It's not just the victim, children are affected too!

Women aren't the only ones suffering from domestic violence. Their children are too. A statistic stated that some children who witnessed their mothers being abused suffered the same as children who've been abused. It's not something to be taken lightly. Children who witness abuse are affected just the same and it can alter their lives forever, whether it was the intended purpose of the abuser or not. Everyone tends to think they're just children who don't know what's going on, but they do. You don't have to yell at them, for them to realize mommy and daddy are fighting. They look at their parents and think that is the way relationships work. You as a parent decide how your children will grow up to live and treat others in relationships.

Today in my volunteer training we viewed a video about the affects of domestic violence on children. It was very shocking to see just how much it really does affect them. I never really looked at it that way. It was really sad to see that a boy, age 6, watched his mother get stabbed by her boyfriend. Later in life he got married but he was always depressed and he didn't care about his wife or two children. He said, "he could never know how to love someone." The only reason he married her was because she was pregnant. Another little girl who witnessed her mother being beaten by her father later in life said, "she didn't like boys because they don't know how to treat women right." It's just so eye-opening that these children are being scarred for life because of how their parents treated each other. Their parents had no idea just how bad it was for their children until later in life.

The other part of my training class we learned about the Child/Youth Advocacy Program. This program focuses on helping children to talk about what they've seen and heard at home, learn new things (ie. games, skills), be safe, have fun and just be kids. Most of the time when kids come into the shelter they think that they are the cause for the abuse their mother get at home. When you're little the world revolves around you, so you think it's your fault. In the Child/Youth Advocacy Program they help kids to understand that they have no control over the adults around them. However, they teach them that they are responsible for their actions: what they say and do. The Child/Youth Advocacy Program also offers a lot of programs to the children.

Some of the programs they offer include: Project R.I.S.E., PACK, Summer Arts Program, Field Trips, Individual Child Programs and Time Out. Project R.I.S.E. stands for realizing individual strength in education. This program is funded through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This program offers many resources too many to list (I received a huge notebook full of information about this). One thing they offer is tutors that come directly to the shelter 4 nights a week to help the children with their homework. It also provides paid transportation(taxi's or bus passes) for children to get to their school or the school their mother wants them to attend. PACK is a performing arts program which is really important to the children because they get to go to a theatre (like the Barberton Magical Theatre) and see a play and get the book of the play. Then once the play is over they get to go up on stage and get their books signed and finally a tour of backstage. How cool is that? I'd say pretty stinking awesome! The Summer Arts Program is once a week during the summer months where an artist comes to the shelter and does an art project with both the children and women. Field trips are taken all the time with the kids and they are always educational. They go to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Zoo, Yoder Farm and Rolling Ridge Ranch just to name a few. Also on Tuesday nights the kids and women have the chance to go to a karate class, which shows to be very beneficial to both the children and women. Individual Child Programs are when the Child/Youth Advocate is one on one with a child and has them answer a set of questions that goes along with a seris of stories about domestic violence in the home. This is so that the Child/Youth Advocate can better see where these kids are coming from. Time Out is once a week for children in grades K-6. Here they eat a meal together, have a story, then a craft and finally work on any homework or do an educational game on a laptop. They learn manners, respect, how to set a table and how to say "please" and "thank you".

I got the photograph from community.wegohealth.com. It's funny because the photograph is called "happy children." That's exactly what I want!