What is Stop the Silence®?
Stop the Silence® is a department of the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma committed to prevention, treatment, and mitigation of child sexual abuse (CSA), other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and related interpersonal trauma. We provide help and resources through comprehensive programming with awareness, education/outreach, training, and policy development and reform. We work to address the relationships between childhood trauma and the broader issues of overall family and community violence, and violence within and between communities.
Get the specialized training you need
Are you interested in enhancing your knowledge and understanding of child trauma and protection for the purposes of expanding your personal comprehension; enhancing your academic pathway; improving your professional growth by increasing your capabilities, competencies, and leadership potential; and/or increasing your employability and salary potential?
The Post-Graduate toward Master’s (as desired) program is a unique opportunity to get important, fundamental information at your own pace provided by experts in the field of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), for a fraction of the cost of other programs, and in as little as three months for the certificate and 12-24 months for the Master’s. The focus includes prevention, treatment, mitigation, and policy considerations regarding child sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, and other traumatic events
Be at your best helping prevent and treat adverse childhood experiences.
“ This course helped me understand how the focus on ACEs developed and how one type of trauma often happens in conjunction with other traumas, and comparative research. We have to recognize those relationships and interactions. The presentations forced me to look more at the statistics and understand them. ”
Our Training Programs
Our comprehensive online programs are designed for professionals like first responders, child trauma and protection professionals, and others. The program provides information on prevention, treatment, mitigation, policy considerations, and more.
Certificate
Earn a Certificate in Child Protection in just 3 months
Master’s Program
Continue your education and receive a Masters in Child Protection in just 9 to 12 months
“I plan to take this information and get it into the schools. We need to teach parents and teachers about spanking and wrongful touch... they can be instrumental in making change. ”
We know the difference the right training makes
Our courses are created and taught by experienced trauma care professionals. Learn more about some of the presenters below.
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Felitti, Vincent, MD, has over 50 years of experience in the field of Internal Medicine with extensive knowledge in the areas of childhood trauma, the genetic disease Hemochromatosis, and obesity. Serving as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California since 1982, Dr. Felitti's knowledge and experience is broad and significantly biopsychosocial. Dr. Felitti achieved his Medical Degree from Johns Hopkins in 1962 after being inspired to pursue a career in the medical field by his physician family, later becoming a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He spent 50 years with the Southern California Permanente Medical Group (Kaiser Permanente) in San Diego. As the co-principal investigator, with Dr. Robert Anda of the CDC, of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE) Study since 1990, Dr. Felitti oversaw a long-term, in-depth, analysis of over 17,000 adults which revealed a powerful relationship between our emotional experiences as children and our physical and mental health as adults. Felitti's revolutionary research remains much relevant to today's healthcare models and has inspired many places in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America to set up ACE task forces. Dr. Felitti is also the founder of the Department of Preventive Medicine for Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and has served on advisory committees at the Institute of Medicine and the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Felitti has also served as senior editor of The Permanente Journal, as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Gulf War Committee, and an expert reviewer for the Medical Board of California. He is also a former member of the Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Women's Services. In addition to this, Dr. Felitti has himself authored or co-authored over 150 peer reviewed articles, contributing substantial research to the field of medicine. Under Dr. Felitti's leadership, his department has provided extensive comprehensive medical evaluations to 1.1 million individuals, becoming the largest single-site medical evaluation facility in the western world.
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Pamela Pine, PhD, MPH, MAIA, CHES, is an international health and development professional with over three decades of experience working on some of the world’s most difficult problems; the Founder and former CEO of the original non-profit Stop the Silence®: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc. (2004); and now Director of Stop the Silence® - A Department of the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma (IVAT). The Stop the Silence® Department Mission is to prevent, expose, and stop child sexual abuse (CSA), adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and related forms of interpersonal violence and trauma and help survivors heal, working in collaboration with community, government, non-profit, and for-profit groups through evidence-based, creative, and impactful programs carried out locally, nationally, and internationally. Pamela developed and tested a workable CSA prevention and mitigation model for use and led by communities throughout the world. She currently runs IVAT’s Stop the Silence® Department, is a professor of public health with American Public University; is a recognized speaker on abuse and various other subjects relevant to international health and safety; and an author and artist. Pamela was honored in 2017 with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Advocacy from the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma (IVAT) in San Diego.
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Sandi Capuano Morrison, MA, is the Chief Executive Officer for the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma (IVAT). Prior to her work with IVAT, she was the manager of the city of San Diego, California’s Rape Crisis Center, a member of the San Diego Sexual Assault Response Team, and the San Diego Sex Offender Management Council. She is a certified domestic violence and sexual assault advocate. Sandi was formerly the Director of the Tri-City Mental Health Agency’s IMPACT Batterer Intervention Program in Boston, MA. She served as a Domestic Violence Advocate and a Children’s Counselor in two domestic violence shelters in CO. she has worked with victims/survivors and offenders of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse for the past 29 years in CO, CA, and MA and has provided training nationally and internationally on these issues. Sandi serves as Co-Chair of both the Hawaii and San Diego International Summits and serves on the advisory Council for IVAT’s Hawaii branch, Ho’omaluhia, and on the Board of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan (NPEIV).
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Lisa Conradi, Psy.D. is the Executive Director at the Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego. In this role, she provides overall leadership support to the Chadwick Center, a children’s advocacy center and one of the largest trauma treatment centers in the nation. She has multiple years of experience in the field of child trauma and in supporting service systems in their efforts to become more trauma-informed. She has authored and co-authored a variety of publications on trauma screening and assessment practices, creating trauma-informed systems and presented nationally on innovative practices designed to improve the service delivery system for children who have experienced trauma. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and has received training from the developers on multiple evidence-based trauma-focused treatment practices, including Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). She is on the editorial board for the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma and a co-author of the upcoming book, Trauma-Informed Assessment with Children and Adolescents: Strategies to Support Clinicians.
Get Started Making a Difference
1. Register for the program Registration is simple - Just complete the form
2. Take the courses This program is online and go-at-your own pace, with built in live sessions. Perfect for busy professionals
3. Help those you serve heal and grow Once you’ve completed the course, you’ll have the knowledge and skills to help victims and survivors of Adverse Childhood Experiences
“I have a much better understanding now of what has happened to the homeless and others. It is helping me develop ‘next-level compassion.”
Learn to really help victims and survivors of childhood trauma At Stop the Silence®, we understand how challenging working with trauma victims and survivors can be and we know that you want to be your best to help prevent and treat trauma. To do that, you need specialized training in how to handle trauma-related issues. The problem is that specialized training like this has been hard to find (until now). Those you serve deserve the best you can give them, which is why we’ve developed a comprehensive program created and taught by experienced trauma care professionals.
Why Stop The Silence?
Download a free chapter of Dr Pamela Pine’s book
2023 International Book Award Winner!
“In the United States alone, CSA affects at least one-fourth of girls and one-sixth of boys by the time they are 18 years old. Globally, an estimated 20% of girls and 5-10% of boys experience CSA (ISPCAN, 2012). Other ACEs impact the development and life outcomes of many millions more.”
The Issue
What is child sexual abuse? Child sexual abuse (CSA) is one type of adverse childhood experience (ACE) and constitutes a broad range of behaviors occurring along a continuum from voyeurism to rape, and usually happens over an extended period of time. Child abuse is possible because of the differences in power and control between the offender and the victim.
What are ACEs? Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17 years). For example: experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect; witnessing violence in the home or community; having a family member attempt or die by suicide. Also included are aspects of the child’s environment that can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding such as growing up in a household with substance misuse; mental health problems; instability due to parental separation or household members being in jail or prison (CDC, retrieved 2021).
What are the consequences? CSA and ACEs often have extremely severe consequences. They include: Depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other psychological problems, Anti-social behaviors, Decreased school performance and delinquency, Substance abuse, Chronic disease, and more. Decades of research documents that adults who were sexually victimized as children have a higher likelihood of being negatively impacted in their adulthood by numerous types of psychological and physiological ailments and sociological pathologies, including post traumatic stress disorder, self-destructive and violent behaviors, and even chronic disease. CSA and ACEs cost the nation billions of dollars each year between medical and psychiatric treatment, social services, special education, and legal and judicial and incarceration costs.
Join our cause! When you make a purchase, know that your donation is supporting an end to child sexual abuse and other trauma and helping children and adults THRIVE!
History
Founded by Pamela Pine, PhD, MPH, Stop the Silence® began in 2002 as a coalition of multi-ethnic and state groups that came together to comprehensively address child sexual abuse. Faced with a lack of funding and awareness on the part of the public and policymakers alike, Dr. Pine organized the Race to Stop the Silence®, which continued as an annual event from 2004-2013.
Pamela incorporated Stop the Silence® as a nonprofit organization in 2004 to collaboratively provide (e.g. with the Lamplighter Movement) comprehensive programming with research, media advocacy, training, community outreach and education, policy development, and support for direct services components. Pamela developed the Stop the Silence® comprehensive model used in the U.S and internationally.
As of January 1, 2021, Stop the Silence® continues its vital work as a Department of the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma.
Mission
The Mission of the Stop the Silence® Department is to prevent, expose, and stop child sexual abuse as a part of other ACEs and help survivors heal worldwide. Our overarching goals are to:
Promote healing of victims and survivors;
Celebrate the lives of those healed; and
Underscore CSA/ACEs as a social justice and civil rights issues.
Our Work
For 21 years, Stop the Silence® has provided comprehensive programming locally, nationally, and internationally toward the prevention and mitigation of CSA and ACEs through outreach (one-on-one, mass/social media), education, training, connecting the public to service providers through direct and electronic means, and policy development and reform to effect broad societal change. Click below to read about the innovative ways we are working to prevent, expose, and ultimately end child sexual abuse.
Interested in supporting an end to Child Sexual Abuse?
Learn More
Take a moment and watch this Stop the Silence® video to learn about the importance of speaking up about child sexual abuse.