Transcripts For KBCW Bay Area Focus With Susan Sikora 201311

Welcome back to bay area focus. Who are the child and why . Children who are victims of abuse need protection, but who can help . The San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center is dedicated to prevent child abuse and neglect. Their aim to protect kids and their families. Meet katie albright. Shes been an advocate for children in 20 years in california and washington d. C. Thank you for being here. Thank you for inviting me. What kind of a abuse do you work with . There is four different types of abuse that we as a country are grappling with. There is physical abuse. There is sexual abuse and Emotional Abuse where a child maybe exposed to violence in the home or they are being battery braetd. Where do we stand in the San Francisco area . Its shocking, in fact San Francisco has the highest child abuse rate in the bay area. 10 thousand kids are supposed to violence. Any reason why . We have a very low child population. We are one of the lowest child populations in the entire country compared to major cities. I thought people were stressed out. If you have less kids. If you have fewer kids, whats happening is the children here are not being protected. They are falling through cracks. What happens when this is happening behind closed doors. We look for Early Warning signs. We work as a community with our partners. We work with Child Protective Services and we make sure we understand what is happening in their homes. I first would have thought the School Teachers would be on the front lines. Is there someway you can report . We have mandated reporters and folks you see on a daily basis and the eyes and ears of the community. We educate these teachers and Law Enforcement on how to identify and report it. Where do you think the idea comes to someone that its okay to hit or hurt physically someone who is not even half your size in many cases . Parents, caregivers dont wake up in the morning and say they want to hurt their children. We work with people who have had generations of abuse in their family and violence. Raising children can be stressful. When all the stressors of life happen, we make sure they are not going to take action on their kids. Do they resist it initially . Very much so. We have many phone calls from families who have had an abusive situation in the past and they know what that breaking point looks like and they call and say, i need help because i dont know the this to happen to my children. I would say this takes a lot of guts for people to call and do they have to let you know exactly who they are and where they are . Our calls are anonymous and oftentimes they will call and well develop a relationship with them and then they will share their names and history so we can help them. But we try to create a safe environment for people to get help. Because families dont want to hurt their children and they are put in a situation where they need an extra set of hands and hears to help them cope with what they are dealing with. If someone is dealing with a child for example, if someone is a neighbor teacher, what are the signs if you dont see black and blue marks, and obvious signs like that especially like sexual abuse or verbal abuse or maybe the parents are constantly fighting. What do you look for . There is something in the child that rises to the level of an Early Warning sign or indicator. If a childs behavior changes dramatically or if their fearful to go home or fearful of their caretaker. Those are signs we look for. We have something in the school where you are taught to say no, get away and get help. We do a lot of role playing and we provide kids an opportunity to speak up, use their voice, find a safe adult who they can go to and oftentimes those are the exact kind of programs where we are hear the significant amounts of stories of child abuse in the home. How many of these kids are under school age . There are thousands in San Francisco. In fact the prevalence of kids that are getting hurt are the very very young kids, babies, as well as teenagers. Is it cyclical . Boomers grew up with parents who spanked. We all did. And as the boomers went to college, we learned a little bit more about this stuff and maybe we were teased that we were were coddling our children. Whats happened . I think we have been aware of the situation now i think there has been generational violence. We have seen it in many many areas and it becomes the norm for our families until you are brought the awareness that its wrong. Thats raising the awareness that these things should be talked about and its called breaking the silence so people dont feel the devastation of shame. When we come back we are going to talk about what is done to talk about this kind of thing. And also what happens to the children and how they grow up. Much more when we return. We are back with katie albright. She works to protect children from the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center. Your blue ribbon . Blue ribbon is an awareness for recognition around child abuse. This pin was designed by one of our partners who is really sphere heading this effort to work around child abuse around the country. Im looking towards you reaching families to recognize this. The first thing people can do is learn about child abuse. They are go to our website and also the holidays are an extremely stressful time. If you are concerned, please call our hotline and the other opportunity is again for anyone to recognizes during this holiday time is to give back. We have a wonderful meal program and Gifts Program for children. Before we get to the economic point, whats the longterm of effect of a child of physical abuse. Lets say somebody has hit this kid on the way up. Do they turn into adults who become do they work on fear or revenge or do they become bullies or door mats, what happens . We know kids are different. They remain extremely resilient and if you provide opportunities for healing, then kids do well. There is increase of depression and increases of school failure, increases on unemployment and longterm health disease. What we are learning now through scientific research, the longterm impact of abuse is really cancer, liver disease, Heart Disease has devastating impacts. Those are impacts obviously on the child and family growing up. But then the societys impact. We as a country are trying to change our Education System and child abuse is the root cause of many of these issues. You mention holidays and there is a lot of expectations around it. You see the ads and the toys and santa claus and everything that takes basically a hefty bank account for most people. There are other factors because poverty is not just at christmas or hanukkah. Its year around. Thats where a parent starts to feel trapped and they dont know where to turn if they lose their job or their home . Poverty is an indicator of child abuse. People from different economic backgrounds can do this, but poverty is a significant stressor. You can imagine losing your job or your house and still having to take care of your kids and make sure they are safe and protected and able to go to school. If there is a Major Medical crisis, it can be extremely difficult in those situations. What can you do immediately . If you think a child is in danger, do you remove the child from the home . As a protective agency, the folks at the City Government can make the right choice about removing the child. It may not be the right answer. You need to figure out how to child can be safe and how to support that child going forward. You talked about the hotline. Someone can call up and say im about to lose it and hopefully they will make the call before that moment comes. I guess the question is, if they dont, what do you do . Lets say you get them in the program and say we are going to work with you. What do you teach them to make the behavior change to do something that might change their reaction . We work with people in different situations. One maybe change their Economic Situation and also Counseling Services so they can understand why they are feeling this way. Do you mean sitting with a counselor and the parent . Yes. We provide counseling and Supportive Services for the children and we can identify what is happening in the home. And we have a hotline so when they guess get stressed in the middle of the night, they can pick up the phone. We also have Parent Education classes. Parenting doesnt come easy. That should be a required course in high school. Its to understand what kids need at every year. You have a program at bayview Hunters Point . Yes. Its a place where children can get services. Its a wonderful City Partnership that we have and we are thrilled to be finished with construction and about to open. How do you get involved. Your mother was madam albright . Growing up at the dinner table, i wanted to make a difference. Im just passionate about this work. We are glad you are out there protecting kids in San Francisco. Fapac. Org is the website. If you feel you are about to lose it, stop and call this number. Again, 441 kids or 5437. There is another number on the screen. Thank you so much. Thank you. Say, hi to your mom. Its one of the kind up to the minute and overthetop. One of San Franciscos close to gasey. We are talking beach blanket babylon. Okay. When steve silver created this ir reverent organic day we celebrate this for 40 years. Good to have you here. 40 years . All right. You were married to steve, he has passed on. Do you remember the first time you saw this show . I do. I remember like yesterday. It was 1982 when he was opening up beach blanket babylon and of course i had seen every broadway show and i had not a clue of what this was. But i realized it was going to be the most amazing show i had seen in my life. I got up and wrote steve silver this four page fan letter. I thought he was this little old man. Then i said this was my best friend, meaning steve. I thought he was this little old man. I wrote this amazing letter. Thank god it was the wrong letter and it came back. My husband said do you really want to send this . I reread it and ripped it up. I was gushing. I had never seen anything like this. It was the most amazing and brilliant and i went on an on. Steve began in a dinner. I said, that little old man from beach blanket is sitting right next to me. He had to have a mind of a child. He went to san jose state. Thats why the show was so visually beautiful because every idea he had he sketched and drew. And from the page to the stage. Thats why the show is still looks like he was creating it. I had the opportunity to see it twice in 1 month actually because its my favorite thing to do with anybody around the town because you cant see it anywhere else. I have seen that costume before. Thats not anybody. That number is out. But the costume is still part of it . Louie, hes the composer. Its brilliant. Everybody loves it. People stay with this show for a long time. Rene luben. Shes been there since 86 . Yes. She met her husband there. He was in the audience and saw her and came back. What makes this work. It is overthetop for sure. What can you imagine for mr. Peanut man. You cant imagine this. You can describe it. Its a great time. You see amazing costumes, wonderful hats and you hear songs that Everybody Knows no matter how old you are. You see a talented cast. Its a real ensemble. Everybody gets their moment. Yes. Whatever is in the news that morning that you read about or look on the computer, that could be in the show that night. Its so topical. Who is the latest one you put in . We had elections. Thats how fast people are and how topical our people are. The actors stay with this. Can they make a living . Are you kidding . There is benefits. This is a 401k. Its the most amazing job because you know you are getting paid no matter what each week. Any celebrity that comes to town always comes to beach blanket. The queen came. Anybody. Our performance goes out to do promo gigs so they can appear any place around the bay area. Its phenomenal. You also do a lot of giving back and you work with a number of groups and you also do this at the Steve Silver Foundation for the arts and this is for people who want to pursue a career in show business . This is something weve done all through the years and its open to bay area high schools in the category of singing, dancing and acting. Its become so phenomenon and wonderful for kids. Kids get 10,000 towards their college education. How many kids say, im back. Do you have any of those . Yes. We had one who was the first scholar and she was the runner up. I thought she was so great. I ran after that and said as soon as you are done come back and shes been the star of the show. If you are going to do one thing for yourself, you will see you have a new years eve show coming up. Okay we leave you now with another look at steve silvers beach blanket babylon. Thank you for being here. Thank you for watching. [ music ] [ music ] edition. Hillary clinton s a couple of stops in the bay area. This is kpix5 news on kbcw, coming up on kpix5 on the cw, Hillary Clinton making a couple of stops in the bay area. Is there any clue about a president ial run . We will have the forecast coming up for you just ahead. And the warriors owners want to move the Basketball Team to oakland, to a waterfront arena in San Francisco, but could the political atmosphere in the city sideline such a plan . It is 8 30 on sunday, november 10th. Thanks for joining us this morning. Weve got a lot of news and talk to cover in the next hour. Questions still remain about the bay bridge. We are going to talk to the senator about whats going on behind the scenes with the bridge. Also twitter and its