Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 1625

Tonight's special guest is Tori De Las Casas from Louisiana, currently a 21 year old college student who's taking on the role of a NAASCA volunteer family member by doing Outreach to Young Adult Survivors, a group we're sensitive about needing to reach. Tori's the perfect person to coordinate these efforts, and she'll start by running NAASCA's new Instagram account (@NAASCAinsta) and NAASCA's existing Twitter account (@NAASCAofficial).  Tori was born in California and moved to Louisiana around 5 or 6. "My parents divorced not too long after. One thing led to another and we ended up moving in with my step father," she says. "He molested me for a large period of time somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13." Even though he confessed her mother let him stay around. "I faced a large amount of emotional and verbal abuse while growing up. I remember bits and pieces, but large blocks of time are absent from my memory." Now she's had break through. "Recently, I was formally diagnosed with PTSD after a 5-day hospital stay. I filed charges against my parents as I began to realize the severity of the situation." We're glad Tori's engaging with NAASCA, where she'll never be along again, a day at a time. "I cut off contact with them [her parents] and began the process of recovery," she says."I want to prove to myself that I am nothing like them and that I am better off without them." Tori's off to a great start!