Program to focus on sexual abuse among area children

Gayle Lofgren gets upset when business is busy.

That's understandable for the director of the Child Advocacy Center of Aiken County - a facility that provides formal interviews and other services for children who have been sexually abused.

"We saw 39 kids in August alone, the large majority of them from Aiken County," Lofgren said. "It's generally from 17 into the 20s, so this really is astounding. It's much more of a problem than people realize."

Lofgren and other formal facilitators have in recent years provided specialized "Stewards of Children" training for public school teachers and administrators. During September they will offer four such sessions to the public, three of those workshops based in area churches. There is no cost for participants.

Stewards of Children, developed by the Charleston-based organization, "Darkness to Light," provides sexual abuse prevention training. According to the website, the workshop "educates adults to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse."

The other facilitators are Peggy Ford of Children's Place, Susan Meehan of Aiken Youth Empowerment and Cheryl Lapaquette, a therapeutic counselor for the Aiken County School District.

The community workshops are scheduled as follows: Aiken Center for Drug and Alcohol Services (Sept. 15), River of Life Church (Sept. 25), First Baptist Church of North Augusta (Sept. 25) and Cedar Creek Church (Sept. 26).

Community residents are invited to participate in any of the four programs. The facilitators are offering the free workshops as a result of grants from Darkness to Light and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions and a matching contribution from a community resident.

"We've had a very positive response to this training," said Lofgren. "Anybody working with kids needs to be involved in this. Even teachers who have taught for a long time said they never really understood the dramatic impact that sexual abuse can have on a child."

The Rev. Philip Lee, the Cedar Creek pastor, expressed concern when he learned of the 39 kids who received services at the advocacy center last month.

"Each of those numbers represents a child and a family that have been devastated," Lee said. "We're excited to have a program here that can make such a difference in the lives of children. We're interested in hearing more about this, not just for our church, but for people in the community as well."

Child sexual abuse does happen in Aiken County and throughout the nation, Lofgren reiterated. It's hard for many people to accept that, she said.

"Yet one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused by the time they're 16, most of them by people they know and should be able to trust," Lofgren said. "A video (during the workshop) is about adult survivors, sexually abused at a young age, who talk about questions they wished people had been asking."