“Through Our Eyes: Children, Violence, & Trauma” is a four-video series produced in 2013 by the Office for Victims of Crime (www.ovc.gov). The four videos are available here:
1. Introduction: How violence and trauma affect children, including the serious and long-lasting consequences for their physical and mental health; signs that a child may be exposed to violence or trauma; and the staggering cost of child maltreatment to families, communities, and the nation.
2. Treatments That Work: The serious consequences of children’s exposure to violence and trauma, such as substance abuse and mental health and behavioral problems. It also features some of the evidence-based treatment strategies for children and their families that researchers and experts consider effective.
3. Child Advocacy Center Model: The CAC Model brings together representatives from many disciplines, including law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical and victim advocacy, to provide comprehensive services to child victims of abuse, neglect, and trauma. CAC multidisciplinary teams also work collaboratively to make decisions about the investigation, treatment, management, and prosecution of child abuse cases; and to support children and their families through the criminal justice process.
4. Community-Based Approaches: The important role that community- and faith-based programs, services, and agencies play in protecting and responding to children.
Marilyn Van Derbur: A Survivor Story
Marilyn Van Derbur was crowned Miss America while she was a student at the University of Colorado. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, with Phi Beta Kappa honors. As a childhood incest survivor, she has devoted much of her adult life to raising national awareness and understanding of sexual abuse and its long-term effects. In 1989 her family funded an adult incest survivor program in Denver, and in 1993 she co-founded two national not-for-profit organizations dedicated to public education and strengthening laws protecting victims of sexual abuse.
Building Community, Building Hope
The film Building Community, Building Hope highlights three innovative programs working to prevent and respond to child maltreatment by engaging parents and communities and forming the partnerships needed to ensure the safety and well-being of all children and families. Learn More at Child Welfare Information Gateway
NBC news produced this intriguing video, Bystander Effect, highlighting the importance of taking action when you think a child could be in danger.
Lessons from the Sandusky Case… We ALL have a responsibility to speak up and report when we suspect or know about child abuse.
Two child sex offenders explain how they picked their targets – A video on grooming techniques and how to keep kids safe
Violence Against Women – It’s a Men’s Issue
Domestic violence and sexual abuse are often called “women’s issues.” But in this bold, blunt talk, Jackson Katz points out that these are intrinsically men’s issues — and shows how these violent behaviors are tied to definitions of manhood. A clarion call for us all — women and men — to call out unacceptable behavior and be leaders of change.
Through Our Eyes: Children, Violence, and Trauma – Introduction
This video discusses how violence and trauma affect children, including the serious and long-lasting consequences for their physical and mental health; signs that a child may be exposed to violence or trauma; and the staggering cost of child maltreatment to families, communities, and the nation. Victims lend their voices to this video to provide first-hand accounts of how their exposure to violence as children affected them.
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime – Nadine Burke Harris
Childhood trauma isn’ t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect, and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.
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