WORKING TO ENSURE NO CHILD IS FORGOTTEN

Featuring Craig Secher

Executive Director and Founder of Realities for Children

April 2023

Across the globe, children are universally among the most vulnerable populations by the nature of them simply being children. Children in Northern Colorado are no different in the sense that they share this same vulnerability because of their status as children. Craig Secher, Executive Director and Founder of Realities for Children, recognized this particular vulnerability in the children in his community and decided he would do something about it. 

Craig Secher worked as a child protection case manager with Larimer County Child Protective Services for over five years. In this capacity, he served as a counselor for emotionally disturbed children who experienced child abuse. He became a certified addictions counselor and expanded his work to include working with chemically dependent teens who had suffered domestic violence and child abuse prior to their addictions. In addition, he investigated reports of child abuse and took on ongoing case management for the Larimer County Department of Human Services. 

Through his experience as a Child Protection Case manager with Larimer County, Craig witnessed first hand how children so often can slip through the cracks of a system. From his experience, he saw the importance of a safety net for such children, the lack of an existing safety net to fulfill this need, and decided he would be the one to do something about it. 

Craig used his experience to build a safety net of services and funding for children who had faced abuse and neglect in order to prevent any child from being forgotten. This safety net became Realities for Children. Realities for Children involves a non-profit and charity entity that works together to connect the human services community to the business community in order to support children in Northern Colorado who are in need. Over 39 partner agencies are involved in this work with Realities for Children, including Larimer County Child Protection. Through this collaboration they provide for the emergency and support needs of children in Northern Colorado who have either been abused, neglected, abandoned, or are at risk of experiencing any of these injustices. 

As Executive Director and Founder of Realities for Children, Craig personally is responsible for Affiliate Youth Agency partnerships, sponsorship distributions, and emergency fund allocations. In all of his work, he instills and carries his vision of protecting children and preventing any child from being abandoned or forgotten. His work and dedication to children and also enabling community collaboration to protect vulnerable children is an inspiration. Craig Secher saw a need and determined that he would not simply look away, but instead do something about it.

EQUIPPING PARENTS TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM PORNOGRAPHY EXPOSURE

Featuring Kristen A. Jenson, MA

Founder and CEO of Defend Young Minds

April 2023

As we recognize child abuse prevention month, a form of child abuse that often is discussed less but is becoming more pervasive is pornography exposure. Pornography exposure describes the act of exposing a child to pornography, or a child being exposed to pornography, and the abuse that ensues from such exposure whether it is for grooming the child for sexual exploitation or the mental and emotional trauma such exposure can have on a child. 

This form of child abuse may not be what immediately comes to mind when looking to protect children from neglect and abuse, but it is unfortunately an area of abuse that continues to grow. Parents and other adults who love and care for children increasingly are having to navigate how to protect their children from sexually explicit material and pornography in the world we live in. Kristen A. Jenson, Founder and CEO of Defend Young Minds, has worked to help equip such adults to have age appropriate conversations and responses to a child’s exposure to such material. 

Kristen’s work to protect children and equip parents to do the same grew from a friend’s child experiencing such abuse. To help her friend, Kristen looked online for resources on how to talk to young children about the dangers of viewing pornography. After searching she came to the realization that such a resource did not exist. So she decided to create it. 

Out of this experience and lack of resources for parents, Good Pictures Bad Pictures, was written and published. This book was designed to be age appropriate while also helping parents to have a conversation with their children about images that can cause them significant harm or abuse. Each book informs kids about what pornography is, how it can harm them, and how they should react to it. This is one of many books that Kristen and Defend Young Minds has produced on this topic with the purpose of equipping children to respond in a healthy way and parents to be able to have these conversations with children to prevent abuse or harm from occurring. 

Kristen attended Brigham Young University both for her undergraduate studies in English and her Masters in Organizational Communications. Her expertise in this area of preventing child abuse is well recognized. She has testified before the Washington State Senate Law and Justice Committee on the public health crisis of pornography and is a leader in the Prevention Task Force of the National Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation. 

Her work with Defend Young Minds has served to create numerous resources for parents and other caring adults looking to prevent child abuse through pornography exposure. Defend Young Minds not only provides resources such as books and training, but also information on the website itself helping parents prevent and address such abuse. Kristen’s work and dedication to protecting children and empowering adults to protect abuse is vital in our technology driven world.