Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2023

Tonight's special guest is Patty Duncan from Batesville, Arkansas, a child abuse survivor who spoke at The SCRIPT Conference in Los Angeles in July. She's the former Executive Director of Family Violence Prevention. Patty says she was abused sexually from ages 3-5 by a teenaged boy." I never told [anyone] until my daughter was born, and I struggled changing her diaper so afraid that I would be perceived has having done something inappropriate." She goes on, "I will never forget the day he [her teenage abuser] walked into a place where I was working and called my by name as if nothing had ever happened." It must have been quite a shock. "The worst part of that experience was that no one in my family was willing to just talk about it or help me." Patty was again raped following a concert at age 12. By then she had started abusing drugs and alcohol. "Once an adult," she says, "I found myself in an abusive relationship after I divorced my children's father at the age of 24. He tried multiple times to kill me in several different ways." Eventually Patty got help. "I ended up checking myself into a behavioral hospital to find what I needed to start healing." She worked for 'Family Violence Prevention' from 2009 until July of 2018 and is credited for opening the first ALL male domestic violence shelter providing services to male survivors in 2015 called the 'Taylor House'. "I am thankful to be alive today and have spent the last 10 plus years of my life as an advocate for other abuse victims and survivors," she says. "I'm happy to share my story if sharing can empower someone else," she writes.