Local initiatives focus on sex abuse victims

***Published in the March 2012 edition of Voices of Central Pennsylvania***

In the weeks following the surfacing of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, the outpouring of support for victims took many forms—thousands attended a candlelight vigil, hundreds joined Facebook groups like “Help the Victims of Jerry Sandusky at Penn State University” and national organizations like the Let Peace Come In Foundation established funds to help pay for victims’ counseling.   

Although such responses have seemingly tapered, several recent efforts show a commitment to supporting the recovery of victims, helping the broader community process the scandal and preventing future abuse.

On Sunday, January 29, the Centre County Women’s Resource Center (CCWRC) hosted a screening and discussion of the documentary In A Town This Size at the State Theatre. The documentary incorporated interviews with the victims of a sex abuse scandal that involved a pediatrician in a small Oklahoma town and also told the story of the filmmaker, who was a victim of sex abuse.

According to Mary Faulkner, the CCWRC’s director of counseling services and advocacy services, the CCWRC wanted to host an event that focused on the experiences and needs of survivors.

“Unless someone works in victim services or in the court system, it is rare to hear from survivors about how the abuse affected them,” said Faulkner.

“The documentary presents first-hand accounts for survivors and offers some important parallels to the Sandusky indictment. It’s very humanizing in terms of demonstrating that survivors are our neighbors, our co-workers and our friends.”

The 283 people who attended the screening also sat in on a panel with filmmaker Patrick Brown, who directed of In A Town This Size, in addition to survivors featured in the documentary and experts in the field of sexual abuse prevention.

“The level of accessibility of the story is very high,” said Faulkner. “At first, people seemed hesitant to ask questions and concerned about saying things the right way. But there were many people who wanted to speak and spoke from very personal places.”

One branch of university is offering its own response. The Children, Youth and Families Consortium (CYFC) a part of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute, has announced a $15,000 faculty fellows program to support two social sciences faculty members interested in extending their research into the domain of child maltreatment.

“At Penn State, faculty members' children, youth and family expertise lies primarily in research on how to prevent problems in child and family adjustment and development,” said CYFC director Susan McHale. “[This means] that the university's investments have primarily been in faculty whose expertise involves finding ways to promote positive family and youth development and adjustment rather than waiting till after problems have occurred and fixing them.”

According to McHale, the CYFC’s preventative approach has stemmed from a desire to make the most difference with a limited budget, but that this strategy has its limitations.

“Unfortunately, this means we just don't have the faculty here who are knowledgeable about what to do for children for whom prevention hasn't worked,” McHale said. Our recent CYFC initiatives like the fellowship program are aimed at developing such capacity within our faculty.”

Although there hasn’t been a great deal of other publicized initiatives in support of the Sandusky victims, this is no way is any indicator that it has ceased completely.

According to Mary Faulkner, support for the victims can be separated into two stages: short-term and long-term. She said that when the news broke, supportive initiatives occurred because people really felt the urgency to do something. Now, she added, the community is in a stage where a lot of community organizations are getting together and trying to create sustainable long-term initiatives.

“There has been a lot of coordination between the local YMCA and the Centre County Youth Service Bureau along with some of the judges from the Courts of Common Pleas in Bellefonte and Mayor Elizabeth Goreham,” said Faulkner. “What they’re trying to do is look long term and decide what needs to be in place to help protect children and to help increase safety for the children in the community.”

These long-term initiatives will come in the form of increased coordination to provide safe places that children can come to if need be, according to Faulkner. Right now, everyone is working to make sure they have the right stakeholders in the room in order to get people joined in one collaborative conversation to provide this service for the community.

A great deal this conversation has focused on prevention, according to Faulkner. Specifically how State College can be a place where something like this wouldn’t happen again. And how systems can be placed where people can come forward to get the kind of services they need to seek some kind of criminal accountability or get the kind of healing or counseling services they need.

Since April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, many events will take place on campus and in State College to raise awareness of general issues of sexual violence, according to Faulkner. In addition to initiatives about sexual assault as it pertains to women at Penn State, there will also be a movement to define sexual violence more broadly and to look at sexual assault in terms of all the different populations it affects.

Specific events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month include a Healing Gathering sponsored by Penn State’s Center for Women Students on Wednesday, April 4 at 6:30 in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center as well as a poetry slam and several documentary screenings at the beginning of the month. At the end of April, there will be an event called “Walk A Mile in Her Shoes” sponsored by Men Against Violence.