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Hundreds of black folding chairs were set out in front of City Hall yesterday by Brien McMahon high school students to raise awareness of child abuse. Each chair represented one of 253 children that was abused in Norwalk in 2009. As people entered and exited City Hall they passed the "The Chair Project" and read the signs on the backs of chairs which hauntingly described potential victims of child abuse: "someone's niece", "a 3 year old girl", "your neighbor".
"Our purpose in setting up the chairs is to raise awareness about the issue of child abuse in Norwalk," said Molly Yordon, a junior at BMHS. Yordon is part of the Senators Community Foundation which is part of Center for Youth Leadership at Brien McMahon. The mission of SCF is to prevent child abuse through public awareness actvities, volunteer programs for abused children and social change campaigns.
"Our members choose provocative and dramatic displays because they want people to stop and think - even if it's for just a minute - about the issues we address. Our members have talked about '...capturing people's senses' when they design displays and activities," wrote Bob Kocienda, director of the Center for Youth Leadership, in an email. On April 10, members of SCF will place 1,531 stuffed animals in front of City Hall to raise awareness about the link between animal cruelty and child abuse. Each stuffed animal represents a child who was abused last year in Fairfield County.
Yordon and fellow activists were passing out fact sheets on child abuse to passersby. In 2009, 905,000 children were abused in the United States and 8,544 children were abused in Connecticut, according to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. Hocienda says there has been a 26 percent increase in the number of reported child abuse cases in Norwalk from 2008 to 2009, from 192 cases to 253 cases. He says that experts attribute the increase to a stressful economy and increased public awareness.
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