Outside the New Jersey State House on Thursday, Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey and the NJ Partnership to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse announced the launch of the Enough Abuse Campaign in the Garden State.

It was announced three groups would take on the effort in their communities – Project Self-Sufficiency (Warren and Sussex Counties), PEI Kids (Mercer County) and Wynona’s House (Newark).

The grassroots movement would provide adults and communities with knowledge and skills they need to put an end to what the Campaign calls the silent epidemic – child sexual abuse.

“Parents and adults need to get educated about the facts, the risks their kids face, and steps that can be taken to better protect kids from harm,” explained Rush Russell, Executive Director of PCA-NJ.

He said each of the communities will be recruiting trainers that would reach out to child care centers, schools and other organizations that come in contact with kids.

Russell continued, “We want to create a prevention army of adults who can stop an incident of child sexual abuse from ever happening in the first place.”

Russell said if the Enough Abuse Campaign had been in place at Penn State University, the scandalous chain of events would have never occurred.

The Campaign started in Massachusetts and was endorsed by the Ms. Foundation for Women and the Center for Disease Control as a “groundbreaking effort”.

Russell predicted that over the next few years, there will be a dramatic increase in the number of New Jersey communities utilizing the Campaign.


Video by Dino Flammia

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