Project Kidz Talk©

CCAN’s Project Kidz Talk © is a peer support and socialization group for child victims of abuse and their non-offending family members. PATCHES (Parents And Their Children Helping Each Other Survive) is an offshoot of Project Kidz Talk ©.

Developed through CCAN’s Child Victim Advocate Program in 1997, the program provides a safe environment for children to share their thoughts and fears, empowering child victims of sexual abuse to lessen their feelings of isolation and increase their self-esteem while recovering their childhood.

Children are organized into age-appropriate groups (under 8 years of age, 8 to 10, and 11 to 13), with groups always changing and expanding to fit the needs of the children who attend. They meet once a week, along with non-offending parents, for a family-style dinner, followed by work on specific projects. There are also occasional family outings as a group.

Project Kidz Talk © offers a structured setting that allows the children’s creativity to be fully expressed. The children feel better knowing they are not alone in their experiences and also often feel that they had “advice” to share with other kids. In effect, they are the experts. So often these children feel like they are the only one who has ever been abused or that they were doubted by the very systems that are supposed to protect them. The children have to endure seemingly endless questioning, medical exams and feelings of isolation. They also share how scary it was to see a courtroom, a judge and court officers.

Project Kidz Talk © began when children and their parents were recruited through the Child Victim Advocate Program to create a coloring book explaining the court process to a child. While working with a particularly difficult case that required a child to testify in both Family Court and Criminal Court, CCAN staff researched published books for children who had to go to court. Although there were many such books, none spoke to the child from his or her point of view. Child advocates could explain what would happen next, but could not speak to the child with the same understanding that another child with similar experiences could. A resource was needed to explain the process to a child through the eyes of a child who had already been through the process.

While the children worked on this project, the non-offending parents met to talk and share. The finished coloring book has won wide acclaim in the therapeutic community and the Project Kidz Talk © process has proved to be a positive tool in empowering victims and their family members to continue the recovery of their lives.

Subsequent group projects have included anti-child abuse and child victim rights messages on T-shirts, an annual calendar, mobiles and, most recently, a magnificent 5’ X 7’ quilt.

Project Kidz Talk © has been replicated in Suffolk County, offering its services through the William Floyd School District in Mastic.