My Story (Please read my story… but, if you need to run, a Short Overview is below – just scroll down)

In 2000, I was a passionate and accomplished international public health professional who had lived and worked on a myriad of some of the world’s most pressing health problems from leprosy in Yemen to maternal and child health and family planning in the Congo to economic development and health in Ecuador to many other places around the world near and far (https://www.DrPamelaJPine.com). One day, a fluke woke me up to an issue that I’d never worked on, really knew nothing about… I was sitting at my desk at the international health and development agency where I worked, and across my computer screen came: From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), A Call for Proposals on Interpersonal Violence (IPV). It was an early call on this focus, and they were looking for substantial research proposals on all types of IPV, including child abuse. My sister, Amy, was a therapist at that time, with a strong and positive reputation of working successfully with survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA). So, I started reading there.

What I found was appalling, but for a public health person like me, it was compounded… One out of four girls and one out of six boys in the U.S. alone sexually abused by the time they are 18 years old?! One out of four!? One out of six!? What!? I checked on what that looked like internationally. Pretty much the same around the world. That is potentially nearly 2 billion kids, not to mention the adult survivors! If this was any other issue, I realized, other than one that put “child” and “sex” in the same sentence or one that affected any other population that actually had a voice, and one that affected any population in as severe a way that child sexual and other abuse affect children, the adolescents, the adults they become, and society (vast physical, psychological, societal, and financial outcomes), the world would be all over it, but it was not.

I was a Jersey-born kid from a middle class, service-oriented family. I was taught and it was assumed that I would do something about circumstances that are just wrong if I could. So, when I started learning about what these traumatic backgrounds do to kids, and the adolescents and adults they become, and the impact on their families, communities, etc., well, it’s all it took for me. And, given my tenacious nature, others believed I could do this – do some important work on this topic – and they encouraged me.

By 2000, I was what some would call overeducated, with too many degrees and from top universities at that, with a PhD in Health Education (Communication) from what was soon to become the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health, a Master’s of Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a Masters of International Affairs from Ohio University, and an undergrad degree (which began in the health sciences and wound up in the arts) from Cornell University. Yet, with all that, I had had not one – not one! – course in childhood trauma. I checked with my very esteemed colleagues with backgrounds like mine. Nope, not one course.

As I continued to not only learn about CSA but sympathize and empathize with the hurt (with enormous sadness) with the numerous survivors I was speaking with, I continued being outraged, but added a sense of horror and desperation. In the early trainings that I did, I found myself needing to turn around for a moment or two as I was speaking; all I had to do was visualize my kids and they became every kid, and I kept tearing up. And, given what I now know about what can happen to people who have endured this trauma, I know that the kid I was would not have made it well into adolescence or adulthood with this in my background.

By 2002, I’d already been trying for nearly two years to get some “real” funds to make a difference. Very few organizations with “real” funds wanted to talk to me about this. So, I went to the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park, and asked its Chairperson to work with me to conduct research with this question in mind: How do you raise awareness about an issue no one wants to talk about? He agreed and “gave” me a class, which, led by the class’s prof, helped design a research survey and carry it out. The research ended up both winning first prize in the research division from a prestigious public relations program and was the catalyst for the Race to Stop the Silence®, an enormous event in downtown Washington, D.C. that took place for 10 years (2004-2013) during the month of April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and captured expansive attention and media of all types (TV Channels 4, 7, 9, Maryland Public TV, CNN, Washington Post, Clear Channel – now IHeart Radio, NPR, backlit Metro posters, numerous magazines, etc.), raising awareness, knowledge, and understanding.

Later in 2004, I formalized Stop the Silence®: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc., incorporating it as an international non-profit based in Maryland with a mission to expose, prevent, and stop child sexual abuse and help survivors heal. In 2021, Stop the Silence®, with a focus on all adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), became a Department of the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma (IVAT) based in San Diego (https://www.ivatcenters.org/stop-the-silence), and I became its’ Director. Over the past 2.5 decades, Stop the Silence® has worked in the U.S. and around the world, in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Oceania (https://youtu.be/Q2Jt9_3OR00), conducting advocacy, education, training, and policy development programs and projects, with funds from the California Endowment, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Ford Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Ms. Foundation, Pepsi Cola, and other government, non-profit, and for-profit organizations. Other funds come from donations and paid programs and events.

Our focus is on “putting the world on the same page” in terms of awareness, knowledge, understanding, and skills so we can collectively face the need across disciplines and with the support of continually expanding wide publics. We have worked with many around the world (see some of these wonderful people in this very short video here https://youtu.be/Q2Jt9_3OR00) and conducted abundant programming focused on accomplishing this, reaching the survivors, the public, and professionals, including clinicians like pediatricians and psychiatrists, psychologists, other therapists, lawyers, judges, police, educators, and others.

A current major push in that direction comes from a program I designed in collaboration with the University of Applied Research and Development (UARD) based in the UK and led out of New Zealand: The Certificate to Master’s Degree in Child Protection. This Program is an online, go-at-your-own pace, highly affordable (priced for both Global North and Global South countries), comprehensive educational initiative that brings onboard many of the most esteemed professionals in our field presenting in ½ to 1 hour video segments across numerous subjects, with background readings, interactive forums, quizzes, and short papers, and, in the Master’s, an exam, and a guided thesis.

Nearly twenty-five years after I began this work, I know we have done a lot – and not nearly enough to quell the tide of child trauma, abuse, and its aftermath. We will continue the programming identified above, along with our other awareness, education, and training activities like the orientation on Arts as Healing (focused on opening hearts and minds and thereby understanding by getting various types of art works into museums, educational institutions, libraries, etc.) and other programming. I invite readers to learn more and donate if possible (https://www.ivatcenters.org/stop-the-silence) and get involved in prevention and mitigation activities. There is so much you can do. Ask me how. Contact me at [email protected].

Shared with permission from On Purpose Women’s Magazine, where it was originally printed.

Short Overview

Pamela J Pine has been a health, development, and communication professional throughout her adult life concentrating on enhancing the lives of the poor and otherwise underserved groups, with a primary focus on the prevention, treatment, and mitigation of child sexual abuse (CSA) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) for more than the past 20 years, as well as an artist (see https://www.ivatcenters.org/stop-the-silence and https://www.DrPamelaJPine.com), She was the Founder and former CEO of Stop the Silence®: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc. and, when Stop the Silence® became a Department of the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma (IVAT) in January 2021, she became its’ Director. She is also a public health professor. She has also been a multi-media artist throughout her life, working in oils, watercolor, pastel, clay, song, and the written word (she is an award-winning artist and author), which she also uses in her work to raise awareness and open hearts and minds toward action.