Empowering Adults Protecting Children
The purpose of Empowering Adults Protecting Children is to eradicate child sexual abuse.
Shannon Wimberly, Vice President of the board and Active Executive Director, says that their name is their mission. She explains that there are established ways to combat the issue of child sexual abuse, but Empowering Adults Protecting Children has an approach that is unique from other organizations. Wimberly says that in the past there has always been are two approaches on how to protect children. The first approach is to educate children to be wary of strangers, to say no, and to run away if something bad happens. The second approach is to teach adults how to recognize the problem, statistics about the problem, and how to report the problem if they suspect abuse is happening. Wimberly says that in addition to those two approaches they are training adults to do something about abuse before it happens. “We teach adults how to recognize and intervene in potentially harmful behavior,” Wimberly says. Empowering Adults Protecting Children has specific behaviors they tell people to watch out for, one of which is gift giving. She says that gifts given to children by adults, innocently or not, who tell the children to keep the gift a secret, creates a risk between children and their parents or guardians. “One of the things that abusers do when they’re grooming children and their parents to give them access to their children is to give kids presents,” Wimberly says. Their program is delivered through a presentation teaching adults about the 10 warning signs through an interactive play. Also they teach companies, organizations, and schools how to create a safer environment.
Empowering Adults Protecting Children has a presentation covering the 10 warning signs the evening of Oct. 11 at Elliot Elementary school near 36th and Peoria. For specific information on this Oct 11th presentation, put on by the Elliot PTA, see the Empowering Adults Protecting Children website. Wimberly says those who attend can expect to learn what they don’t know about protecting their children. She says participants can look at the 10 warning signs in their lives and make their kids feel safer. All upcoming presentations are listed on their website.
Volunteers are needed to help with presentations. Also, Empowering Adults Protecting Children is scheduling for future presentations. Wimberly says they have people ready to give presentations and that they can go anywhere in the state. Presentations are one to two hours in length, are recommended for adults, and are free and open to the public. Organizations that would like to have a presentation or individuals who would like to volunteer for presentations should call their office at 918-732-9357. On their website there is a place to sign up to receive information about presentations by email.
