Livingston County Health Center announces two upcoming “It’s Happening” victimization awareness presentations on Wednesday, March 7th in their classroom, located at 800 Adam Drive.
The first presentation will be held from 10-11 a.m. and the second at 1:30-2:30 p.m., with an opportunity for questions, discussion, and networking after each presentation. Those interested should call the Health Center at 646-5506 to register.
Ed Thomas, President of the Arc of Missouri, will be the speaker at both presentations. The Arc of Missouri has led the statewide effort to educate self-advocates, advocates, professionals, community leaders and the general public about the staggering prevalence of the victimization of individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD). Individually, Ed has been a champion of people with disabilities most of his life due to having disabled loved ones.
Adults with I/DD are 4 to 10 times more likely to be victimized than other members of the general population, and 90% of individuals with I/DD will experience sexual violence at some point in their lives. Reporting victimization is critical in saving lives. Most people do not know how, where or when to report these incidents, or even if they should. Only about half of the abuse, neglect or exploitation incidents are ever reported. Nothing was done in more than half of the cases reported, less than 10% of the reported cases led to an arrest, and only 3% of the perpetrators in incidents reported actually served time for the crime.
