Safe Horizon Meets Overwhelming Demand from Spanish Speakers, Translates Child Victims Act Webpage

BROOKLYN, NY (11/26/2019) (readMedia)-- Safe Horizon, the nation's leading victims services provider, has translated its webpage about the Child Victims Act into Spanish in order to accommodate the overwhelming number of Spanish speakers visiting the website: 2,000 since launching in August, making up nearly ? of total visitors.

Safe Horizon's Spanish language PSA featuring Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (herself a survivor) has also received twice as many views on Facebook as the English version, as well as many more shares, reactions and comments.

"Para mi fue muy importante tomar parte en la campaña de Safe Horizon para educar a nuestra comunidad sobre el Acta de Víctimas de Abuso asexual Infantiles. Personalmente entiendo el miedo y la vergüenza asociados con hablar sobre este tema. Se qué hay muchos sobrevivientes que guardan silencio por que se sienten solos y tienen miedo a las repercusiones. Es sumamente importante que la comunidad de habla hispana de Nueva York conozcan sus derechos y le agradezco a Safe Horizon por trabajar con nosotros para que esto pase. Si esta campaña alienta a por lo menos una persona a buscar ayuda o a hablar sobre el abuso que sufrieron, entonces valió la pena," said Assemblymember Catalina Cruz.

"It was so important for me to be part of Safe Horizon's PSA and the entire awareness campaign for the Child Victims Act. I personally know and understand the fear and shame associated with coming forward, and there are so many survivors who don't come forward because they are alone and terrified of the repercussions. It is incredibly important for survivors in the Spanish speaking community of New York to know their rights and I am so thankful that Safe Horizon is working to make that happen. If this campaign encourages at least one person to seek help or speak out about their abuse and seek help it will have been worth it," said Assemblymember Catalina Cruz.

Background

The Child Victims Act (CVA) extends the statute of limitations for criminal and civil cases to 23 and 55 respectively. Critically, the CVA also includes a one year window to allow survivors of any age a chance to find justice in the courts. Survivors can file a civil case against their abusers and any institutions that may have enabled the abuse, no matter how old they are or how long ago the abuse happened. The window opened on August 14th, 2019, and closes on August 13th, 2020. Since then nearly 1,000 cases have already been filed, 75% of them against the Catholic Church.