You qualify for
membership in Take Root's Support & Advocates
Network if:
1) You were physically hidden from
your family
2) You were taken by someone holding familial
authority
3) You are currently age 18 or older.
Embarking
on a journey to understand how your past might be affecting you
today requires courage, but you won't be alone. Every single
Member of Take Root was hidden as a child. Each of us has a
different story and set of circumstances, but we do share much
in common....including being surprised to find a community where having been abducted is
the norm!
Our members discover common ground whether taken
by an abusive parent or to escape an abusive
parent, by mother
or by father, as an infant or
as an older child, with siblings or
alone,
settled under a new identity or constantly on the move....
° Was your name
changed?
° Do you still struggle with
issues of identity?
° Is your childhood among the long list of
things left-behind?
° Were you forced to lie?
° Were you a child protecting your parent(s)?
° Did you lose
all sense
of who you could depend on?
° Are you still trying to work out your relationship with your parent(s)?
° Do you continue to
feel isolated, or haunted by your abduction?
° Were
you physically or sexually abused?
° Does having been abducted change how you parent?
° Are
you surprised to see other folks talking about being abducted?
.....
These
are examples of the types of common experiences
Take Root Members share and discuss.
Our project has an additional mission beyond
personal healing. Very little is known by missing child service
providers, or by family members, about the lasting repercussions
of a childhood abduction and the issues with which abducted
children continue to struggle in adulthood. The unique insight
provided by members participating in our Support & Advocates
Network program is helping to shape treatment and services and resources
available for today's generation of parentally abducted children,
their families, and the professionals who assist them. Take Root
provides our Support & Advocates Network Members with the
opportunity to put difficult personal experiences to constructive
use.
Confidentiality is very important to
us. Whenever you see the name of a Member featured in Take Root
materials, it is with that Member's expressed consent. Some of
our Members do choose to participate in public speaking or sharing in order to raise issue
awareness, but that is an individual choice and it is not
necessary to go public in order to participate in and make a valuable contribution
to Take Root.
TO BECOME A MEMBER OF TAKE ROOT'S
SUPPORT & ADVOCATES NETWORK:
* * *
If you would like to learn more about the
experience of joining Take Root, we suggest you read
"Doing Fine," an article written by
Founding Member and Public Affairs Coordinator Sam McClain
about his initial reluctance to join, or
"Belonging" by Take Root Public
Advocate Rebekah, about what finding Take Root meant to
her.
A
note from Take Root Executive Director
and Member Liss:
I spent my life until age 33 reconciled to the idea that
people's jaws would drop when I told my childhood story. It
was my jaw that dropped the first time I told
it and heard someone say "me, too" in response. I had
a very different abduction story than the young woman I was
speaking to, but there were many common threads - including
challenges we had faced in adulthood. It was such a phenomenal
relief to be able to talk to someone who'd been there! And,
because of that, I was blown away that there were hundreds of
thousands of cases of parental abduction every year, yet NO
identifiable resources or support for those abducted. Starting
a comprehensive program became a mission.
As I started meeting others who had been abducted, they made
it
their mission, too.
Take Root officially started in March , 2002, with a group of
nine. We were 40 strong by January, 2003, when we successfully
obtained a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention. And we are growing every day.
It can be overwhelming to suddenly be in contact with people who
are all talking about a childhood abduction experience. Keeping
our mission in mind can help you find your way as you bring into
the open a story you may be used to keeping secret.
Participating as a Member in Take Root programs not only
provides you with support it also allows you to
contribute. Currently our voice - and its understanding of child
abduction from the child's perspective - is (pun intended)
missing in the field of missing and exploited children. That
needs to change. Together, we can make a difference in the types
of services available to individuals and families impacted by
parental abduction. Together, we can do more than recover
missing children - we can help missing children recover!
Take care and Take Root!
Liss Hart-Haviv
Executive Director, Take Root
(360) 673-3720
liss@takeroot.org
If you were not
parentally abducted as a child but would like to stay informed
about Take Root, please click here to join our mailing list.
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