Forming Community to Heal and Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

Mental health

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

In the US, at least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys are raped or sexually assaulted by age 18. And, a 2012 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics names gender non-conformity a risk factor for experiencing child sexual abuse (CSA). Survivorship brings lifelong challenges including mental health disabilities, chronic illness, poverty, and criminalization. An estimated 40% of homeless youth are LGBTQ, and 75% of unhoused transgender youth indicate CSA as their primary cause of homelessness. The lifetime economic burden of CSA is ~$9.3 billion, with estimated lifetime costs per survivor ranging from $114,691 to $322,734. Abuse-related poverty can lead to criminalized survival activities, enmeshing survivors in cycles of systemic violence. In 2024, 617 anti-transgender bills have been proposed across the US, further stigmatizing and silencing trans CSA survivors. As CA has named itself a sanctuary for transgender people, LA County must care for the survivors within this community.

We piloted our training institutes from Fall 2019-January 2020, and expanded our curriculum through virtual trainings during the pandemic. We have also provided training to partner organizations, including a cohort of federally funded advocates convened by Futures Without Violence. We have already obtained funding to launch a new 9-month leadership training cohort of 12 Black LGBTQI+ survivors who are involved in advocacy and/or direct service work, thanks to a grant from the California Black Freedom Fund. This cohort will launch in Spring 2025. LA2050 funding would allow us to create a parallel cohort of 12 non-Black LGBTQI CSA survivors of color who are involved in advocacy and/or direct service work in LA County, and to bring both cohorts together for collaboration. This program is the first of its kind in LA County and perhaps the US.

Mirror Memoirs expects this initiative to increase the capacity of LA County organizations to address CSA survivorship among their staff, members and clients, creating a stronger ecosystem of organizations addressing the needs of some of the most vulnerable Angelenos: BIPOC LGBTQI+ survivors. Our long-term goal is to increase the capacity of all social justice and direct service organizations to both address CSA survivorship among staff and clients and prevent this violence from occurring. We envision this work beginning in Los Angeles County, where we are headquartered, but scaling over time throughout California (and eventually nationwide).

We will conduct pre-and-post-test surveys of program participants (we have done similar surveys in past cohorts) to measure their ease and readiness to address personal and political collective healing from CSA (and to engage in CSA prevention efforts).