Just Blog

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

Contact: Yvonne M. McCormack

Talk of the Town PR

717-659-1411

yvonne@talkofthetownpr.com

www.talkofthetownpr.com

JustTell donates vital items to Hurricane Sandy victims of the Rockaway community in New York

New York, NY Nov. 15, 2012 – JustTell (www.justtell.org), a New York City based nonprofit organization with a nationwide initiative to empower today’s youth to disclose sexual abuse has raised more than $2,200 for the victims of Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaway community of New York. This ravaged peninsula continues to deal with power outages.

JustTell reached out to their network and asked for donations to purchase essential supplies. These items included diapers, wipes, gloves, garbage bags, hats and clothes. Support for this community has been so overwhelming that JustTell needed to make two separate trips in order to complete the delivery.

Our founder, Vivian Farmery, has been quoted as stating, “The New York area of the Rockaways has been the worst hit-- not only by Sandy, but also by a fire that took 110 homes. The devastation that has struck this community is impossible to describe and it needs all the help it can get. Thanks to generous donations we have been able to deliver much needed supplies to the grateful residents of this community. ”

The Rockaways have been a site of much tragedy. First was the trauma of 9/11; with so many victims who never returned home. Then only a month later a jumbo jet fell from the sky onto the streets and homes of Belle Harbor after a takeoff from nearby JFK. Now it has had to deal with Hurricane Sandy. Through it all, this community remains resilient and determined to rebuild and revitalize the battered area.

The Sanitation Department along with the NYPD and FDNY has worked with the community at large so that the residents that still have homes can return. JustTell is grateful for the opportunity to join in those efforts and for the donors who have helped to make it possible. These donations have proven that our network believes in community outreach; surpassing awareness alone and demonstrating the compassion for a shattered neighborhood.

About our JustTell:

Just Tell, a non-profit organization was founded in 2007 by Vivian Farmery, MSW, with the goal to connect with today’s youth and empower them to disclose abuse, as well as how to stop the abuse before it happens. Today JustTell is active on a nationwide level, distributing outreach materials to youth, parents and educators. It is a research based organization with an academic approach to increasing knowledge of sexual abuse and its disclosure. The central hub of the organization is our website JustTell.org.

For more information, please email yvonne@talkofthetownpr.com, call 717-659-1411, visit www.talkofthetownpr.com or write Talk of the Town PR, 100 Melrose Ave, Suite 206, Greenwich, CT 06830

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Contact:
Yvonne M. McCormack
Talk of the Town PR
717-659-1411
yvonne@talkofthetownpr.com
www.talkofthetownpr.com

O’s 200 Men to host a panel discussion at the
Penn State Child Sexual Abuse Conference

New York, NY Oct. 25, 2012 –O’s 200 Men, a St. Louis, MO based organization is hosting a panel discussion. "O's 200 Men" is a collection of men from all over the USA and Canada with the common bond of appearing on the Oprah Show in late 2010. Many of these men have become very active in the effort to raise awareness and help put an end to the horrible crime of Child Sexual Abuse.

The discussion panel is on male specific sexual abuse issues and will be held Monday, Oct. 29, 2012 at the HUB Auditorium from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. This event is sponsored by One Heart, an organization formed by Penn State students to stand against child abuse through both fundraising and educational campaigns. The panel will consist of members of O’s 200 Men and other male survivors.
Carl Hart, Board Member & Coordinator of the panel discussion said, "Services for male survivors of sexual abuse are approximately 30 years behind the level of services for women. We are starting to see a change, but we feel that events like this can encourage Service Providers to "specialize" in working with male survivors. All the men who are involved with this event are looking forward to reaching out to the attendees and trying to encourage them to learn more about male specific issues."
The goal of this event is to shed light on the need for more male sexual abuse awareness and support. This is a topic that has been surrounded by stigma and shame. Males don't often talk about childhood sexual abuse, including their own sexual abuse. In an effort to change this, we want to help support them coming forward and dealing with the effects. We would also like to encourage an increase in the number of professionals specializing in male survivor treatment.
About Carl Hart:
Carl currently is volunteering as a panelist and guest coordinator for the Blog Talk Radio Show, Stop Child Abuse Now, otherwise known as SCAN. He is in the process of formally organizing O’s 200 Men as a non-profit foundation that will concentrate on expanding the awareness and support of male sexual abuse survivors. He also serves as a board member for JustTell, a New York City based non-profit that reaches out to today’s youth empowering them to disclose sexual abuse when it occurs. As a board member, Carl works to seek out grants and other funding opportunities, as well as helping to develop an annual fundraiser and recognition event.

For more information, please email yvonne@talkofthetownpr.com, call 717-659-1411, visit www.talkofthetownpr.com or write Talk of the Town PR, 100 Melrose Ave, Suite 206, Greenwich, CT 06830

PRESS RELEASE

Contact:
Yvonne M. McCormack
Talk of the Town PR
717-659-1411
yvonne@talkofthetownpr.com
www.talkofthetownpr.com

JustTell receives a special invitation to participate in the
Penn State University Conference on Child Sexual Abuse

New York, NY Sept. 26, 2012 – JustTell (www.justtell.org), a New York City based non-profit with a nationwide initiative, is pleased to announce that they will be participating in the Penn State Child Sexual Abuse Conference in October 2012. The goals of the conference are to raise awareness, educate, energize, and empower all of us to move forward to better protect children.

JustTell was asked to join an elite group of organizations from all over the country that offer solutions for child sexual abuse. Just Tell was hand selected because of their one-of-a-kind mission, which encourages children to break the silence and speak out about sexual abuse.

Our founder, Vivian Farmery, says, “Our focus is to continually increase the percentage of youth who disclose sexual abuse when it occurs. This essential element has been missing in society and needs to be our number one priority if we are to improve upon how this issue has been handled in the past. Information and social support are crucial factors in a child’s ability and willingness to disclose sexual abuse. Prompt disclosure is second only to prevention in the goal of protecting children from abusers.”

Through consultation and collaboration with social workers, pediatricians, police, psychologists and other skilled professionals in the field of child abuse detection, JustTell has developed a research-based approach to addressing sexual abuse. Over 80% of youth who are sexually abused are abused by an adult whom they know and have trusted. The goal of JustTell is to reach out to anyone between the ages 8 and 17 years old who has been sexually abused in order to convey, in age-appropriate language that they are not alone, they are not to blame for the abuse and should feel no guilt or shame, and then to assist then in choosing a trustworthy adult in their life and telling that adult about the sexual abuse. By empowering young adults, we can effectively counter the barriers to disclosure that abusers try to instill.

Because teens listen to the advice of their peers more than that of adults, they are asked to participate in every aspect. Teens designed everything from JustTell’s graphics to what we call “Street Teams”. These teen-centric teams are made up of volunteers who go out into their communities and hand out JustTell’s information to their peers. Through social media and the outreach groups, teens serve as the primary deliverers of the JustTell’s message. In addition, each summer a team from JustTell travels with the Vans Warped Tour, reaching tens of thousands of teens who attend the nationwide shows each summer.
Simply teaching youth about sexual abuse is not enough. We need to give children a safe haven where they can read about situations like theirs to understand that they are not alone, and not to blame, and why they need to tell someone. Since sexual abuse among children is largely a silent and witness-free crime, detection can often be difficult, therefore disclosure is critically important for investigative and treatment purposes. JustTell honestly and openly addresses all of the factors that make it difficult for a young person to tell.

The long-term desired outcome of JustTell is to increase the disclosure rate of sexual abuse and to change the way this generation of youth perceive, and respond to, childhood sexual abuse. All initiatives are designed to generate awareness, and to provide compassionate, age-appropriate guidance to prepare children who are being sexually abused with the means to begin a conversation with a trustworthy adult.

About our Founder:
Vivian Farmery, MSW is a social worker with over 20 years experience working with the issue of childhood sexual abuse. For over 25 years, Vivian has immersed herself in direct social service, education, program planning, and policy change to assist survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Vivian designed and implemented the first Mental Health Program for a Federal Head Start center and trained numerous Head Start Centers in abuse detection and reporting policies. She taught for eight years as a professor of social work at the New York University, Adelphi and Fordham Graduate Schools of Social Work and has recently returned to Fordham where she is teaching new social workers to work with adolescents.  Recognized for her advocacy on behalf of children, she was appointed by two successive Manhattan Borough Presidents to serve on the New York City Panel for Educational Policy.

For more information, please email yvonne@talkofthetownpr.com, call 717-659-1411, visit www.talkofthetownpr.com or write Talk of the Town PR, 100 Melrose Ave, Suite 206, Greenwich, CT 06830

Their concern was that the evidence of childhood sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts would make the organization ‘look bad”. Their concern was grossly misplaced. Instead of recognizing the betrayal of the children in their care for what it was, yet another organization chose to protect their reputation over the well being of children.

The Boy Scouts of America were recently forced to release thousands of files showing that they protected more than 5000 sexual abusers. As the details emerged, we all sat in horror realizing the enormous numbers of young people represented: children who were sexually abused under the watch of those whose job is supposed to include protecting our children.

The Catholic Church, Penn State, and now new evidence of the enormity of the Boy Scout cover-up. When will our society take a firm stand to stop this? When will we, as a country, begin to value the safety of our children over the reputations of our once-revered organizations?

The problem is two-fold. It begins with society’s traditionally blind respect for authority figures. We must pull off the blinders. It is time for everyone to realize that people who are sexually excited by children are known to seek out positions where they can interact with them. We rarely run sufficient background checks on these whom we permit to be in close contact with our children. We must allow this legitimate concern to occupy space in our collective psyche and stop blindly respecting those in positions of authority.

Likewise, it is time to stop teaching our children that same blind respect for those in positions of authority. Pederasts inhabit our homes, our schools, our churches and our extracurricular programs. Yet we are missing one of our greatest possible defenses against enabling those who would harm our youth: we must empower our children to say ‘no’ and to tell us when something untoward occurs. Children have great instincts: they know when something isn’t ‘right’. Studies show that children as young as 4 know the difference between ‘creepy’ adult touch and appropriate touch. Yet studies have also shown that only a quarter of youth who are sexually abused tell an adult within a year of the first occurrence.

Five years ago, we started a nonprofit to change this. The primary mission of JustTell is to empower youth to speak up if they are being sexually abused. But for this mission to succeed, adults must become willing to hear, and act on, what children say. For too long sexual abusers have kept our children quiet with phrases like ‘no one will believe you’. Teach our children otherwise. Teach them that if anyone does something to them that makes them uncomfortable, they can tell you and you will believe them and act on their disclosure. That is the only way we are going to stop this horrific epidemic.

Vivian Farmery, MSW
Founder and Director, JustTell
JustTell.org

JustTell Launched our first 18 Street Teams in 2009...and as of December, 2011 we now have over 135 Teams in 38 States!

Our teen volunteers are really impressive! Their enthusiasm, commitment and positive spirit have helped get the word out to thousands of kids.

More teens are standing by - waiting for their packages of hand out materials so they can spread the word! Currently there are 9 new Street Teams ready to launch! Can you help us supply them with handout materials?

Each team is made up of 3 to 5 teen volunteers who learn about JustTell through our Website, our Facebook page, our MySpace page, our Twitter account or....our Street Teams!

In 2009 JustTell began sending Teams to all-day concerts like the Bamboozle Festival and the Van's Warped Tour. In 2010 and again in 2011 we attended 8 shows of the Van's Warped Tour. In Summer 2012, with YOUR help, we hope to go cross country with the Tour!

We reach over 5000 kids at each Show we attend.  With your help we could reach 100,000 kids in 2012!