Our Stories Fall Updates from SCAN
35 Years of Impact: A Letter from SCAN’s Executive Director This time next year, SCAN will be celebrating a 35-year commitment to preventing child abuse in Northern Virginia. I know our staff, Board, volunteers, and supporters take great pride in being a part of living this mission over the last three and a half decades.
We are thrilled to celebrate this community and recommit to our mission with several events this fall. I hope you’ll join us.
Before we reach this milestone, I want to give you a look inside our work and share a few moments from the frontlines of child protection. It’s important for you not just to see the data, but to understand the stories behind those numbers and the true difference being made in the lives of children and families across our community.
Leah Fraley Executive Director, SCAN
You're Invited! SCAN's Fall Events
5k for Prevention
scanva.org/toast
rungeekrun.org
Learning from Lived Experience: An Open Conversation with Survivors As a team of survivors and supporters of survivors, we’ve spent the past year focused on bringing lived experience into all our work. This summer, SCAN was awarded a trauma-informed grant to lead a groundbreaking roundtable with survivors of child sexual abuse. The goal was to go beyond sharing stories, to learn firsthand how survivors were failed by our systems and how we can lift the community up to do better. One participant shared, “As a survivor, I’ve been asked to come and talk, but no one’s ever really asked ‘what made your experience better for you.’ I really appreciate this opportunity.” — Roundtable Participant The roundtable met a critical need. We’ve seen time and time again how crucial it is to not only hear from survivors but to learn from them as experts. Last year, we hosted New York Times notable book author and child abuse survivor, Lacy Crawford, at our annual Allies in Prevention event. Her story lit
a fire in our team to give stories of survivorship and resilience a space to be heard in a unique way that only prevention advocates can fulfill. We know child sexual abuse is more than just a tough topic. It’s a distinctive trauma that is silenced, ignored, stigmatized, and exploited. It’s also more common than most people might expect, with 1 in 10 children experiencing sexual abuse before their 18th birthday. Five years ago, the world woke up with the #MeToo movement, and while countless brave people shared their stories of resilience, child survivors are still in the shadows. The roundtable SCAN hosted this summer is an important step toward breaking the taboo around child sexual abuse. After SCAN’s first survivor roundtable, our team presented the framework in a statewide presentation to encourage others to join this effort. We are excited to continue this work because every survivor deserves to be heard.