Zero Tolerance Event: Planners Think Big Impact

by Carrie Henderson

One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused by age 18, according to the Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center (TBCAC), a group dedicated to the identification, treatment, awareness and prevention of sexual and physical abuse of children.

Since opening its doors almost two years ago, the TBCAC has helped more than 270 children – 170 last year alone – in the Grand Traverse region. The most common age served? Four.

“Those numbers are of pandemic proportions,” says Brooke Nettz, executive director of the TBCAC. “Child abuse will continue to exist until humanity pulls together and says ‘enough!’ Let's start here in northern Michigan.”

The TBCAC believes if only one child is abused, that’s one too many. And so, for the second year, it will be hosting the Zero Tolerance Event in an effort to educate and inform the public on the reality of child abuse. The free event is Saturday, April 21 and is slated at this point to take place at the State Theatre.

Representatives from local agencies – including law enforcement, teachers, social services and business leaders – will come together to pledge their support and commitment to the well being of area children. 

“The Zero Tolerance Event currently only happens here in Traverse City, but our plan is to spread it across the nation,” Nettz says.

Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Tribal Chairman Derek Bailey says his tribe is a strong advocate of the TBCAC and its mission. On Monday, the tribe presented the organization with $23,000 as part of its biannual two percent gaming revenue allocation.

“Abuse can definitely be generational,” says Bailey, “and by working together, there’s hope for breaking that cycle within individuals, families and communities.”

New for this year’s Zero Tolerance Event: a video contest. Students of all ages are encouraged to submit a five-minute online video that supports the theme. Photography and film industry experts will judge the videos, and the winner will receive a $500 downtown gift certificate.

The event will begin at 1 p.m. with the Grand Traverse Band's Mino Biimaadiziwin “Good Life” Hoop Dance Society, followed by a viewing of short films by local students, break dancing and a police-escorted walk down Front Street and a community mural painting at Ecco.

“We owe it to the 170 children served by the TBCAC in 2011 – and our area children currently suffering abuse in silence – to know that the adults in their lives are not afraid to get the facts about child sexual abuse, are willing to learn how to protect our children to prevent abuse, and how to respond when confronted with a report of abuse,” says Shelley Kester, chair of the TBCAC and family law attorney.

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