On June 20th Jolie spoke at the annual AG meeting in Anchorage Alaska. With the issue of child sexual abuse on top of mind of all Americans but especially on those who are responsible for law enforcement and criminal justice, Jolie called on the AGs to use their voice and influence to get others in their state involved in prevention and to insist that youth serving organization’s use education and policy to raise the bar in how we care for our children. Jolie impressed upon them that the time is now; that people are ready to support a change. Our job is to help them see what change is possible. AGs can help by making this issue a priority in their states.
Following Jolie’s comments, Deputy Attorney General Patty Dailey Lewis shared how AG Beau Biden had that vision for Delaware and how they are making it happen in their state.
If you want to watch Jolie and Patty’s presentation, you can view it here. Scroll down to the Darkness to Light video. Please note that there are some lags in the video so be patient. Also volume is a little low so you will need to turn your volume control all the way up to hear it.
I was disappointed it took so long for someone to finally ask a question; and then we he did we didn’t get to hear it. Was there a good dialogue or were there naysayers?
PS Great presentation Jolie!
I’m going to paraphrase as best as I can what was said on the video (and from speaking to Jolie about the conference) .
The gentleman that asked the question was asking, “Why Darkness to Light, how did you choose Darkness to Light, when there are so many other organizations out there trying to do the same thing.” Patricia responded by restating that Darkness to Light has the only evidence based program, that the program has been scientifically proven to change behavior in adults. Patricia also joked that she was not getting paid by D2L however, she couldn’t see why any organization wouldn’t pick D2L. She then stated that there are other programs out there and the important thing to implement is prevention, so if you do not choose D2L, you should still look into implementing a prevention program in your state.
Overall, Jolie had some great conversations with several states that were interested in implementing Stewards. We will keep everyone updated via the blog with the outcome.