Linda Crockett -Ex. Director, Safe Communities ​One victim was a 14-year-old boy from West Virginia. Another victim from Michigan was only 12. Yet another was a 17-year-old girl from Ohio who attempted suicide in a desperate try to escape the situation. In total, the FBI was able to identify 20 young people who were harassed, threatened, and sexually exploited online by an Indiana man who had served as a youth minister in his community. ​Our mission to protect kids from sexual harm is becoming more difficult with the steady rise of sextortion. While all teens are vulnerable, the las ..read more

Saloma Furlong Guest Blogger from About Amish and The World Beyond There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ~ Maya Angelou ​ This past weekend I attended a Safe Communities retreat in Ephrata, Pennsylvania at the beautiful Hurst Bed and Breakfast. The retreat was led by Linda Crockett, Lyn Barrett, and Mark Harris, and it was exactly what I needed at this time in my life. The retreat was described this way: "Resistance, Renewal and Re-emergence is an apt descriptor of the cycle of seasons, as well as our lives as we heal from trauma. We find ways to resis ..read more

Linda Crockett Director, Safe Communities  Children are at an increased risk for sexual abuse during the holidays.  Before you are caught up in the whirlwind of holiday preparations, take a minute to read this blog post.  It may help you save a child from a trauma that can have a lifetime impact.   First, it is important to know that sexual abuse includes a broad range of behaviors in which an adult or older child (or one with more social power) engages a child in sexual activity of any kind. This encompasses both touching and non-touching offenses. Why does risk increa ..read more

Linda Crockett Early this year, my friend and colleague Lyn Barrett asked me to write the forward for her upcoming book, Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory which is now available for pre-order. It was a great privilege to do so, and I am sharing the forward in this blog post. It’s a must-read book for survivors of childhood trauma and all who walk with them.   FOREWORD In her unforgettable memoir, Lyn Barrett helps us grasp how childhood trauma can be deeply hidden from our consciousness, and that the deeper truth of what happened can be discovered and healed eve ..read more

Lancaster County is home to the largest Amish population in the United States with 40,525 Amish in 2020. Yet they are greatly underserved in accessing resources to help them prevent the alarmingly high prevalence of sexual abuse of children in their community. Although published large scale studies in this population do not exist, we have good reason to believe that rates are significantly higher than those cited in the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (22% of boys, 25% of girls).  In fact, Amish we talk to frankly admit that child sexual abuse is “out of control” in their schools an ..read more

​March 1, 2021 At Safe Communities, we hear from many survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) about providers of mental, dental, and medical care who fall far short of their claims to be “trauma-informed”. It has become so ubiquitous to hang a “trauma-informed” label around a professional practice that one would expect things had improved dramatically. Most CSA survivors are still waiting for that to happen – and in the meantime, often foregoing much needed treatment because the risk of retraumatization by a provider is too high. I am not speaking about the obviously egregious violatio ..read more

The terror and agony faced by four-year old Jessica Mast as her parents and another couple beat her every day for two weeks in the name of “godly discipline” is unimaginable to most people – except for survivors of religions that embed submission and obedience to the “will of the father” into daily practices for women and girls, reinforced with bodily terrorism if necessary. Jessica will never be one of those survivors because in the end, after yet another beating with her father’s belt, her little head was held beneath the icy water of a pond. She was dragged to the bank and left there to fr ..read more

by Linda Crockett  As a survivor, I am leading Safe Communities. Working with friends, partners and allies, we exist to end child sexual abuse and to create healing spaces for survivors – and that will not stop even as we live in this time of a global pandemic, which is scary for everyone.   The virus is an invisible enemy that we can’t control, even as we try frantically to reduce risk through various tactics. No one is immune. Low-wage or hourly/contracted employees are particularly vulnerable  ..read more

=Reposted from the blog of Humanitarian Social Innovations on 1/2/2020, written by Carina Bonasera.  Humanitarian Social Innovations is excited to welcome Safe Communities to our network of social entrepreneurs. As a new year — and decade — begins, Humanitarian Social Innovations is excited to introduce Safe Communities to our network. The group works to prevent and address child sexual abuse (CSA), educate churches and youth-serving organizations about keeping children safe, and provide resources for survivors of abuse to heal. The statistics on child sexual abuse are jarring. Studies ..read more

by Victoria Gehman, Safe Communities Social Work Intern With the holidays quickly approaching, a vast variety of emotions can surface. For some, this time of year evokes excitement. For others, it may be mostly happiness mixed with some stress - stress because of trying to prepare a meal and get the house clean on time. Or maybe it's stress due to the struggle to be kind to that one in-law. For still others, the holidays can be one of the most lonely and difficult times of the year. Maybe it's the husband whose wife died a couple years ago, and, without her, he has no family left and just can ..read more