 Hello and welcome to the back story tonight. We're going to share the back story on blue sky bridge one of the Non-profits in Boulder County that's doing such important work that I suspect many of us don't know enough about so my name is Tim Waters I host this program which is an opportunity for me to bring together folks to tell stories That you would like to know about I suspect I hope that you're and you learn more in the back story than you would by just reading your local news source or You know most of what you're going to read online and tonight I have the good fortune of interviewing just inviting into conversation two of the leaders in The blue sky bridge and they're going to share with all of us the work They're doing and what we can learn from that work and how we can get involved We're coming to you live tonight from the beautiful downtown from beautiful downtown Longmont and the Longmont public media studio So the last Monday of each month. We're here Sharing the backstory on something that's relevant. Hopefully an interesting to the community. So stay tuned by the end of this program We'll share with you what you were what we're going to be doing the end of August August 28th will be the next back story this episode is going to focus on a on An organization and the work they do That is probably a difficult topic for a lot of folks to learn about talk about I'm really fortunate tonight to have Gina Earls the executive director of blue sky bridge and Trish wood The director of education prevention for blue sky bridge Thank you to both of you for carving out time on a Monday evening for being here I know there's a lot of places you could be tonight with your families with colleagues To be in still engaged in the work that you that you do the fact that you would carve out time to be with me tonight Is a is an honor? And is a another part of the service that you're rendering for this community because most people Might not have had a chance to meet and have not had this heard the story that you're gonna share tonight, so We'll have a chance to thank you again at the end of the episode For the work you do when you're not here, but I just want to make certain you know how much I appreciate the fact that you you're donating your It's a gift tonight both to me and to the to the residents of longmont and in Boulder County and anybody else who has a chance to listen to this The live stream of this program It could be streamed not just watched tonight, but streamed anytime So hopefully folks tonight will have the benefit of learning from this conversation in the months weeks and months to come So let's get started by learning just a little bit about the two of you It would be I think it's important for people to know Who we're hearing from and kind of what you bring to the conversation So do you know why don't you start and then Trish you weigh in and then we'll go from there Sounds great. Well, thank you so much for having us here. It is it's definitely a pleasure to be here and it's really important that we're here because Probably the most important thing about the work that we do is that people do understand what we do Because it just knowing about this work makes our community safer and talk about the work because I don't I didn't really Talk about the work. Okay. So blue sky bridge is the organization serving all of Boulder County but serving Longmont that we are the experts in child sexual abuse and really all child abuse here in Boulder County and We are a child advocacy center So we are unique in our community and we're the only organization in Boulder County that does what we do So we will go into like all of the different aspects of what we do in a bit but basically we are a resource for anybody in the community that has concerns about a child That has just any questions that can always reach out to blue sky bridge for more information, right? Yeah, we're gonna drill down on many aspects of this Tell us about about you. Okay. So I have been at blue sky bridge seven years It'll be seven years next week. So little premature with my seven years and Prior to that I actually worked at the Longmont Police Department doing domestic violence prevention education and victim assistance I am a Colorado girl. So I grew up here in Colorado and went to see you for my undergrad and graduate degree and You will find out later, but I really love kids Yeah, I'm just I want to add my thanks to for having us and just for us being able to explain What you know, some people might see say is difficult, right? And so we're trying to make it less difficult to talk about it. Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate your willingness We're gonna work it out back some of that. Yeah, it's the mission is righteous It is important. It's beyond important. It's just critical, right? Moving forward to be the kind of community. We want to be not just here, but everywhere What draws you to to the work? Yeah, I wouldn't have known Ten I've been at Blue Sky Bridge for almost 11 years and I wouldn't have known that I was drawn to this work I've been in the nonprofit sector for 30 years but I hadn't done anything quite like this before until This came to me. It found me. I Wasn't even looking for an opportunity, but everybody I knew thought this was my opportunity and very quickly when I Took this this role as the executive director at Blue Sky Bridge. We were a much smaller organization at that time I realized how much this spoke to me. I have done a lot of really interesting work over all of these years But this is by far the most important work. I've ever done this this work is so fundamental to the health and wellness of our communities and to you know Even if some of us think that this issue hasn't impacted us as individuals it has Because it's so pervasive. It's everywhere in our communities and it's just like I said It's the most important work at least that I've been a part of so yeah, that would be hard to argue Yeah, there's any more important work going on anywhere. Yeah, Chris and I took yeah I think that the kids drew me to the work a little bit, right? But I was working at the Longmont Police Department Thank you for that by the way. Yeah doing this the domestic violence and kind of my background had been in community outreach and prevention work I've done some political work so kind of always that grassroots kind of level stuff and I was volunteering for Blue Sky Bridge at the time in the school-based program going into schools doing presentations with kids and They brought in someone new to run the program and I really appreciated her names Robin She's now the clinical director there And I really kind of appreciated her vision for the program and so and I wanted to be part of that growth of the program and You know selfishly I love kids so much It was my chance to really be with kids and I kind of joke like well I was young enough to still be able to get on the floor with them But you know and people would say to me like well I can't believe you're leaving domestic violence to go to you know child abuse and child sexual abuse like that's like The only thing you could have picked that was more depressing and that can't be any further from the truth I have found so much hope in this work and that kind of surprised me because I thought well Okay, I'm gonna gird myself up. This is gonna be I can do this, but that's not where it went It is a really hopeful place. So, yeah Just give us an idea of how long Blue Sky Bridge has been in Boulder County a little bit of just a little bit of the history Yeah, it's in its evolution its growth. Yeah over the period of time So about 30 years ago this this topic of child sexual abuse was hitting News in a number of different ways Oprah was talking about her experiences and it was coming out in a number of ways and so a number of this The service organizations in in Boulder County were like the rape crisis Center and the safe shelter and mental health Organizations were getting a lot of requests for support and resources around this issue of child sexual abuse and they they weren't really equipped to be able to be helpful and So they had all come together to try to figure out what to do about that at the same time there was a Case in the public eye in Boulder County Where there was a family with seven children who were all Being sexually and physically abused by their parents and another family And it was very public and the district attorney and law enforcement and human services Were extremely unhappy with how the whole thing played out to the point where these children Were having to talk about their experiences over and over and over and they It just was not handled well They didn't have the infrastructure in place to be able to support these kids These kids did not have like a path forward to be able to Anyway, they they just were not happy with how this was working. It was it was not good for the kids It was not good for prosecution Not nothing about it was working well these two groups of people the DA's group and the service agencies group came together and created blue sky bridge So we blue sky bridge is a mandate from our community to be this organization We were based and still are based on a model that had been created just a couple of years before And now there are child advocacy centers like blue sky bridge all over the country That is really designed to So before there was a blue sky bridge there was Basically a child that maybe is ready to talk about there Something they've experienced or maybe an adult is concerned about a child But doesn't quite know what to do That child would maybe have to talk about their experiences to maybe a teacher and then a principal and then maybe a counselor Maybe a patrol officer if they call to get some help and then a detective and a bunch of attorneys and a doctor and a nurse and There's a lot more people that start to get involved In the me in the meantime, there aren't really any paths forward. So there weren't any Support and resources for the safe and supportive caregivers for that child There wasn't a safe place for that child to talk about their experiences So they were going they were sitting in the back of a patrol car or they were at a police You know police department which isn't designed for a six-year-old child and so But now what we have since there is a blue sky bridge is a child and their safe and supportive caregivers can come in and Once there's an open investigation they come in and they can talk about their experiences and they can talk to somebody who really knows How to talk to kids understands things like child development and understands How to let a child really talk about what they're experiencing and then at the same time Literally at the same time their safe and supportive caregivers are getting those support that support those resources those referrals for therapy for They may be losing the breadwinner in their family. Maybe if that's the alleged perpetrator. So they might need food There may be food insecurity. They might need housing There could be a lot of things and so our advocates are there to support that family in the meantime All of this is happening in a very child-friendly setting blue sky bridge is a really sweet place It feels like a house and kids Enjoy their time there. It's a it's a nice experience. It's a comfortable calm Place they can come have a medical exam at blue sky bridge They can get a referral to therapists at blue sky bridge and then we'll talk about the whole education program where you know We go out in schools and we'll do we'll talk about all that too But the the contrast between what it was before when they may have had to talk to 13 15 different people To talking really just to this one person who really understands how to talk to kids is dramatically different so We can be here To yes support these kids and also to hopefully help these kids not have to experience the unthinkable Situations that some of these kids are getting into what what you just described sounds like the epitome of the law of unintended consequences Yeah, you know in spite of the best intentions. Yes, everybody that you just described You got a kid who it sounds like potentially is victimized not in the same way But a victim over and over and over again in just in terms of what the system was doing to try to help yeah, and And so looking for other ways. Yeah to address and the beautiful thing about kids is kids are super resilient So if you catch that kid At that time and get them the support and resources they need They're going to go on and live their full and beautiful lives. So blue sky bridge got it start 30 years ago and It's grown. We'll talk about kind of before you finish where you are and how do you continue to grow and what kind of support you Do you need to continue to grow and touch the lives of every child in every family, right? That deserves to it needs to be touched by by blue sky bridge. Where does the name blue sky bridge come from? That's a really good question Where it comes from but at this point it just is what it is and We know that there's a bridge to a better place We think of it as a hopeful thing And the bridge really does Represent all of the pillars of strength that that we help these kids to sort of find in themselves But it's also the pillars of strength from law enforcement from human services from the district attorney's office From the therapists from the educators from the hospitals from all of these people coming together and working together to make a system work and The graphic for on your station pillars of the bridge Kids have all sorts of stories they tell yeah come in there like oh it's blue sky bridge It's because when the people come to your place. There's blue skies that day, and there's no more clouds in their life. Yes So You commented about how pervasive The behavior is Should is this a problem to solve or a pathology that we need to cure or both cure and heal As many pathologies require both right yeah, because this sounds more complex than just defining a problem Yeah, I would say it's both of those things because there there is a pathology. There's a problem I mean there can be a pathology Depending how you define that there can be a problem. There is a problem to solve We think of it generally as a public health crisis because of the impact on these kids and so we treat it as a public health crisis and we treat it with To like from an education perspective, which is Tricia's sort of You know expertise really but we treat it from that from that perspective and so you know if you think about it these kids We want to get ahead of this so kids don't experience this but once they do experience this they're having Symptoms like eating disorders and substance abuse and you know if they're not getting the health and resources and everything they need Suicidal ideation you can imagine how long this list is and as adults you can even have long-term health consequences like heart disease and diabetes can all come out of Experiencing sexual abuse as a child and so You know that it's really just in Colorado alone the the cost of this to our community is in the trillions of dollars So yeah, I don't know if you want to jump in on it. It's like moving that trajectory Right, we want we want them to get off that trail of miseries the miseries that Gina was referencing right but all those things we're trying to avoid that substance abuse all those things and and Change the trajectory of their lives and and that's kids are so resilient and we can see that difference Whereas like adults are you know, it's more less permeable, right? And so I think yeah there's a pretty deep and growing science on the impact of trauma on cognition Both mental mental health on cognition and physical health and you've just I mean I can't imagine anything more Traumatic in the life of a child than to be sexually abused And then I mean the record of the long the extended life-long effects sure are are now very documented well documented and Damaging in every aspect of their lives What are the dimensions right? We've talked about pervasiveness. What are the dimensions in Boulder County? How big the challenge do the challenge or do we face here? Yeah, so It's this issue is such a tricky issue to really get to the root of and to really understand So the issue of child sexual abuse in particular any kind of child abuse is such a private issue So even researching this issue is is so challenging. So we rely heavily on National research for the most part and we can look at our own data We can look at the data of our partner agencies and things like that and we do but what we do know is that What the national research shows is that one in ten kids experience sexual abuse before they turn 18 And of those kids and then that's in every neighborhood every community every Circumstance of life and so sometimes I like I think I don't like to think about this But I think about walking out of my home and anybody can think about this you walk out of your home or out of A store and you look at The homes you can see near you or the population of people you see near you and think of one in ten children It's staggering right it's staggering and so and of those kids so one in ten kids It's already hard to imagine and that's that's a sexual abuse statistic And now only 10% of those kids are telling an adult before They are adults themselves or ever in their lives So are getting out of that situation on our finding help and talking to trusted adults and Coming to a place like Blue Sky Bridge and getting the support So there's thousands of kids that we know we're not seeing every year and there are hundreds of kids We are seeing every year for to provide support and resources So it's a huge huge issue and no community is exempt from it. So every neighborhood, you know, we all think oh It's it's somewhere over there. It's it's not my community Not in Boulder County. No way here, but the thing is it is here And that means it's on every single one of us as adults to do something about it We have to because we have to so Let's unpack what you do about it, right? Yeah, so you have you both have roles and responsibilities And you have a team of people so just describe the work you do and then who else is involved in what you all bring to the population that you're serving So start with yourselves and then yeah kind of talk about your colleagues Yeah, so I'm on the prevention education team and there's five of us and we talk to Every adult that will listen to us about keeping kids safe because like Gina said it's our position and our belief Our core belief is that it's an adult's job to keep kids safe So we will talk to adults we talked to kids. There are backup plan We talked to child-facing professionals And so, you know our days look like a lot of during the school year a lot of time You know going from school to school and talking we talked to kindergartners third graders fifth graders sometimes mixed grades and Usually four lessons once a week For four weeks and we have a volunteers that that work with us And so we're doing a lot of coordination around that and you know writing curriculum and following research and figuring out You know that you were talking earlier about maybe some like the dimensions in Boulder County And I would say even nationally like in terms of prevention It's kind of hard to there's this juxtaposition of kind of like a modesty and reluctance that we all have You know about talking about this you're like, oh, it's kind of a difficult thing to talk about We don't want to talk about it. You know, oh somebody else will talk to I know maybe next year I'll talk to my kids about this. I don't want to freak them out There's so many things that we we say to ourselves to not have the conversation Meanwhile our kids are out there in a world. That's like highly sexualized, right? So they're getting highly sexualized material on television. They're getting it on their phones if they have phones They're seeing it, you know in other places on their friends phones if they don't have phones And so you've got these two things kind of like together not doing, you know, not really helping each other, right? There just is not a balance we would like to see and so it's about figuring out like what's going to resonate with adults What's going to resonate with what are parents really worried about like, you know, this recently we're like they're worried about pornography Let's kind of put together curriculum so that we can get them in so that we guess we're going to talk to them about pornography And we're going to remind them like use the proper names of your child's genitals with them So it's that's kind of you know one of the other things that we do in our work is just trying to really figure out adult curriculum And then supporting curriculum for people who are child-facing so early childhood education aiders counselors Other therapists just information. That's really helpful to them in supporting kids And you and that's and you you leave that effort, right? Yes, right, and we have you know We have 30 volunteers in addition to the five staff and then we usually have some great Interns every year who go in and do presentations in the classroom Which kids love because they're way younger than we are and they're like, you know really look up to them So before we're finished, I want you to talk about Anybody who just heard or might hear if they stream this about volunteer opportunities I want you to talk more about what those volunteer opportunities are Do you know what else should we hear from the executive director in terms of roles or responsibilities? Yeah, before we let go of Trisha They are interacting with more than 6,000 kids every year and a couple thousand adults as well It's incredible what they do. It's really amazing. Anyway Stay there for a minute because we've had a little conversation about Some of the challenges with your work, right? Yeah in terms of How the imitation is extended in schools or not How do parents and teachers become aware? Is there anything you'd like to say or for people to hear about? Your attempt to your presence your attempt to be in schools and in what you need from schools from institutions To make that as efficient and as effective as it can be Yeah, so we are in both the Boulder Valley and St. Frane school district and since we're in Longman I'm going to talk about the same brain and so you know We have good support from the school district and they you know see our curriculum every day a year and they approve it We have the in St. Frane, it's an opt-in program meaning you as a parent have to actively say yes I want my child participating in this program, right and That the number of children who don't participate in St. Frane is higher than in Boulder Valley where it's an opt-out and You know we like to believe that again The percentage or numbers of kids that are not participating in the program in St. Frane are higher than the percentage or numbers of kids Yes, and so I mean this is kind of confusing and we can get lost in the language And we like to believe that it's not really about like parents are saying like no I don't want my children to hear this or learn this We you know there's these hurdles to get through I mean all the papers come home, right? And it's like it's just another paper you have to sign and maybe you don't get to it right then and or maybe you Are don't have time to look at the links that we have in there because everything we do is completely transparent, right? Like in the pandemic we made all of our lessons into videos So parents can just go out on our YouTube channel or kids YouTube channel and watch exactly what we're gonna be teaching their kids, right? So but that kind of makes for a challenge for us because then you have some kids that are out of the classroom Like the classroom management becomes a little more different difficult And so we would love it if parents would just give us a chance But if they're not if they don't want us to teach their kids this They're your children Please teach them yourselves and we have resources for you to teach them yourself say more about the YouTube videos and the Then the collateral the other resources parents and for parents who might be who might watch this or might see something and say I don't I don't know you personally. I don't know enough. Yeah, why should I trust or because I know that's got to be an Issue talk about what you would want them to know. Well, what I want them to know is that Our curriculum is based on like evident research informed, right? So it's like the CDC says okay If you're gonna be teaching kids about use of that language. Yeah research informed So if the CDC says you're gonna be teaching kids about body safety These are like the four or five elements that you need to include Everything like I said is transparent the school districts have seen it So you can trust that what we're doing is what we say we're doing and then on the YouTube channel We have a it's called blue sky bridge just for kids. You can link it through our website www.blueskybridge.org and Go look at those videos there. So there we have in the kindergarten lessons and they're animated In English and Spanish and then the third grade lessons in English and we don't really have any fifth grade content on there Right now, but I think that like that's part of it And we have materials that go home every week after our lessons those materials are also all accessible on our website We are just open and available anyone can email us at training at blue skybridge.org. We do parent www.blueskybridge.org Yes We don't we want to make certain that resonates or or sticks with folks correct and I mean there's there's We do parent talks we call it parent talks before we go into a school so people can do that Asynchronously just look at it online. They can have come on to a zoom conversation Well, we'll be going over the content with them they can email us like I said So there's a lot of options for them to look at and explore the content that we're teaching their kids We we don't do it in a scary way. We use puppets. We have books. We use videos I make silly voices when I'm presenting So we want to make it like so that they feel comfortable with it and kids aren't walking out of there Like oh, I'm afraid of every single person on the street because we tell them that's not the reality of it, right? That's not that's not where we live That's not the curriculum tailored specifically for kindergarten or third graders and fifth graders Developmentally if you if you're a parent of a second grader and you and you're watching this and you'd like some help Do I you look at the kindergarten or third grade curriculum? Do I do I call how do I how do I get how do I let you help me right decide how best to use your resources? Well, I think that your prop the parents are probably the best judge of their kids in terms of where they are Developmentally and whether they can handle the content so you can always start with the kindergarten and then add on later But I think that the key piece of that or are touching rules when we're at an outreach event is just starting a conversation with the kid And I can get help as a parent or as a grandparent. Yeah, I can get one of the things as I had a chance to visit with Gina Began to learn about blue sky bridges like and I hope somebody's having this guy I know that our granddaughters parents are having these conversations I hope their school and school district is participating because It's going to be a missed opportunity if they're not and and raises risks that you'd like them Wrists that they'll be exposed in ways that you'd like them not to be right so So when so there's a lot going on with education right lots of resources available easily access You have staff and volunteers sometimes None of the education has had the effect you want it to have or without the education The pathology shows up right now kids are in need of some attention on the therapy side or the treatment side So as the executive director with a team of clinicians and in others talk about how that unfolds Right, so we have three programs So tish runs the prevention education program and then we have our intervention program and our therapy program So intervention is kind of what I was describing before when that child first comes to blue sky bridge And by the way, so many of these kids have now been through blue sky bridge program in the school So that's an even less scary situation for them to come to blue sky bridge If they do have something to talk about because it's a it's something they're comfortable with they've heard of it And so if they need our services, it's it's anyway, so at as part of our intervention program we have basically two Two different kinds of staff members forensic interviewers who are highly trained Staff members whose job is to talk to kids and so they learn all the different The best ways to talk to kids they follow a semi-structured narrative process for interviewing children it sounds but it's it's it's based on the best practices in this world in which we work and They let the kids Drive the process. So if the kids are not ready to talk, they don't need to talk today But they they so they are the ones that are conducting these forensic interviews with these kids Then we have these family support advocates who are also amazing Who are with the caregivers the safe and supportive caregivers? Any alleged offender does not come to blue sky bridge. So everybody at blue sky bridge should be the safe folks in this child's life and Those things are happening simultaneously. We also partner With seen nurses, which is the sexual assault nurse examiner program So nurses come to blue sky bridge to do medical exams, which are generally wellness checks It's an opportunity for the kids and the adults to ask questions about their bodies about Kind of what's happened and what they whatever they haven't been able to ask anybody else But they can ask somebody in scrubs and they can have a full medical exam if they need it So that is our intervention program We do that in partnership with law enforcement human services the DI's office And so there are investigators at blue sky bridge not interacting with the family at all But observing that forensic interview so that that again that child doesn't need to tell their story over and over and over So many times so that's our intervention program and then there's our therapy program where our advocates will be Giving referrals from these families over to our therapists and we by the way do all of our programs in English and in Spanish with staff that are bilingual and culturally Multicultural so yeah And then of course we have our fundraising folks too The word of the volunteer the volunteers are clearly would be part of your education correct in outreach effort Are they also part of your advocacy team? Yeah, so we use use we have volunteer interns on our intern on our intervention program both undergraduate and graduate level interns that do different jobs So we use a lot of volunteers in that program So those aren't volunteers off the street you've drawn those from programs where they're in their preparation programs exactly Preparing you to this work the volunteers in the in the education program are from the community Yes, and a lot of times it's you know retired teachers or people like me who just kids and or maybe you know liked To be in front of kids or want to give back maybe they have experience with the topic and so we Go through a pretty rigorous training process for them because that was gonna be my next question is about the training Yeah, and But they're just amazing. We literally could not do this without them and You know they're giving of their time and pouring their hearts kids and it's it's really impressive And I'm just so incredibly grateful for them and they have a lot of fun, too On the continuum from education to Treatment right with intervention in the middle of that, right? Are you do you have volunteers in through that whole continuum or once you get to a point? Is it folks who are? Certified or licensed therapists or yeah right now in our therapy program. So our therapy program Is it's just licensed clinicians? And they are offering two different Trauma treatment models, and then they'll also work with children who are displaying problematic sexual behaviors So we also are kind of working on that side of things, but they are all Licensed clinicians we do hope in the future to be able to bring an internship program into that program, but we haven't been able to do it yet the You we made an observation earlier that In a prevention program it is difficult to to establish baselines of things you're preventing right and And then monitor your progress In terms of preventing things so you don't measure what doesn't happen. Yeah, right. It's so hard. Yeah Well, it's I've been in that experience in my career like how do you measure that we were having an effect So but but given that continuum How do you get a sense of progress that we're making both? Well as an organization, but but as a society or as a county or as a municipality. Is there a way to do that? I think I'm a measurement kind of person in that micro level I think it's it's much harder right if you start to say at the municipality level even state level But the national research is showing that child sexual abuse is is on the decline and has been for I think 40 years At least which is wonderful news and it's because of programs like this. It's because we're talking about this issue It's because parents are getting more comfortable with talking to their kids about this stuff. So Yeah, so we do believe it's on the decline if it's hard for me I've spent a career in education I've been around you know kids and those who work with them if it's hard topic for me It's got to be a difficult topic. Oh, yeah for a lot of other people I'm sure how do you what would your advice be whoever sees this to make it easy or easier for people? Give them. What's the language or what's the approach to make it easier to be engaged with? Children or their parents or a relative or whomever you'd want to be raising or engaging in the conversation The kids are comfortable with kids are comfortable with that I think that's like part of it too right is just knowing like Everyone's gonna be okay, right? And I think framing it in the sense of like we have other safety conversations with kids, right? We put your helmet on before you go ride your bike We don't sit there and say to them like you're gonna get hit by a car. So put your helmet on We don't say that right we say like oh, you know, let's just be safe put on your helmet buckle your seat belt All those things so kind of framing it within that context of another safety conversation It's just another safety conversation. I'm having with my kids and it's not one time conversation I'm reminding them over and over before they go to a sleepover remember like our pajamas are gonna stay on private parts are gonna be covered We're not gonna be touching them. No pictures of private parts. We're just gonna keep you know And if anything makes you feel icky, this is the code word you tell that parent there that you feel like you're gonna throw up They're gonna come get you because they don't want you there, right? They don't and so you give them a safety plan and you give them an out-to-like safe base in a way and I so I think like Approaching it from a place of not fear but strength like you can't like with parents It's like you can do this You just have to start like those first few words and the rest of them are just gonna come out And you're not gonna get it perfect But like what parenting thing do we get perfect like it's just it's practice, right? And so it's just about that about being okay with not being exactly right and being the authority on something But it's about having a conversation that so that your kid is looking to you for that information And if something happens to them or a friend they're going to you you're the trusted adult So building on that What is it that if there's just some highlights you would like Family members to know to look for And and then friends and neighbors and educators institutions the media, you know other other Service organizations non-profits in the community Kind of I can take you back through that list But what are the things you'd want them to know and look for? Yeah, is that a fair question? Sure? it is and I think that Just knowing and looking for it is like the biggest hurdle, right just being aware and Knowing when trusting your gut and you know, I we say to kids like, you know, it's that icky feeling you get in your stomach It's like those butterflies, right? And so and I think if we're just paying attention That's half the battle right and and setting up environments that are safe for kids And so I'm thinking about professionals, right? We want we don't want isolated one-on-one situations where it's one adult with one kid or one kid with Older kids, right kind of supervising so it's like creating that that creating environments environments that are safe for kids it's having conversations and It's believing that you can you know can do it and it's being that trusted adult And so, you know, we go out and tell kids like tell a trusted adult tell a trusted adult Tell a trusted adult, but it like if our trusted adults I say this all the time like it's like You getting an ad on your phone and you're you can go get this brand-new product that just came out You can get it for free if you go to Target today And then you go to Target and it's not in the shelf because the the product's not there yet You're not gonna buy it So if we tell these kids go talk to your adults, but we don't have the adults ready. That's a fail I have failed in my job. And so as a trusted adult you need to be there for that kid And they might tell you something hard or they might just ask you a silly question But it's just showing up for that kid over and over again That really creates that safety, but it creates that trust that they know if they tell you something you're all gonna be okay and They believe that you're going to get them the help that they need right in terms of educating parents or Extended family members or others are there look for us and listen for us in terms of like that a child's been abused or Yeah, that you would you'd want to pay particular start paying attention if I hear this or if I observe these kinds of either reticence or fear or you know, however, whatever the manifestation might be of a child who's Who's been exposed and in and needs somebody down to begin a conversation Yeah, I'm somewhat reluctant to just say this universally is like something's wrong. I think that You know parents or somebody who's involved in a kid's life like they can tell if something's off And I think it's just a check-in like is everything okay and just remember like if anything ever is is bothering you You can talk to me about it because I think that there's a whole list of things that a child might be displaying But it could be another reason right it might not be that there's actually abused It might be that there's some other kind of trauma going on in the home Or they might be experiencing depression or having you know other things that going on Metabolically and so I just I don't know. Do you know what would you say the same? I would and I think I think I mean I'm not an expert By any means in that specific area, but I think the best thing we can do is just have our ears open and be open to to receive Whatever kids bring and and and and honor them and be you know, thank them for for coming to us Yeah, because some of that, you know for you'll see lists sometimes of red flag stuff But it could be they're drinking a ton of orange juice. Exactly. You know, you know, you don't want to we don't want to No, we don't want to over we don't want to scare people right into thinking there's something going on have a conversation Understand what's happening Observe yeah, all right, so if if a parent or an extended family member or Trusted other adult right is concerned that a Child has been exposed guidance there is a place to start We kind of have the five hours do's and don't do yes do's and don't do's I'm not going to go into the five hours I'm going to say the first thing you do is take a big huge deep breath right and calm yourself down because It's hard information to know or suspect right and back to that trust your instincts If you think something's off you don't have to have like, you know Hard-cold facts that you've seen this happen or the kids told you you know Maybe you have a series of behaviors that are going on with someone and you're like, ah, it's just doesn't feel right You know the child doesn't want to go home with that person whatever it is, but Really to that kid. Let's say the child tells you discloses to you that some things happen to them Thanks for telling me I believe you we need to start by believing kids I think we're kind of as adults not necessarily in the habit of believing kids and that's not from a place of judgment But like kids say lots of things right, but they generally don't make this type of thing up They don't have the developmental capacity So we start by believing them and and that's like their first moment of healing right and so we want to meet them Where they're at with more healing by saying I believe what you said right? It's not your fault kids are You know so worried that they're going to get in trouble and that it was their fault And I had a child disclosed to me once and I kept saying well It's not your fault, but it wasn't I could tell it wasn't landing So I would we would say a little more and then I would say it again and finally They just paused and looked at me and got really quiet and they tilted their head and they're like Thanks for saying that because I really thought it was my fault because I didn't say no right away We don't want kids to think it's their fault. It's on the adult who did this to them or the other kid that did this to them So thanks for telling me I believe you it's not your fault I'm gonna get you some help right and we have to be honest with them that help might come in the form of someone Might show up in a police uniform to come talk to you It doesn't mean you're in trouble. You didn't do anything wrong. Just tell them the truth and And let's say the kid never has said anything to you the child's never said anything to you But you still suspect you're not making an accusation when you call to report suspected child abuse You're simply acting asking for a service to be conducted and thank goodness There are people whose job it is to conduct child abuse investigations and it's off your shoulders It's off your mind You don't have to do the dirty work. You don't have to do the investigation You've done your job. You've protected that child. You've made the call and it's a good thing to be wrong about it Maybe it nothing is going on at all It's a deep breath. Yep No judgment. Yeah Listen well at what point do I Or whoever pick up the phone. Is it blue sky bridge? I call first. Is it the police department? I call first What's my first if I if I think there's some there's reason for some follow-up You can call blue sky bridge for sure you can call blue sky bridge But really what needs to happen is this needs to get reported To law enforcement to human services or just call 1-800-CO for kids still, right? 1-800-CO for kids 1-800-CO for CO No, no, no for KIDS That is the statewide child abuse reporting hotline and it will make its way to the right people so if you just have a concern if you just don't know what to do call that number and I mean, yes. Yes, absolutely You know they I like their motto. They're like you dial the number We make the call so it takes the pressure off like they're making the call You don't have to be like oh this is child abuse under statute. That's not our job Right. Thank goodness. Someone else's job. Yay them. Yeah. So Colorado, CEO, number four kids. And then would they be the ones to involve Blue Sky Bridge? Once that call's made, it goes to wherever the appropriate expert is. Yeah. So depending on what the situation is, it might go just to law enforcement or it might go to law enforcement and human services anyway. So wherever there's an open investigation, either the detective or the case worker or hopefully both working together, we'll then schedule a forensic interview at Blue Sky Bridge. To avoid that whole series of interviews with children that you were describing. Exactly. When a child, when the call's made and a child is, it needs to be experienced in intervention in potential treatment. Talk about that sequence. There's a referral, there's a judgment that based on the investigation, now what it was it looked like for a child when they're in the intervention and when does it end up in treatment versus ending with intervention? Yeah. That can look like the range is all over the place of what could happen next. So a referral for treatment could happen, that part I can address easier because I have a little bit more control over it. So a referral for treatment can be a referral at Blue Sky Bridge or it can be a referral out to a community therapist. Sort of depending on the needs of the family, but also unfortunately we have three amazing therapists on staff. We cannot possibly accommodate all the children that come to Blue Sky Bridge, so some have community therapists that they're referred to. In terms of what happens with the legal system and what happens with the human services investigation, we stay connected with it because we help support that family through that, but it's somewhat out of our hands. And so it can, these things can go on for a very long time and sometimes even the process from that report to getting to a forensic interview at Blue Sky Bridge can take a very long time before that happens or it might happen very, very quickly. So what that looks like for any particular family can be very different. But you're there to answer questions. Yeah. Gee, why isn't this moving faster? Exactly. Why is it moved so fast? Or we can help them figure out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think one of the things that we forgot to mention that I think is important is that we're neutral, right? We don't work for law enforcement. We don't work for human services or the DA's office. We're completely neutral and that's our role. And so we have to kind of stay in that role. As a 501C3 organization. Right. So as a 501C3 organization, does the federal government write a big check to you to do this work every year? So we do get funding from a lot of different sources and one of those sources is sort of a federal government, although it's not part of the anyway, yes, we do get a little bit of federal money. And do you have to write proposals? It's so much work. It's not just free. It's not based on your population. This is how much money you're going to get. So you have to you have to compete for those dollars. Yes, we compete for those dollars. So we do get some funding from the federal government at the state level, Boulder County, the city of Longmont. Yes. So we and all of that is yes, those are not easy dollars to come by. Well, and I'm somewhat familiar with our process. And I'm proud of what Longmont has been able to do for it. And we're super grateful for our relationship with the city of Boulder. I mean, city of Longmont, sorry, with the city of Longmont. Elevator, thank you. So yeah, we have a wonderful relationship with the city of Longmont and we're super grateful for that funding. But yes, it's it's a relatively small piece of our overall funding. So your so grant funding, yes, from government, right, federal state and municipalities is one or is a stream? Yes. Are there other streams? There are other streams. Well, tell us about the other streams. So there is some private foundation funding. It's also a relatively small piece from all different types of organizations. But the bulk of our funding comes from the people in our community that live here in our community. And by the way, one of the things we didn't say before, so we serve all of Boulder County, 42% of the kids that come to Blue Sky Bridge for a forensic interview live in Longmont. And I hope say that again. 42% of the kids probably that one right there. 42% of the kids that come to Blue Sky Bridge for a forensic interview every year live in Longmont. So it's really, really this it's our biggest population, you know, biggest municipality in terms of the number of kids that come to Blue Sky Bridge. It's also about half of the kids that we see in the schools are in the St. Graham Valley School District. Is it fair to ask what percentage of your total revenue, at least donor generated revenue as opposed to grant funding comes from Longmont? It is a tiny, tiny sliver. And that's not because the people of Longmont are not wonderful, wonderful people. Let me tell you the story. Can I tell you a story? So at the same time that this organization was being created, some very, very clever folks got together and created some fundraising opportunities. They happen to be Boulder based folks. And so they created some fundraising opportunities that were very organic in the way they built on each other. So our fundraising engine, if you will, is Boulder based. And that's true for a lot of county wide organizations, but it's certainly true for Blue Sky Bridge. So most of our individual and organizational supporters that support Blue Sky Bridge are based in Boulder. 42% of the kids and 50% of the kids in the schools are in Longmont or Longmont area. And so we are very proactively right now, which is how Tim and I met. We are very proactively right now working to build community in Longmont. And there's a number of reasons for that. Yes, there, I believe that the entire community should be supporting this incredible work. But it's also so important because the more people that know about this work just watching this means you are now equipped to be able to keep our community safer. So the more people that become involved, become a supporter, that means you know about this work, you share this work, this information with your colleagues, with your friends. And now our community is safer. Longmont is a key and critical community for in Boulder County, obviously, and for this work. So we are working really hard to build community. We have a brand new event that we are launching on September 9th. Tell us about it. I'm going to tell you about it. So a movable feast Longmont will be held on September 9th. It's basically a dinner party with a twist. So an appetizer party will be held at the Ken Pratt house, which is one of Ken Pratt's former homes, where the, I believe the emperor of Japan visited at one point, which is very cool. And it's a very fun house. And you've been there. And I'm occupied by a terrific family. Such a terrific family. Jason and Emily Valerie have offered up their home for this appetizer party. So we will be starting there that evening. We'll stay there for a couple of hours. Well, we'll all get to know each other, have some appetizers. And then this is the fun part. Everybody leaves that house and goes to individual dinners, smaller, more intimate dinners at different people's homes. And one of those dinners is in Tim Watters' house. We're going to host one of those dinners. So anybody who's listening gets a chance to, now there's a check that they write to participate. Yes. So you buy tickets to this event and you will also have another opportunity to support the work. And you get to learn so much more. And it is truly, it will be such a fun event. So we're very excited about this. And the enthusiasm, we have intentionally made this event be extremely long month focused. So every single, first of all, and it's all new supporters. Yes, we do have some long month supporters before we started doing this. But every single person that is hosting a dinner or the appetizer party knew nothing about Blue Sky Bridge before we started this. We wanted it all to be new and fresh. Our design work was done in Longmont. Our printing is being done in Longmont. Our event planners are Longmont-based. Everything about this event is based in Longmont. I'm super excited about it. And it's going to be really fun. So you all should come. Well, I have no doubt based on what I've learned from Blue Sky Bridge about hosting one of these dinners, I've no doubt that everyone is going to be unique or special and fun and elegant and delicious. Yes. Our, it's just going to be a backyard version of Vinnie Hanna. Yeah, sounds amazing. Where East meets West will be our theme. So anybody who's watching this would love to join us in our backyard with some of your closest friends and an evening of entertainment from the chef and good food and good company. It'll be for a good cause. Yes, it will, absolutely. And September is the best weather we just talked about. Oh, okay. September 9th is going to be the ninth. It'll be perfect weather. For people who might watch this, we should have done this right at the beginning, right? Right. Before people got tired of stop watching. It's going to get tired. It's an interesting low-dynamic. They wouldn't be tired of you. They'd be tired. They've listened to me for a while. You can do a prologue. For people who can't write that check or have donated in other places but want to donate some of their time themselves, how do they do that? So first of all, by the way, if you can't come on September 9th, you can still go to our website blueskybridge.org and make a donation. So you can still just do that. And if you are interested in volunteering, you can go to our website. Or just training at blueskybridge.org and just say I'm interested in volunteering in the classrooms and somebody will get back to you about that. And I think that one of the other things is not necessarily volunteering in a traditional sense where you're going into the classroom all the time, but volunteering to be our legs with this message in the community of like, you have kids down the street or your kids spreading that word of let's talk about it and model that by talking about it. I think that that's super productive. It's that herd immunity we were talking about during COVID, right? Like a certain number of people. But this is like the more adults that know eventually we have like a collective effect of protecting kids and just like interrupting those boundary violations and paying attention. That's a way to volunteer in a way. The whole idea of the tipping point. Yeah, it's the tipping point. Absolutely. And we're ready for that. Listen, I am so grateful that again, I want to say again how much I appreciate that you're willing to give you're an hour to all of us right in Longmont here. We love this. Yes. But more importantly, what you do every day. I mean, the work you've described and the effect that it has on people who are so deserving and it's so much so great a need at the time that that you deliver that I can't overstate how appreciative I am. And I know anybody who's familiar with the work would say the same thing. So God bless you for what you're doing. Thank you for what you do day in and day out. I want to add to that my thanks to the crew here tonight. This is volunteer television, but there's we have a group of volunteers who bring extraordinary expertise. And I'm not and I'm not I'm not good enough about saying thank you to the crew that makes this happen. Wouldn't happen without people like you. I'm just the amateur interviewer here. Anyway, thanks to everybody. Next, a month from tonight, we're going to build on this conversation. We're going to have a chance to spend a time in time in conversation with rising and suicide. One of our other and other not just not the other another one of many nonprofits in Boulder County doing awesome work. Such important work. So thanks again, Longmonters. Thank you, Longmont. Yeah, that is the backstory on Blue Sky Bridge.