STATE COLLEGE, CENTRE COUNTY - Child sex abuse has been a big topic of conversation for the past year and a half, and now, folks in the State College community are hoping to expand that conversation further.
Pictures are ways to tell stories, and the ones drawn on these walls tell the story of a community, rocked by a major scandal.
"I've heard sadness and disappointment, I've heard anger," Marilyn Anderson said.
There are many issues communities face that challenge its residents and call for reflection. In the State College community, the issue of child sex abuse has come to a forefront.
"Being a survivor of child sexual abuse, it's been very personal to me and has brought up many emotional reactions of things I thought I had dealt with," Gini Tucker said. "Suddenly, the situations come back and it's back impacting your life."
Tucker has lived in State College for many years. She says living through her own abuse and experiencing it once again through the children abused by Jerry Sandusky has pushed her to take action.
"What can we do? What is there that, as average people in this community, who care about this community and want to see it heal and want it to become an example of what could be happening in the world, what can we do," she said.
And that's the exact question the World Cafe is trying to answer. These cafe forums are the chance for folks to come together to talk about what can be done to make changes.
"I think a lot of people want to do something, but don't know what to do, feel paralyzed by the process," Marilyn Anderson said. "Here's an opportunity to explore and do deeper thinking about what we could do to help young people, to help foster change."
Anderson says she's overwhelmed by the optimism.
"People have come up with remarkable ideas and very simple and profound ideas of things they can do," she said. "Just one thing that they will do to contribute to the process of supporting families, of ending child sexual abuse."
And like Anderson, Tucker hopes the fight for change will continue.
Pictures are ways to tell stories, and the ones drawn on these walls tell the story of a community, rocked by a major scandal.
"I've heard sadness and disappointment, I've heard anger," Marilyn Anderson said.
There are many issues communities face that challenge its residents and call for reflection. In the State College community, the issue of child sex abuse has come to a forefront.
"Being a survivor of child sexual abuse, it's been very personal to me and has brought up many emotional reactions of things I thought I had dealt with," Gini Tucker said. "Suddenly, the situations come back and it's back impacting your life."
Tucker has lived in State College for many years. She says living through her own abuse and experiencing it once again through the children abused by Jerry Sandusky has pushed her to take action.
"What can we do? What is there that, as average people in this community, who care about this community and want to see it heal and want it to become an example of what could be happening in the world, what can we do," she said.
And that's the exact question the World Cafe is trying to answer. These cafe forums are the chance for folks to come together to talk about what can be done to make changes.
"I think a lot of people want to do something, but don't know what to do, feel paralyzed by the process," Marilyn Anderson said. "Here's an opportunity to explore and do deeper thinking about what we could do to help young people, to help foster change."
Anderson says she's overwhelmed by the optimism.
"People have come up with remarkable ideas and very simple and profound ideas of things they can do," she said. "Just one thing that they will do to contribute to the process of supporting families, of ending child sexual abuse."
And like Anderson, Tucker hopes the fight for change will continue.
