Having grown up in a violent household in which she suffered sexual abuse from her father, Kathy Findley somehow found not only the will to survive, but also the desire to give her survival a deeper meaning. For Kathy, this meant transforming a past of suffering into a present of empowerment and service, working to make her community a place free from domestic violence, sexual abuse, and child abuse. After twenty-five years of volunteering her time to organizations dedicated to helping survivors of violence, Kathy founded her own outreach program in 2002. She calls it “Safe Places: The Center for Healing and Hope.” The organization has since grown in scope and services, reaching more than sixteen hundred children in 2006 alone.
For three years after founding Safe Places, Kathy worked without any salary or recompense. She has kept the organization afloat by working many all-night shifts writing hundreds of grant proposals. She continues to work over seventy hours every week, not only in the organization, but also in her community outreach efforts, which include advocating in many arenas, as well as providing education and information before state and federal government to increase programs to aid victims of violence and abuse.
In 2007, Safe Places became the founding organization for the Children’s Justice and Protection Center, which facilitates child forensic interviews for sexually abused children. The partnership between Safe Places and the Children’s Justice and Protection Center, with Kathy as Executive Director of both, provides a continuum of compassionate care for abused children and their families at no cost. Due to Kathy’s efforts, literally hundreds of women have taken back their lives, and her work has helped children and adolescents as well. Every day of the week, Kathy and her staff work in schools, day-care centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, county juvenile detention facilities, and wherever else they can educate audiences on the issues or lend a helping hand to those in need.
Kathy Findley did not let her terrible childhood experiences destroy her. She not only struggled to find a sense of resolution, but also to bring wholeness and hope to others who had suffered similar abuse. She strives to bring about a world in which no child loses his or her innocence to sexual abuse, a world in which no family must live in terror of violence and the long shadow of its aftermath. An author of two books, numerous other publications, and a speaker with a national audience, Kathy Findley brings her message and mission to all corners of her community. She believes that the world changes for the better only when we acknowledge our problems and learn to work together to address them.
To learn more about Kathy Findley and her cause, and how you can make a difference, please visit: www.safeplaceslr.org.
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