On Friday, Sept. 8, child advocates came together for the second annual Limestone Child Advocacy Center Conference. Several speakers were on the agenda including attorney and advocacy partner Deborah Bell-Paseur, Antonio Grate, advocate Margaret Hoelzer and Darkness to Light lead instructor Carol Hogue.

Bell-Paseur talked about the commitment that the Alabama Legislature made to put children first.

“When the Children First legislation passed, every member of the legislature signed a commitment, we will put children first. What they meant by that was they would deal with funding for children in the session and things like that. We were really able to convince them that this is important,” said Bell-Paseur. “If we say we love children, if we say they are our most important resource, then let’s act like it.”

Youth and foster care inspirational speaker Antonio Grate, who grew up in Chicago, shared his childhood experiences and the love he had for his grandmother.

“I’m not just from Chicago, I’m from the inner city of Chicago. I’m not just from the inner city, but what they call the ‘ghetto’ of Chicago. I saw the drugs. I saw the crime. Chicago was considered one of the ruthless cities during that time. Even in the midst of this, I had someone in my life who I absolutely loved and that was my grandmother. Unfortunately, she lost her battle with breast cancer and that put me in a very dark place as a child,” said Grate. “Because of my experiences, I felt my purpose was to mentor other young people who experienced trauma.”

Huntsville native Margaret Hoelzer had great success in her sport of swimming, competing for the Auburn Tigers and representing the United States in the Olympics in 2004 in Athens, Greece, and 2008 in Bejing, China. Hoelzer is now using her notoriety to bring awareness to child sexual abuse, something she experienced as a child herself.

“When I speak, I very intentionally use the word victim, and I very intentionally use the word survivor. To me, the first part of becoming a survivor is admitting that something that I didn’t want to happen happened and that’s okay,” said Hoelzer. “After that, we need to decide that we want to be a survivor. It’s not a destination. It’s a journey.”

Carol Hogue with Darkness to Light found the organization after her own son experienced sexual abuse. Carol facilitates the Stewards of Children program in an effort to get the community to commit to protecting children from sexual abuse.

“Stewards of Children is a training that covers a lot of material and provides people with some basic information on how they can begin to protect children the minute they leave the training. It’s very practical. It has a lot of good information, a lot of good facts, but it also lets people know what they can do to protect children and what to do if something were to happen later on. It really is a great, 101-type course for anybody in the community,” said Hogue.

According to their website, the primary goal of the Limestone Child Advocacy Center is to provide comprehensive, accessible, free services for 100 percent of children and families in Limestone County impacted by or at risk of child abuse. They seek to serve as a catalyst and coordinator to engage the community in the fight against child abuse.