Bringing the unimaginable to life with visceral clarity, Jeanne Fowler shares her first-hand knowledge of life as a helpless child betrayed by adults.
The founder of Big Family of Michigan will present a public talk today from 1-3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church. The author of "Peter's Lullaby” and a passionate voice for abused children for the past nine years, Fowler will take her audience on a "journey of the child.”
"Because a lot of people hear about child abuse when the police and the press shows up at a home and children are being extracted,” said Fowler, based in Roseville, who previously talked in Traverse City in May. "The point of the story they don't even hear is what have these children seen and heard and for how long.”
"I take them through the pain and through the losses and through the beatings and through the isolation and through the absolute powerlessness that children have,” she added.
Fowler arrived in town yesterday to help the organization hosting her talk, the Tri-County Coalition for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, with their second annual radio telethon on WTCM, which runs through Thursday.
TCCPCAN, as they are known for short, is a 22-year-old nonprofit organization serving Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties. Their goal is to ensure that children can live in an environment without child abuse and neglect.
Operating for many years under the radar of the public's awareness, last year TCCPCAN began more outreach and fund raising to both raise its profile and further its mission. A golf outing last June and last summer's radio telethon, plus grants, helped raise money to expand free training in mandatory reporting for childcare providers.
The organization's focus over the past two years, they will offer this training course twice this fall and twice next spring.
"We train daycare providers in exactly what to look for,” said Detective Dawn Wagoner of the Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Department, the chair of TCCPCAN.
"This group, the mission, is important and I think it helps everybody in the community,” added Wagoner of TCCPCAN. "Child abuse and child neglect and sexual assault are things that people don't want to talk about, it's kind of a taboo subject.”
These subjects are not taboo to Fowler, who will not let anyone within hearing of one of her talks escape experiencing being a child in these situations. Speaking as a survivor of profound abuse and neglect, from both her mother and in foster homes, Fowler "strips the room of everything the children are stripped of.” She uses exercises and shares personal experiences during this process and then builds her listeners back up again.
"We have to be their voice,” she said. "I will tell my audience why the children don't tell, don't talk, why the children don't trust. I will show the room all those things from a child's side.”
Fowler is also an advocate for children in foster care and children who have aged out of the system, throwing parties and always ready with stuffed animals, toys and other items that the 20,000 children in the system might not have.
"People ask if I have any foster children,” Fowler said, replying with deep conviction: "Yeah, 20,000 of them.”
Jeanne Fowler will speak today from 1-3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 6105 Center Road. The program is free and open to the public. For more information on the Tri-County Coalition for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, see their web site at www.tccpcan.com. For more information on Fowler's organization, see their web site at www.bigfamilyofmichigan.org.