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A non-profit organization dedicated to tracking
bills, laws, and
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The History of the Child Abuse Legislation Study Project
The Child Abuse Legislation Study Project was conceived in pain and born in hope.
“1995 was the hardest year of my life,” says our founder and president, Diane E. Amov. “But by the end of it, I was a survivor -- an adult who had finally faced down the pain of incest, as well as physical, verbal, and emotional childhood abuse, and come out on the other side, promising to never look back.” Still, Ms. Amov says, she was angry -- not for herself, but for the littlest victims. She wondered how she could help today's child abuse victims, and help others help them as well. Ms. Amov looked everywhere for a resource for people like herself -- non-offending child abuse survivors eager to protect and speak out for today's victims. She found nothing. And so, she created the first ever Internet-based political resource for abuse survivors and others motivated to take action to stop child abuse. She called it The Survivors' Voice. Ms. Amov intended The Survivors' Voice to be a self-help center for non-offending, politically active survivors and pro-survivors. She hoped The Survivors' Voice would unite survivors of child abuse and provide them with the means to use their costly and painful experience to help today's victims. Soon, however, readers with equally urgent but more individualized interests began to subscribe. For them, The Survivors' Voice became a crisis center -- a court of last resort when they had no place else to go. Before coming to The Survivors' Voice web site, many readers had been disillusioned by their encounters with high-profile advocates -- individuals and organizations who promised help but were rarely able to deliver it. As the staff of The Survivors’ Voice grew, we began to realize that we could –- and should -– serve both audiences. In 2002 we changed our name to the Child Abuse Legislation Study Project, and broadened our mission to protect and empower the potential victims and the survivors of sexual, physical, verbal, and emotional child abuse, incest, and domestic violence. We meet these goals through educating the public and professionals who work with children and child abuse survivors, and by fostering awareness of preventive and educational resources, media coverage, proposed child abuse legislation, legislative action on child abuse issues, and the legislative process. From the beginning, we have had the support of child abuse survivors and many others -- partners, relatives and friends of abuse survivors, doctors, nurses, counselors, law enforcement professionals, court-appointed special advocates, and government bureaucrats. Today, the Child Abuse Legislation Study Project stands with this broad range of non-offending individuals to continue the fight to prevent child abuse and incest, and improve the quality of life for the survivors.
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