INKLINGS: Murder, rape and other childhood events | Columnists | Summerville Journal Scene

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INKLINGS: Murder, rape and other childhood events

Published Friday, October 09, 2009 9:08 AM

By Barbara Lynch Hill
Summerville Journal Scene ®

Can you imagine witnessing a murder?

Suppose you knew both the victim and the killer. Imagine if one was your father and the other your mother. What if you were just 10 years old?

After the blood and the screaming stopped; what then? Would you scream, too? Run away? Act out? How could you get past your very real trauma so you could get on with your young, fifth grade, soccer playing, pizza eating, high fiving life? Something every kid should experience.

Can you imagine being raped?

What if you knew and trusted the person who did it? What if you knew that someone very, well? If you were an adult, it would be hard enough to talk about. What if you were just a kid? Could you talk about it?

It would be devastating. It would take time. And it would take the right people, the right place, and the right programs to make you whole again. It would take a Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC), and here this means the Dorchester Children’s Center (DCC), home to Children in Crisis. It is the only CAC in Dorchester County, and it’s in Summerville. The DCC is a fully accredited member of the national Children’s Alliance the national organization responsible for CAC certification.

The DCC is not a shelter. Children are not housed here. Children are helped here. Helped by trained professionals.

Family homicide is shocking story, as is child sexual abuse. The biggest shock is that they aren’t stories – 848 children were seen last year at DCC, many from Summerville.

Research has shown that adult survivors of child abuse are more likely to become suicidal than those not abused and more likely to be obese. They are also more likely to become alcoholic and addicted to drugs. Treatment for these children not only saves quality of life throughout their childhood, it saves money, which doesn’t have to be spent throughout their adulthood.

What can be expected if these kids aren’t treated at all? Again, research has shown than many long-term prisoners were abused as children and that many of the untreated leave high school and become alcoholics. And maybe worst of all – survivors of abuse are six times more likely to become abusive parents themselves.

Where does the money go that’s used to investigate and treat child abuse and neglect? Direct costs are from utilizing child welfare, our systems of both law enforcement and justice as well as those for physical and mental health. There are indirect costs as well. These come from necessary programs such as special education, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, welfare dependency, domestic violence and homelessness.

Where does the money come from? Children in Crisis is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. Taxes, grants and donations all contribute, but the single main source of fundraising income is the annual Scrumptious Summerville Kitchen Tour in which services and goods are donated. It takes a budget of $940,000 to support the organization. This effort historically has brought in about 20 percent of that number. The 2009 tour will be held in two days, Sunday, October 11, and there are still a number of tickets left. Visit www.scrumptioussummerville.com.

It’s the numbers that make it happen.

It’s the children that make it count.

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