporters to fly their banners and publish our message far and wide.  Let’s plant A Banner In Every U.S. State and A Banner On Every Continent and Fly it Among As Many People Of Different Faiths As Possible. We want the world to understand that child abuse has no boundaries, and that it’s rampant spread must be ended. That is our Mission Impossible. That is the Impossible Dream we dream.

Thank you for helping us spread the word through your participation in the Fall Color Tour to Protect Every Child.  We are excited with the momentum that is building as the date for The Children’s March draws ever nearer.  None of this could be possible without your help.  Like each of the beautiful autumn leaves on every tree, like each tree in every forest, our united one-by-one efforts are making a Mighty Unity of One Voice, roaring out to Protect The Children. We need each of you. We love and appreciate all of you. We thank every one of you.

Fly those banners high!  See you October 5th in Salt Lake City.

Resources

Video to share explaining Why We March

Register for the march HERE.

Supporting Organizations

Sign the Petition

P.S.  If we’ve missed your banner unfurling, let us know, and we’d be thrilled to add your story to our website.

 

Three More Weeks to Unfurl Banners

Ana Leyendo-3In preparation for The Children’s March which will occur in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 5, 2019, Protect Every Child would like to share an update on the Climb A Mountain Save A Child portion of our activism for this year.

Many of our supporters have already participated in this effort. They have done a fantastic job raising public awareness of the epidemic of child abuse. It is our hope that through this awareness, more and more people will join us in calling for protection measures to be put in place in all child-serving institutions. These wonderful people have created or purchased flags, planned climbs, scaled obstacles and unfurled their banners. I wish to personally thank every one of them for the caring and courage they each so freely gave to our cause.

I don’t want the world to forget what they have done. At protecteverychild.com we now have a growing series of posts connected to the page called Banners Unfurled. Any interested persons can go there to see the pictures and read the messages that our intrepid supporters have submitted to me and to PEC. With the march being only 24 days away, I would like that day to dawn BRIGHTLY because it has been preceded by the colors of a three-week Fall Color Tour of our Protect Every Child banners.

Therefore:

I would like to invite anyone who hasn’t yet climbed a mountain to save a child to make the attempt now. You can make your own flags, or buy them from Protect Every Child. Your banner can be as simple as a hand-lettered posterboard, or a picture drawn by a child with our slogan on it . We’ll take it! We know that many of you would like to do more, but that distance, health, finances or the timing have simply made it too busy to climb this summer. Many have told me these issues are also preventing them from being able to join in our projected 5,000 member Children’s March on October 5th. We honor your good hearts. We thank you for your belief and encouragement.

So that you may feel at one with us, when we march in Salt Lake, we invite as many of you as possible, across this nation and across the world, to let your local and online participation over the next three weeks be your contribution to the children and to this cause on their behalf.

Second, I want to stress that for a child, mountains come in many forms. I encourage supporters to continue to hike their hills and scale their mountains. However, I would also like to invite you to choose to take your stand in front of any child-serving institution in your community.  For a child who is vulnerable, endangered or being abused, their mountain may very well be an institution. On the other hand, their way over and out of their mountains may be the help that they find because of a child-serving institution. So stand in front of those homes, those churches, those schools and day care centers, those public libraries and public recreation centers, those runaway and homeless youth services. Stand in front of those places which society roars out, “This institution should be a safe place for kids!” If the place you are thinking of serves children, it qualifies.

Third, I invite PEC supporters to take pictures and video at that chosen place and then share it. Email it. Post it on your social networks and in social media. Hashtag #ProtectEveryChild. Hashtag #FallColorTour. You can even share your story with us, to whatever degree you feel comfortable, by emailing it to liberty-sam@msn.com . With your written permission, my small team of volunteers and I will help everyone know how beautifully and well you have joined in on the cause to Protect Every Child.

Fourth, I invite past, present and future Climber-Unfurlers to INVITE A FRIEND to participate in the Climb A Mountain And Save A Child campaign during this three-week Fall Color Tour leading up to The Children’s March. Plan your event and take them with you. If they live too far away plan a date to climb together or simply invite to tell them about the cause of protecting children. We want to spread the word. Despite being eight months into our effort and less than a month away from the March, there are still too many people who don’t know about Protect Every Child.

May those practices and policies which have caused too many children’s hearts to fall… be ended. May the colors of autumn, combined with the hopeful colors of our banners, remind the children that things can and will change. As sure as autumn follows summer, a harvest of hope will come. With every color of the rainbow, that hope will look forth on that October morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun and terrible as an army with banners. It will rise, 5,000 people strong, through the streets of Salt Lake City… and shine.

You can register for the march HERE.