Victims of sexual abuse often feel trapped, alone and helpless. If you or someone you know needs help and support, below are some resources who may be able to help.
National Child Abuse Hotline: This organization can provide local referrals for services. A centralized call center provides the caller with the option of talking to a counselor. They are also connected to a language line that can provide service in over 140 languages.
Darkness to Light: This organization provides crisis intervention and referral services to children or people affected by sexual abuse of children. Hotline calls are automatically routed to a local center.
Cyber Tipline: This tipline is operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Can be used to communicate information to the authorities about child pornography or child sex trafficking.
National Children’s Alliance: This organization represents the national network of Child Advocacy Centers (CAC). CACs are a multidisciplinary team of law enforcement, mental and physical health practitioners who investigate instances of child physical and sexual abuse. Their website explains the process and has a directory according to geographic location.
Stop It Now: This organization provides information to victims and parents/relatives/friends of child sexual abuse. The site also has resources for offender treatment as well as information on recognizing the signs of child sexual abuse.
RAINN: As the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, a 24/7, free, confidential hotline in English and Spanish staffed by trained support specialists who can provide support and resources to survivors and their loved ones.
Books For Healing:
SUGGESTED READING REGARDING SEXUAL ABUSE
The following books are excellent resources for dealing with the trauma related to child sexual abuse, offering advice and unique insight on how to begin the healing process, shedding the victim and becoming the survivor.
For Parents and Children
Books For Healing:
SUGGESTED READING REGARDING SEXUAL ABUSE
The following books are excellent resources for dealing with the trauma related to child sexual abuse, offering advice and unique insight on how to begin the healing process, shedding the victim and becoming the survivor.
For Parents and Children
It’s Okay to Tell: A Story of Hope and Recovery
Lauren Book
Lauren Book was 11 when her new nanny began abusing her. For the next six years Lauren endured daily sexual and physical abuse. Her story will empower readers to address abuse issues in their own lives and move them to understand the resulting deep emotional matrix that results from abuse and the incredible power of an individual’s ability to recover and embrace life.
My Body Belongs to Me
Jill Starishevsky
Speaking to children on their own terms, this critically acclaimed book sensitively establishes boundaries for youngsters. In a non-threatening, engaging manner, this guide teaches kids that when it comes to their body, there are some parts that are for “no one else to see” and empowers them to tell a parent or teacher if someone touches them inappropriately.
It’s MY Body: A Book to Teach Young Children How to Resist Uncomfortable Touch
Lory Britain
Preschool children can learn safe boundaries, how to distinguish between “good” and “bad” touches, and how to respond appropriately to unwanted touches. This is a powerful book for enhancing self-esteem.
Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept
Jayneen Sanders
This book is an invaluable tool for parents, caregivers, teachers and healthcare professionals to broach the subject of safe and unsafe touch in a non-threatening and age-appropriate way. The comprehensive notes to the reader and discussion questions at the back of the book support both the reader and the child when discussing the story.
I Said No! A kid-to-kid guide to keeping your private parts private
Kimberly King
To help Zack cope with a real-life experience he had with a friend, he and his mom wrote a book to help prepare other kids to deal with a range of problematic situations. I Said No! uses kid-friendly language and illustrations to help parents and concerned adults give kids guidance they can understand, practice and use.
Please Tell! A child’s story about sexual abuse
Jessie
Written and illustrated by a young girl who was sexually abused by a family member, this book reaches out to other children in a way that no adult can, Jessie’s words carry the message, “It’s okay to tell; help can come when you tell.” This book is an excellent tool for therapists, counselors, child protection workers, teachers, and parents dealing with children affected by sexual abuse.
For Parents
For Parents
Undoing Jane Doe: How I Put the Middle School Coach and Teacher Who Sexually Abused Me Behind Bars
Kristen Lewis Cunnane
In the 1990s, Kristen Cunnane endured years of horrifying sexual abuse at the hands of a female teacher while a student in the Moraga School District in Northern California. After the teacher was convicted of felony child abuse, and with no other firm willing to take Kristen’s case, Lewis & Llewellyn stepped in. We sued the School District, alleging negligence and related causes of action. The case quickly drew both national and international media attention and the following year, the District’s insurer agreed to settle the case, paying Ms. Cunnane $2.85 million. Along with settlements made by the District’s insurer to two other survivors of sexual abuse, it marked the largest settlement in the country by a public school district to survivors of sexual abuse. Since then, Kristen has become a fierce advocate on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse, giving them the strength and a platform to speak out. Undoing Jane Doe recounts her story, describing how she put the teacher who abused her behind bars.
Helping Your Child Recover from Sexual Abuse
Jennifer J. Fay
The sexual abuse of a child creates a devastating family crisis. Parents want to know what to do and say to help their child, both immediately and in the long term. Helping your Child Recover from Sexual Abuse offers practical guidance for parents who courageously face the days and months after a child’s abuse. Written in a positive, reassuring jargon-free style, it discusses each stage of a child’s recovery.
Body Safety Education: A parents’ guide to protecting kids from sexual abuse
Jayneen Sanders
A step-by-step guide for parents on how to protect children from sexual abuse through personal body safety education, this book contains simple, practical and age-appropriate ideas, as well as important information on how abusers groom and signs a child maybe being sexually abused. Body Safety knowledge empowers children. It goes a long way in keeping them safe from sexual abuse, and ensuring they grow up as assertive and confident teenagers and adults.
The Stop Child Molestation Book: What Ordinary People Can Do In Their Everyday Lives To Save 3 Million Children
Nora Harlow and Gene G. Abel M.D.
The Stop Child Molestation Book has been called “groundbreaking,” “hard-hitting,” and “a must-read for every family in America.” What makes this a break-through book is its plan of action to put an end to child molestation. Using new facts from their study of 16,000 people, Gene G. Abel, M.D. and Nora Harlow urge families to take three powerful steps to protect their children.
Sexual Violence: The Sin Revisited
Marie M Fortune M.Div. DHLit
Originally published in 1983 as Sexual Violence: The Unmentionable Sin, this book is an updated combination of Fortune’s experiences as a church educator, advocate for sexual abuse survivors, and pastor that answers a difficult question – How do we respond to sexual violence? With sexual violence no longer the “unmentionable” sin it was 20 years ago, and with much progress having been made in the ways we respond to sexual violence, Sexual Violence: The Sin Revisited celebrates our changing consciousness but also continues to call religious leaders’ and caregivers’ attention to this pervasive constellation of problems.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Bessel van der Kolk
Trauma is a fact of life. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity.
The Courage to Heal (third edition)
Ellen Bass
The Courage to Heal is an inspiring, comprehensive guide that offers hope and encouragement to every woman who, was sexually abused as a child — and those who care about her. Although the effects of child sexual abuse are long-term and severe, healing is possible. The authors weave personal experience with professional knowledge to show the reader how she can come to terms with her past while moving powerfully into the future.
