The Kids Center is a non-profit organization in Central Oregon focused on the prevention, evaluation and treatment of child abuse. They say that it is everyone’s job to help prevent it.
“Our community’s children are everyone’s children. And it’s our job to protect them,” Forensic interviewer, Sarah Graziani said.
Grooming is just one form of abuse that is a threat to children. Most of the time, the predator is trusted and known by the family.
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“Once there is trust with the victim and trust with the family and/or caregivers, then establishing access may look like offering to pick the kid up from school or taking them to a sports game. Trying to find situations where they’re able to isolate the youth,” said Gabrielle Allender, Director of Client Programs and Prevention at the Kids Center.
Groomers usually target vulnerable family situations. These can include children with single parents, or any child that has minimal supervision.
“Typically is starts off … kinda slow,” Graziani said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, I’m a friend of the family, and I’m coming to dinner.’ Then it’s ‘The child and I are just going for a walk.’ Then I might start Snapchatting with this child, and then I might start talking to this child about adult things.”
Once the signs are noticed, there are multiple ways to go about stopping it.
“Bring it up to the individual,” Allender said.”Whether that’s in an isolated incident individually or with a group and acknowledging what they did is not OK.”
Any form of child abuse can also be reported to the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
You can support the Kids Center here.
