This week the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise convened for the 682nd time - the 37th of this year - to hear from Patricia Sheffield, Director of the Children's Justice Center.
As a member of our Club, Trish needs little introduction. What we know most about her is how much fun she things it is to be a Grandma.
The message from Trish this week is Keeping Children Safe. The numbers related to child abuse are staggering. 95% of abused children are victims of a know perpetrator, often as close as a grandfather, uncle or adult. The typical sex offender will abuse 117 children before being caught. Close to 300 children were served by the Children's Justice Center in 2009 alone. A representative display of that work is currently in place at their location on 5th South. The cost to society of child abuse exceeds $94 BILLION each year! Many abused children have health issues, mental health issues or travel in to a life of gangs or other crime and spend years in our prisons and jails.
Trish warned of the dangers of the Internet, a vehicle by which we let pedophiles into our homes. Parents MUST monitor a child's internet use. Facebook and My Space can be highly dangerous doorways into children's lives and cell phone "sexting" is simply unacceptable.
It does take a village to raise a child, it IS our job. As Theodore Roosevelt said "if society does not protect its children today, it will one day have to protect itself from those children."
See you next week!
Marla
As a member of our Club, Trish needs little introduction. What we know most about her is how much fun she things it is to be a Grandma.
The message from Trish this week is Keeping Children Safe. The numbers related to child abuse are staggering. 95% of abused children are victims of a know perpetrator, often as close as a grandfather, uncle or adult. The typical sex offender will abuse 117 children before being caught. Close to 300 children were served by the Children's Justice Center in 2009 alone. A representative display of that work is currently in place at their location on 5th South. The cost to society of child abuse exceeds $94 BILLION each year! Many abused children have health issues, mental health issues or travel in to a life of gangs or other crime and spend years in our prisons and jails.
Trish warned of the dangers of the Internet, a vehicle by which we let pedophiles into our homes. Parents MUST monitor a child's internet use. Facebook and My Space can be highly dangerous doorways into children's lives and cell phone "sexting" is simply unacceptable.
It does take a village to raise a child, it IS our job. As Theodore Roosevelt said "if society does not protect its children today, it will one day have to protect itself from those children."
See you next week!
Marla
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