Our Mission

Victim Services

What You Can Do

Get The Facts

Contact Us

Links

Home

Kentucky Women's Crisis Center

VICTIM SERVICES

CHILDREN'S SERVICES
The Protection from Abuse (Children's) Program provides direct services to child survivors of personal violence and child witnesses of domestic violence through counseling, possible shelter, groups, and court advocacy that enable children to recognize that abuse is not their fault and is not an acceptable norm while offering an array of non-residential services that empower children to heal.

When children are victimized by sexual abuse and by witnessing domestic violence, the direct service team at Women's Crisis Center can provide a safe and healing environment for the child through the agency's children's program. Children learn from the Public Education Prevention Program about having their own safety plans, about talking to trusted adults about what is going on in their lives, and about knowing that if something is happening or has happened to them, or if it does happen to them, it is never their fault. They learn that they have a right to say NO, get away, and tell someone what has happened.

When this increased empowerment becomes strong in children, they are less likely to remain passive in abusive situations and they become more likely to speak out. Child sexual abuse in Northern Kentucky and in Buffalo Trace is a serious threat to the health and safety of children. The need for intervention through prevention education programming is acute; following the program in the elementary schools the Prevention Education team sees between 400-500 disclosures of abuse annually.

At the junior high and high school level, annual disclosure rates are between 150-200 children. Each presentation of our Prevention Education team generally produces around 15 disclosures of abuse per school by the children in the audience. By the time children turn 18, one out of three girls and one out of five boys has been or is being sexually abused.