Dear Friends,
With your support, the Kerengende Foundation is on track for its most impactful year to date! We are excited to share with you our current and upcoming programs and partnerships that support our teens, families, and community members. We also share below what is on the horizon as we press forward in our work to respond to and prevent sexual abuse, as well as ways to get involved. Thank you for your pivotal support that enables us to advocate for those who need our services the most.
With gratitude,
Amber
WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS
Stronger Together: Program for Teens
In January 2023, we hosted two Stronger Together Workshops with Belleville East and West high school students in collaboration with Project Compassion. Rachel R. Jackson-Poole invited us to bring our Healthy Relationships Curriculum to engage students in meaningful dialogue, delving into concepts of consent, healthy relationship boundaries and safety planning. Our program was facilitated by one of our community educators, Hannah Rosenthal, along with our founder. Not only was this a learning experience for those who participated, but we also learned a lot from our students about what matters to them and what concerns they have in their day-to-day lives about staying safe and having healthy relationships.
It’s All of Our Business: Our Boys are Vulnerable, Too
Towards the end of January, we hosted a workshop titled, “Our Boys Are Vulnerable, Too” in collaboration with Just Black Thoughts. This online event featured a diverse panel of youth advocates, social workers, and academics with more than 50 years of combined experience who discussed identifying risk factors for silent victims of sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking of young boys. The panel was centered on boys, often left out of the national conversation on sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, and informed our families of the latent and active threats facing young men, especially boys of color from low-income communities.
Support Groups
As we shared in our last newsletter, in December we launched a bi-monthly support group, led by a therapist, for non-offending caregivers whose children were victims of sexual abuse or trafficking. We have offered seven support group sessions to date, and overall, we have seen a significant amount of growth and healing that resulted from these conversations. We want to share our gratitude to Call for Help and Marilyn Holmes for collaborating with us, facilitating these group conversations, and creating spaces for parents to both heal and gain necessary tools to prevent additional harm to their children.
Community Outreach
Kerengende Foundation exhibited at the National Symposium on the Sexual Behavior of Youth in Norman, Oklahoma on February 21st – 23rd. We learned so much about problematic sexual behaviors (PSB), sexual harm initiated by other children and resources available to families of children exhibiting problematic sexual behavior. This spring, Kerengende will host a speaker to educate our community about PSB and how we can support youth and their families. Statistics show that 36% of child sexual abuse is initiated by other children. As a community, it’s imperative we understand how to identify and treat youth with PSB to prevent sexual harm against children.
On March 4th, our Community Outreach initiative exhibited at a Health Resource Fair hosted by 21st Century and Cahokia Unified School District. We distributed 30 resource guides and donated twelve Body Safety and Consent Books, purchased with your generous Giving Tuesday funds (thank you!!). This Resource Fair allowed us to build relationships and intentionally connect with roughly 100 parents, teens, and community organizations to catalyze our efforts to promote healing and prevention of sexual exploitation.
Our Board President, James Clayborne, tabled with us, stamped bingo cards and shared Kerengende’s mission with the community!
Amber & James Clayborne at the 21st Century Family Fair in Cahokia.
With your generous donations, we delivered Body Consent and Safety books to Family Life Living Center in East St. Louis. We are excited to partner with them in support of families.
Staff Updates
Kerengende has 3 new contractor additions to our team! We continue to leverage the talents of contractors to give us flexibility as we grow
Mikayla Dunkin is our new Community Educator. Mikayla has a Master’s Degree in Social Work and has experience developing and delivering presentations and trainings, events, and fundraising for anti-trafficking efforts in the greater St. Louis region. Mikayla will focus on further developing our curriculums and facilitating our community workshops. We are excited to have Mikayla on the team!
Antwan Chambers will focus on our LGBTQ Child Sexual Abuse Prevention initiative. Antwan has an extensive background serving underserved youth and supporting organizations building youth-serving programs. He was an LGBTQ Youth facilitator and researched topics relevant to LGBTQ+ youth development and distributed resources and information to youth, parents, and caregivers.
Micah Prior is a social and economic development social worker and public health practitioner. He recently joined the team to provide administrative, research, and technical support for a variety of initiatives across our organization.
Upcoming Programs
On March 27th, we are returning to the Family Living Center in East St. Louis to facilitate the workshop “Understanding My ACES & Practices for Healing.” This is Kerengende’s second workshop at FLL and we will introduce the Adverse Childhood Experience Study and how an individual’s score may impact the way that they respond to stress. “Why is it so hard for me to trust people? Why do little things like my toddler screaming or dropping and breaking a plate – make me so angry or tense?” We will offer ways to heal their way forward and experience post-traumatic growth. Thank you Amosnee Davis for inviting us back!
Our Boys Are Vulnerable, Too #2
On April 4th, from 5:30-7 PM, the panel will focus primarily on the vulnerability factors facing our young boys and men regarding sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. While the first panel of youth advocates, academics, and social workers opened and framed this discussion on the topic of sexual exploitation against boys, this second panel will bring together practitioners in social work, public health, education, and social activism to discuss specifically the signs and symptoms of sexual violence against our boys. Given the diverse backgrounds of the panelists, you do not want to miss such an informative, interdisciplinary dialogue! Click HERE to register!
Healthy Relationships Teen Workshop
On April 13th and 20th, Kerengende Foundation is collaborating with Crisis Aid and Lauren Peffley to host our Spring Healthy Relationships two-day workshop, “What Love Means To Me.” The workshops will be facilitated at 6611 W Main St. Please see the registration page HERE.
Unlock the Cage with Rachel Grant: Overcoming Fear & Anxiety
The workshop explores how anxiety immobilizes us and how to stop missing out on life, as a result. The goal of this workshop is to equip participants to identify core fears preventing transformation and how to manage fear and anxiety and take action in recovering from sexual trauma. You can register for her event here.
Macedonia Baptist Church has invited our founder to present on the mission of Kerengende at the Church’s Women’s Conference on May 4th. Thank you to Pastor Horton and First Lady Shaurice Horton for including us in their programming!
How You Can Make an Impact
Donate Office Furniture: Kerengende relies on support from the community to provide education and resources to families. We are working on opening our new office space at 1 S. Church Street in downtown Belleville. We are in need of office furniture such as tables and chairs to host groups and trainings. Do you have office furniture you would like to donate? If so, contact us.
Purchase Books:
We are still working on expanding our library of books to empower families with language to talk about body autonomy, safety and consent with their children. If you would like to donate books to Kerengende, you can order them directly from Amazon and have them sent to our office. Please see our Amazon registry here.
Refer Therapists:
Kerengende is looking to contract with therapists who have experience supporting survivors of sexual trauma. If you or someone you know is interested in partnering with us in support of youth and families to provide therapeutic support and lead support groups, please reach out to our founder, Amber Clayborne, using our contact form.