December 8, 2021
Lima, OH - Last Spring, Crime Victim Services launched a new initiative, Social Justice Storytime, an online video series designed to help little people have big conversations with the adults that care for them. With the pandemic in full swing, and many families still isolating at home, advocates and preventionists were looking for creative ways to help adults engage with their children on topics that became front and center; things like racism, sexism, oppression, and bodily autonomy.
"During the early months of the pandemic, we saw a huge increase in the number of kids experiencing trauma, neglect, and abuse," said Chelsea Migura, coordinator of the Child Advocacy Center of West Central Ohio. "Many families were simply not prepared to talk with their children about the violence they were witnessing, whether that violence was occurring at home, in their communities, or through the media."
Crime Victim Services provides prevention, advocacy, and outreach services in an effort to cultivate communities free from violence and oppression. The prevention program focuses on providing culturally appropriate educational curriculum to youth and adults in the community with the express purpose of preventing interpersonal violence and cultivating a culture where consent and respect for one another is a central tenet.
"We saw an opportunity to engage younger kids in a format that they were comfortable with, while simultaneously equipping parents, teachers, and caregivers with language and resources to navigate sometimes difficult topics," said Erin Ostling Burkholder, director of outreach & prevention. "It is so important that we help our little people talk about and understand the things that they are experiencing and seeing in the world, and this is just one way that we can begin to have those conversations."
Social Justice Storytime re-launched on November 24 at crimevictimservices.org/violenceprevention and are available on YouTube. New stories are released every other week.
Crime Victim Services is a local, independent non-profit victim services agency that believes communities thrive when all members prevail over trauma and support one another with empathy and respect.