Organizations founded by Violent Crime Survivors
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Having personally witnessed the impact of professional sexual exploitation on someone very close, and being moved by the stories of many other survivors, Kevin created AdvocateWeb in 1998. He has devoted much time and effort in networking with leading experts and advocates regarding the topic of professional sexual abuse, and has diligently worked to build this thriving online support community at AdvocateWeb for victims and professionals, while also successfully pursuing tougher laws and policies to deter this abuse.
By offering these resources to victims and their families, AdvocateWeb also offers a unique referral resource for those who are assisting them. Therapists cannot themselves deal with the isolation that such people feel nor satisfy their needs to network. Furthermore, many victims seek, and benefit from, reading materials related to abuse, something that they can access through AdvocateWeb.
AdvocateWeb offers hope for victims, family members and others who are "secondary" or "associate" victims, others affected by the abuse, and those who seek to assist them: advocates, followup therapists, etc. Victims and their families do not have to suffer alone.
AdvocateWeb uses the Internet as a medium for reaching a worldwide audience about this widespread problem, breaking the isolation for victims. AdvocateWeb also addresses the commonality of the problems which result for victims, independent of the type of professional who violated them. Several advocate groups have been formed over the years, but most focus on specific types of abuse such as clergy sexual abuse, therapy abuse, or educator abuse. AdvocateWeb spans these professions, bringing victims together for peer support and uniting professionals, experts, authors, ethicists, educators, and advocates to further empower them in their advocacy work. Bringing these advocates together, spanning professions and spanning the world, brings power through unity and a stronger voice to speak out against this type of abuse.
AdvocateWeb's impact begins with the information resources it provides over the Internet, but does not stop there. Uniting victims and advocates places AdvocateWeb in a central position to publish the latest information about advocacy work, new legislation, links to news stories, updates on what professional organizations are doing (or not doing) to address theses problems, and in the future: publish newsletters, provide resources for the news media, foster the formation of local survivor support groups, provide referrals for victims seeking professional (counseling or legal) help, host retreats for victims, and organize world conferences for professionals and victims.
