Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 3073

Tonight's special guest is Jim Heaney from Chicago, Illinois, a survivor of child sexual abuse. He's an advocate and author of 'A Book for Someone', just released recently on Amazon. Jim was born into a poor Irish American family. At the age of eleven, while he delivered newspapers, he was profiled, groomed, sexually assaulted, and traumatized.  The following week, Jimmy was caught hiding the newspapers in garbage cans. Jimmy's needy parents forced him to deliver the newspapers the next week, and his fear of being molested again intensified. Jimmy's sadness and desperation escalated. Jimmy enlisted an older boy in his neighborhood to protect him. A burglary occurred where Jimmy was blamed for stolen jewelry. At eleven, Jimmy found himself in a police station, being interrogated for jewelry theft. An older policeman realized that Jimmy might have been molested and tried to persuade his father to help Jimmy, but his father declined the help, disowning him and calling him 'a queer'. Jimmy's suffering led to poor grades and addiction, and he  became a discipline problem. Jimmy had a sixth-grade teacher, Miss Hope, who realized that something horrible had happened to Jimmy. He was angry and overeating. Miss Hope convinced Jimmy that it wasn't his fault and shared that she was also assaulted as a teenager. Miss Hope taught Jimmy what had helped her survive. As he grew, Jim was depressed, obese, and an addict. He worked as a drunken day laborer to survive. Close to homelessness, Jim turned to crime and became a co-conspirator in the theft and arrest of a million dollars. In 1981, Jim received probation and entered Alcoholics Anonymous as a condition of it. Jim discovered a community in the rooms and started healing through the 12 steps. Now he believes his life has meaning.