Profile Information
Location
Burton, MI
Country
United States
Postal Code
48509
What is it you do for a living? (Parenting, volunteering, CEO of social service organization, etc.)
I'm a very busy stay at home foster/adoptive mom and the author of Raising PEARLS: Prepared, Empowered, Armored, Restored, Loved & Secure Children (pen name Genise Joziah Hope for the protection of our little ones). My husband and I have 3 grown bio children and have been members of the Church of Christ for entire marriage 26 + years. We are Authorized Facilitators for the Stewards of Children Training through Darkness to Light, although we have not been active since 2014 in doing trainings. Between 2012 and 2016 we founded a small non profit organization along with our church called P.E.A.R.L.S. in Lapeer, MI, with the purpose of helping to prevent child sexual abuse and provide support to survivors. Once we became foster parents we no longer had the time to dedicate to the organization and it gradually dissipated. My time is even more limited now because I am raising PEARLS (these ones come from foster care, and have plenty of ACES themselves) at home, and am much older than when I raised my previous three children.
What organization(s) do you volunteer or work for?
I'm currently working with a small team on a training based around my book along with the Voices for Children Advocacy Center in Flint. The plan is for this training to be presented at area churches to teach the need for PREVENTION and provide tools to do so.
What is your interest in PACEs and resilience science?
I came across some information about ACES in 2011 or 2012 as I was beginning my own healing process. Helping others become aware of ACES and the impact they have on our lives, the cycles that continue until they are broken, and the resilience factors that help heal, especially PREVENTION is incredibly important. A lot of parents aren't even aware that their parenting is affected by their ACES and don't know how to empower their own children to prevent these children from seeking affirmation, love, etc in the wrong places and thus becoming victims of sexual abuse, human trafficking. My activity book is a tool that can help parents and caregivers to empower their children as well as other children they have any relationship with.
If you're part of a community-based PACEs initiative, which one?
not yet