“It Starts at Home” – sexual abuse survivors join international day of action Coffs Coast Coffs Coast News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - November 11, 2022 Professor Caroline Taylor AM, Vice-Chair of international survivor group SAGE, who will deliver a keynote address to the forum in Coffs Harbour, said stamping out child sexual abuse is a whole of society issue. VOICEUP Australia, an active group of adult survivors of childhood abuse and their supporters, marks the Brave Movement’s second annual Global Mobilisation Day (18 November 2022) to end child sexual abuse with a public forum on Thursday, 17 November at the Cavanbah Centre in Coffs Harbour. The Brave Movement is a group of leading child sexual abuse (CSA) survivor advocates who say more needs to be done to stem the worrying number of children being sexually assaulted by their own family members. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au At the forum, Coffs Harbour-based VoiceUp Australia will be urging the community to “be brave and be educated on the reality of where the majority of CSA occurs; in the family”. Abuse survivor, and founding member of VoiceUp Australia, Chris Marks, who will speak on the day, said around 85 percent of children who experience abuse do so at the hands of someone they know and trust. “The statistics are truly staggering,” she said. “Intrafamilial abuse can destroy lives, not just those targeted by perpetrators, but entire families, and can lead to intergenerational trauma,” Chris told News Of The Area. “VoiceUp Australia calls for organisations and communities to ‘voice up’ to say no to silence, cover-ups and secrets, to be brave in listening and acting on truth so that healing can begin and we can create safer communities together.” Michelle Cowan, co-founder of VoiceUp Australia and an Aboriginal Trauma Specialist, will provide an Indigenous perspective at the forum. Professor Caroline Taylor AM, Vice-Chair of international survivor group SAGE, will deliver a keynote address to the forum and said stamping out child sexual abuse is a whole of society issue. “Society’s discomfort and ignorance of the majority of CSA occurring within the family costs children their lives and causes devastating, far-reaching, long-term impacts for survivors,” said Caroline. The group will use the day of action to call for the establishment of a national Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Council, a body that would bring together survivor groups with a unified voice to consult on law reforms and the provision of support services. The public forum is a collaboration between VoiceUp Australia (a project of Coffs Harbour Neighbourhood Centre), Professor Caroline Taylor Foundation, the SAGE/Brave Movement and Shine Lawyers. It will be held at Cavanbah Centre, 191 Harbour Drive, on Thursday, November 17 from 7-9pm. “This will be an incredible opportunity to bring together people from all corners of our community and learn how we can address this problem as one,” said Chris. Visit the Brave Movement’s website at www.bravemovement.org/. By Andrea FERRARI Lisa Flynn, Chief Legal Officer, Shine Lawyers, the VoiceUp Australia Forum Sponsor. VoiceUp Australia founders Michelle Cowan and Chris Marks will both speak at the forum. Professor Caroline Taylor AM, a child sex abuse survivor, said society’s discomfort and ignorance of the majority of CSA occurring within the family costs children their lives and long-term impacts for survivors.
