I am very interested in collaborating with other organizations that are also trying to develop awareness and promote changes for greater effectiveness in prevention of child sexual abuse. I have been speaking around the country on this topic and I have confirmed the fact that most people still do not understand how easily a child can become a victim of sexual abuse and why it is critical that we put all our efforts together to focus on prevention, i.e., doing things ‘before’ it happens, not after.
I have had some success collaborating with other organizations focusing on these same issues. However, I feel that we can all do more. I have approached some organizations with the hope of collaboration, but have not received a positive response. They feel like they are doing everything they want to pursue and they do not need collaboration with others. I always get confused when I see reactions like that – why can’t we collaborate when we seem to have the same objectives?
I have also noticed that sometimes an organization becomes larger and loses the main focus that it originally started with. It seems like they just want to continue what they have been doing and do not want to get involved with something else even if that might produce better results.