Worcester News Column - WMRSASC CEO, Jocelyn Anderson
I was out walking the dog with two friends. It is something that we do quite often – it gives us time to catch up, relax and reconnect.
It was one of those beautiful warm, mellow, winter days with the sun gently shining and not a cloud in the sky.
Our route took us across a field and alongside a children’s play area which was full of youngsters playing and laughing.
It was truly joyful. We stopped for a while to enjoy the moment.
As we watched my friend turned to me and said: ‘Are you doing the numbers?’
As a social worker, she knows that when you look at a group of children around one in 10 of them will experience neglect, according to NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) statistics on neglect.
I look at the same group and know that one in six will be sexually abused before they are 16 years old, according to Rape Crisis England and Wales statistics.
Meanwhile, the other friend, a police officer, was scanning everyone around the park to check for potential perpetrators.
Once you know how much abuse there is in the world and the damage it causes to so many lives you cannot unknow it.
The work you do changes the way that you look at the world.
Knowing how unsafe it can be for so many people can make it hard to believe that there are still good people in society.
But every now and then there is a ray of hope – some much-needed sunshine.
At the end of last year our centre launched our Purple Pathways Campaign and a ‘Tree of Hope’ at Worcester Cathedral.
We asked people to buy and decorate a leaf, and the response has been wonderful.
Messages have been left for survivors to have hope and courage and have been full of compassion.
The artwork is stunning and the donations will make a real difference to the support that we can provide.
The campaign will run until the end of January.
You can find out more and donate at www.justgiving.com/campaign/the-purple-leaf-project.
To everyone who has supported us and those who will, thank you for reminding us that there are still good people in the world.
To find out more about our work or to support survivors by making a donation, visit: www.wmrsasc.org.uk
To read the full Worcester News article click here.