Personal and Social Wound
In the early 1990's suggestions of the need for a child abuse memorial began to appear in the literature and in discussions on child abuse. Correlations were being made between the effectiveness of the Viet Nam War Memorial for personal and social healing and the needs child abuse survivors and the community that was grappling with the proportions of child abuse in our society.

The community of survivors and the larger society is wounded by the legacy of childhood abuse. There is the obvious wound of the silent walking injured who carry the personal burden of child abuse as they move through society. Also there is the shock and vicarious trauma that society suffers as a result of learning about so many children being tragically betrayed and abused.

Survivors know all too well the personal damage done by abuse. The impacts of child abuse extends beyond the individual betrayed as a child. The wound of the witness is the scar of numbing and confusion over meaning, trust and safety that occurs upon learning of the tragedies that have happened to defenseless innocent children. Survivors and their communities are in need of healing from the personal and social wound of child abuse.

Art provides a valuable means for understanding and assisting with transformation. Art is highly personal and highly social at the same time. Often, the more personal a work of art is, the more social engagement and impact it can have. Works of art from the soul offer the healing benefits of projective identification. The creative work of artists provides a vessel within which individuals and the group place their conflicts.

Healing through Projective Identification
For artist or viewer, core material that is internally too painful or too defended to process can be confronted with a degree of distance through the content of a work of art. While the painful material is engaged outside the vulnerability or fragility of the inner self, it can be evaluated and emotionally processed without as much sensitivity. The artist or viewer takes what has been worked through at a distance and brings it back into the self.

This condition of the expressive arts process of projective identification allows the both the creator and audience to participate in the transformative properties of the deep expressive efforts of survivor/artists. It is this personal and social healing power of art that survivors across Canada can offer individuals and a society struggling to come to terms with child abuse.

Survivor Art Exhibitions
Small and large communities have had survivor art exhibitions, and even art shows produced by the allies of survivors and dedicated to survivors. These works of art bring about social awareness and are active agents of healing and transformation. Literature, dance, theater, music and film have also been used to address the issues of child abuse. To deal with the enormous personal and social wounds of abuse these creative ventures need to be continued and considered for their role as personal and social agents of healing, understanding and change.

Larger Social Urge
Before the work of the Child Abuse Survivor Monument Project formally got underway groups of survivors and professionals working in the field were discussing the need for permanent public memorials dedicated to the concerns of child abuse. Groups in other areas of Canada and the U.S. have begun plans for child abuse memorials. Others who have never heard of the “Reaching Out” Monument have begun to explore the placement of a memorial or memorial gesture in their community.

countless Possibilities
The child abuse healing and commemorative place does not need to be a monument, what is required is a place of acknowledgment, reflection and healing. A plaque or painting on the wall of a treatment centre or civic building, a special walkway in a park, garden or tree, a stained glass window, special stone, bench, fountain, sign, are just some of the many ways your group or community can use the public realm to acknowledge child abuse and contribute to its healing and eradication.

The Strength of Inner Resources
Sexual abuse is a tragic adversity inflicted on innocent children. It wounds with long-lasting consequences. It also demands of a child to find some place inside to be strong -- extra effort in order to cope and survive. All abused children have to bring forward in themselves strengths and resiliencies of immense proportions. Just to go on is a heroic feat.

Like all heros, the child abuse survivor will cast off the title of hero. Typically the hero will say, “I was there, I simply did what I had to do, what anyone would have done.” The reality is the hero has come face to face with adversity and has been forced to call forward a special essence of the soul.

Child abuse survivors often have had to face the tragic demon of the perpetrator on many occasions. The confrontation with adversity is many times fold. Yet, when others say, “I don’t know how you do it, ““You are so strong”, or “You are an inspiration to other,” the child abuse survivor is at a loss to respond to those labels. Outside the humility of the hero, the abuse has left a legacy of shame, worthlessness and isolation. The emotional wounds from the battle of child abuse obscures from awareness and ownership the real strengths that are employed to go another day and meet worldly tasks.

Memorial as Acknowledgment and Validation
Memorial monuments are society’s acknowledgment of individuals who have been confronted with grave adversity. In 1990, sculptor Michael Irving, Ph.D., himself a survivor, initially conceived of a plan for a memorial for survivors of child abuse. The Child Abuse Survivor Monument, “Reaching Out,” provides the tragedy of child abuse with the tangible power of commemorative memorial. The monument was designed to include the collaborative voice of those most impacted by child sexual abuse.

Hundreds of survivors have risen to participate in creating this epic landmark memorializing the reality of child abuse. All were sculpting with the deepest passion to protect children and to make a difference in the lives of others. “Reaching Out” became a work incorporating the artistic contribution of nearly 300 sculpted quilt squares of survivors of childhood abuse and their supporters. J. wants her quilt square, “to be on the monument, sealed forever with other survivors’ creations, right out there for society to experience their courage and victories to overcome such horrendous criminal offences against child-humanity.”

Janice sees the collective hero’s journey of survivors stepping forward to create a place on the monument as making a contribution to others, “Like the great Phoenix who flies up and out of the ashes to reclaim life and freedom. My hope is that society will see the flight and the ashes and the power of sharing and that the children of today and of tomorrow will thus be spared. They need to "survive" their childhood. “

A National Monument
“Reaching Out,” will be the first major national monument to acknowledge survivors of child abuse. It is highly appropriate that Canada, a country noted as world peacemaker, will be first, through this memorial, to acknowledge the “war” of child abuse. According to J., “Through the monument I want all children who endure the emotional and mental suffering sexual abuse causes to be praised as heroes right up there with Holocaust survivors and Vietnam Vets. For adults who suffered child sexual abuse and who now display dysfunctional behaviors to be recognized as victims of sick adults and be respected for the strength and courage it takes to face and heal the pain caused by them.

The reflections on the "Reaching Out" Child Abuse Survivor Monument and in other survivor social action art projects are the badges of courage gained from surmounting great adversity. They hold the words of wisdom gained from the heros who have had to battle both internal and external dragons and demons in order to find meaning and purpose in life.

Their hard earned lessons are shared with all survivors and their supporters in recognition that each one is on their own hero’s journey whose ultimate contribution will be in creating a more compassionate world for children.