A DCAC Volunteer Shares Her Story of Joy and Hope

My name is Melanie Brown, and I attend Colby College in Waterville, Maine. I’m currently in my sophomore year and I plan to double major in Psychology and English. Colby has a period in-between semesters known as JanPlan, during which students may pursue a month of study on campus or travel elsewhere for internship or volunteer opportunities. I chose to return to my hometown in Colorado and spend my January at the DCAC.


I chose the DCAC because I love working with children, and I hope to one day enter a career that can match my love of kids with my passion for mental health. However, as my start date approached, I began to feel a little nervous. After all, the kids who come into the center are often deeply traumatized. They suffer from the incredible violence they’ve witnessed or the horrific abuse they’ve sustained. What would these kids be like? What was I going to see? I imagined I would say the wrong thing to a child and cause a massive breakdown. I imagined kids crying as they came in and crying as they left. I imagined waiting rooms full of lost-looking mothers twisting tissues, quiet fathers with their heads down and backs bowed. I imagined a place full of children and adults completely disengaged from normality and reality, frozen in time and adrift in unknown waters.

Luckily, my first few hours at the DCAC convinced me of how very wrong I had been. To my infinite surprise, the little girls that came in for therapy wanted me to read the same princess books I remembered loving as a child. The boys wanted to build Lego towers and then break them to pieces in completely normal, boy-like glee. Brothers tugged their sisters’ braids, sisters colored pink markers on the backs of their brothers’ necks. These kids were totally kid-like, showing the same joyous enthusiasm for snack time as any other child, the same stubborn disobedience of their parents’ orders.

I was shocked. Where was the crying, the somber hush, the whispering and heavy sighing? Where were the signs of trauma and pain that I expected to be so evident in every child and family member that came for help? Getting to play and laugh with kids in such completely normal ways became my favorite part of working at the DCAC. I was inspired every day by the remarkable resiliency of children, by their incredible ability to overcome profound trauma.

That is not to say that I didn’t feel, at times, the weight of reality. Sometimes parents would call crying. Sometimes a child would throw a fit with unexpected hysterics. But ultimately, kids want to get better, and in the safe, nurturing home of the DCAC, kids will get better. Kids are tough. They have within them a joy that is irrepressible, even when up against some of life’s most staggering tragedies.

One of my favorite moments came after playing with a little girl while her mom was meeting with one of our therapists. We played with plastic animals and decided to put the lion away in a cage and feed him only lettuce so that he would become a vegetarian and never want to eat anyone again (it worked). When her mom returned, the little girl didn’t want to go. She didn’t fuss or throw a fit, but she made it clear that she and I were playing farm and that mom would just have to wait. She felt comfortable at the DCAC, and she simply wanted to be a kid again. In that moment, her trauma was not a factor; the only important thing was that all the animals had places to sleep, and that the lion had his carrots for dinner.

I encourage anyone who is thinking of volunteering at the DCAC to do so. The time I spent there was so valuable, and illuminated for me how remarkably hopeful a place like this can be. The work that the DCAC does is so crucial for these kids, and your time is invaluable in helping us provide hope and restore childhood.

You may click HERE to go directly to a Volunteer Application Form!

Low Risk vs High Risk

This week, Jessica Siekmeier (DCAC Prevention Specialist) takes up the pen to talk with us about risk and how to spot children that may be at higher risk than others and to share a bit about our Prevention Program.

When is a child at highest risk?  When is a child at lowest risk?

At DCAC we would gladly close our doors if it meant that there was no longer a need for our services because child abuse did not exist.  In the DCAC Prevention Program we’re working to put ourselves out of business!  The fewer children that walk through our doors the better if it means that they are no longer in harm’s way.  In the meantime, we will continue to help families and comm,unities protect all children from abuse.  

Children from all economic, social, racial, religious, and ethnic groups are at risk for childhood sexual abuse, but certain factors make it more likely that a child may be abused while other factors reduce the chances that it will.  Protect your child and all children from sexual abuse by understanding these risks.

Kids are at high risk when. . .

. . .they don’t have strong relationships with their families

. . .they don't have strong relationships at school or with friends

. . .they suffer from mental illness

. . .they use or abuse substances

. . .they associate with sexually aggressive peers

Families are at high risk when. . .

. . .there is a lack of strong family relationships

. . .there is violence or other types of abuse in the home

Communities are at high risk when. . .

. . . there is systematic or institutional oppression

. . .there is a general tolerance of sexual violence in the community

. . .the media and social norms are supportive of sexual violence

. . .there are weak laws and policies against sexual violence

What factors reduce the likelihood that a child will be sexually abused?

Kids are at low risk when. . .

. . .they have strong family relationships and community ties

. . .they have opportunities to learn and have social interaction

. . .they have positive and supportive parenting

. . .they have access to resources

Families are at low risk when. . .

. . .the family members have close relationships with one another

. . .men and women play equal roles in the family

. . .the children do not witness violence in the home

. . .the family is connected to the community

Communities keep families and children safe from abuse when. . .

. . .everyone fights against childhood sexual abuse

. . .they have positive youth development

. . .there is communication and collaboration between ethnic groups

. . .community members have access to the resources that they need

Source:  Sexual Abuse Prevention Fund 2007 Implementation Manual

Thanks, Jessica, for these helpful insights into abuse prevention and risk identification.  If you have questions regarding these facts or other indicators of abuse, please contact DCAC at info@DenverCAC.org.  

Jessica Siekmeier, Prevention Specialist
Jessica joined DCAC in 2010 to work with at-risk children and families in the Denver Safe from the Start program. Jessica graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a degree in Spanish, Journalism and International Development. As part of her studies, she spent six months abroad living with a Honduran family. Since then, Jessica has worked as a field interviewer for social ministry in a network of Grand Rapids congregations, and as a family educator and advocate with the Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan to help inner city families prevent lead poisoning. Jessica has recently returned from Ecuador where she served as the liaison between medical staff and patients in a rural hospital.