The Bright House

Sexual Assault and Child Advocacy Center

Milledgeville, Georgia

MacKenzie Michels
The Bright House: About Us

The Bright House provides services to individuals who have experienced sexual assualt
and child abuse. The Bright House provides: a 24-Hour Crisis Line, Victim Advocacy,
Forensic Medical Services and Evidence Collection, Forensic Interview Services,
Prevention Education, Community Outreach, and Community Partner Professional
Development.
It is the mission of The Bright House to provide a collaborative, coordinated community
response in an effort to reduce the incidence of child maltreatment and sexual violence
through prevention, intervention, and education. It is our vision to live in a society free
from sexual violence and child abuse.
My Role: Intern

- Daily morning and afternoon cleaning tasks

- Sanitation after cases
- Answering the door
- Answering the phone
- Ensuring all guests are comfortable
- Filing information for cases
- Assisting all co-workers in any way possible
- Being eager for opportunities to learn more
Importance of Community Outreach

- We are constantly advocating our mission and striving to gain more people in our
community willing to learn more and advocate for our mission. Without our
community (schools, police department, DFCs, CPS, individuals, etc. ), we would not
be able to thrive as much as we do. It is crucial that we continue to make our
community a part of our mission so that we can achieve our goals.
Importance of Education

- Educating the families, guardians, and peers of our cases to prevent and child
maltreatment and sexual assualt or other scenarios possible.
- Educating the community to prevent and advocate.
- Protect our entire community
Why This Project?

- Our mission in general, human sex trafficking, and sexual assault are all problems
that need more focus and attention.

- I wanted to find a way to grab our communities attention towards these issues.
Project Objectives

- Hone in on areas within our community where issues such as human sex trafficking
and sexual assault may be prominent

- Educate our community on issues happening within their community that they can
help prevent, educate on, or protect their loved ones from.
Facts on Sexual Assault

- CSA (child sexual assault): 635

cases that The Bright House saw
during the calendar year of 2021.
- “Every 9 minutes, Child Protective
Services substantiates, or finds
evidence for, a claim of child sexual
abuse.”

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens
https://www.scsac.org/statistics
Facts On Sex Trafficking

- “ In 2020, 10,583 situations of human trafficking were reported to the U.S. National
Human Trafficking Hotline involving 16,658 individual victims. Shocking as these
numbers are, they are likely only a fraction of the actual problem.”
- Of those 10,583 cases, 7,648 of those cases were sex trafficking.
- Knowing warning signs and red flags can help prevent cases and/or stop current cases
happening.

https://polarisproject.org/2020-us-national-human-trafficking-hotline-statistics/
Project Overview

- Flyers were posted on front windows and in some bathrooms (permission approved)

- I spoke with managers and employees about passing messages along

- Flyers were placed strategically in locations where these issues are prevalent.
How It Went

- Overall, the results of my project were outstanding. The entire community was eager
to listen to me, allow me to place flyers, and speak with their coworkers and peers.

- The community that I spoke with was also eager to continue to help advocate our
mission moving forward.
Moving Forward

- My hope is that the community members I spoke with, community members that saw
flyers, and community members that the messages were passed along to will continue
to promote our mission and advocate our mission at The Bright House and my
mission behind this project.
Flyers
Flyers cont.
Flyers cont.
Thank You

- This project and presentation mean a lot to me, so thank you for giving me your
attention. I hope you have learned something and I hope I have lit a fire in you to
help advocate our mission and my mission with this project.