By LaToya S. Watkins, North Dallas Gazette
Since Project Single Moms DFW launched its supportive arms to the single parents of Dallas/Fort Worth in January of 2009, a membership count of 74 single parents has been reported to the North Dallas Gazette. The organization, founded by CEO and director Stephanie Clark, was put into place after Clark’s My Daughter’s Keeper Inc. was founded in New Jersey in 2007. The stories of 47 single moms were told in a book titled Life As A Single Mom: It Isn’t Easy, Or Is It? Project Single Moms is a nonprofit, national advocacy and empowerment program, aimed at inspiring single mothers to be the change that they desire to see in their situations.
Project Single Moms offers support to the single parenting community ranging from financial literacy to homeownership information and personal and self-development. The program, which requires a membership that is free before July 30, also offers support such as parents’ night out for the mothers and activities for the single parent families as whole units as well. The group provides a 24-hour support telephone line for parents who need someone to call on anytime for support. There is even publishing information and services for parents who have written their stories down and feel that they are ready to share them with the world.
Project Single Moms has a few events coming up within the next few months that parents could benefit from greatly. The DFW chapter of the organization had its first meet and greet in early June and were quite please with the turnout. The group is planning a back to school event that will take place in August. There will be food, fun, and school supplies! Taylor explained, “We are even trying to get a few barbers and hair stylists to come out and offer services to help parents prepare for school as well.”
The coordinators are even planning as far ahead to an October kids night out — Boo at the Zoo. The group plans to meet up once a month for mixing and mingling, as well as hold a phone conference for all members once monthly to touch base and give parents a chance to reach more than once monthly. “We just want to have fun and support each other while doing so,” Belo stated enthusiastically.
Membership criteria for the organization are loose and lenient. “Two of our single parents are actually single fathers,” Taylor revealed right before Belo inserted, “There are actually now three single fathers in the group.”
For more information on starting a Project Single Moms chapter in your area contact one of the DFW coordinators at contactdfw@projectsinglemoms.com. For more information on national and local chapters or to join chapters of Project Single Moms, please visit www.projectsinglemoms.com.
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San Francisco, CA
Single Moms On Facebook And MySpace Warned About Pre-Schooler Pix Online –
“Single mothers who put photos of their pre-school kids on their social networking homepages are creating a happy hunting ground for pedophiles.”
The warning comes from Crystal Jacquez, managing editor of Guys and Lies.com, the online back grounding site designed for women.
“Single mothers almost always do it.” says, Jacquez. “It’s not only incredibly dangerous but worse, most single moms have absolutely no idea that it’s dangerous at all!”
“Think of it,” continues Jacquez, “if you’re one of the tens of thousands of pedophiles with a taste for really young kids, how do you get to them? Children under five or six are just too young to be online.
“So what does this most dangerous form of pedophiles do?” asks Jacquez, “He surfs social networking sites looking for the pages of young single mothers.
Literally, millions of single moms are now on social networks like Facebook and MySpace — and almost all of them proudly show off photos of their kids on their homepages and profiles.
So if you’re a pedophile stalking preschoolers, half an hour of searching out single mothers on social sites and you’ve got a dozen lush candidates – photos and all – just a few key strokes away”.
Not only that, but these predators know that these kids are often protected only by lonely, vulnerable women — women who are looking for men who they hope love children. WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY! It’s a pedophile’s dream!
Read this excerpt from a report in the journal American Psychologist, published by the American Psychological Association, regarding pedophiles stalking pre-schoolers on the internet:
“Finding prepubescent victims directly (on the Internet) is quite rare; such offenders use the Internet in other ways. Pedophiles typically get access to preschool victims through online contact with parents”
“If you have pictures of your child on line,” says Jacquez, “don’t be too surprised to get a message like the following from some nice sounding guy”:
“Hey! I just saw your profile on Facebook and you are one great looking lady — and that little girl of yours is just marvelous looking! She looks so bright etc. etc. etc!”
“You’re going to have a new best friend very soon,” she says. “Count on it!”
Who hasn’t heard of Lolita, one of the most famous books in America, in which the pedophile gets access to the prepubescent daughter by courting her divorced mother. You can still see the movie on cable TV with James Mason and Shelley Winters as the grown-ups and Sue Lyon as Lolita.?
Jacquez also cites the following statistic from: Offender Characteristics, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics re. Victim-offender relationships in sexual assault regarding who sexually assaults children under 6 years old.
Who assaults children under 6 years old:
Trusted family members: 48.6%
Strangers: 3.1%
Trusted family acquaintances: 48.3%
“If a pedophile targets your child’s photo on your homepage, trust us,” says Jacquez, “they’ll become a ‘trusted family acquaintance’ soon enough.
“Don’t close down your social network homepages” Jacquez says. “Just get those photos of your kids off them!”
“One thing more thing,” says Jacquez, “when you meet a new guy online, check him out immediately with us at Guys and Lies.com (www.guysandlies.com). Our site is free and was built in order to empower women to check out the backgrounds of guys that they meet online.
“First, check our Child Molesters Section where we access the photos and home addresses of over 360,000 registered sex offenders. Then check him out in our Criminal Records Section. Then check to see if he’s using a phony name. After that, check out all his claims about his background. “There is no way,” she says, “that you can be too careful.”
Guys and Lies also has a special page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/guysandlies, and on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/guysandlies.
Jacquez asks you to please forward this article to single moms you know who have their kid’s photos online..
Contact:
Crystal Jacquez, managing editor
Guys and Lies.com
415 678-8610
crystal@guysandlies.com
http://www.guysandlies.com
I thank you so much for what single moms are doing. I needs some help with a young lady that is homeless with four children. If anyone can help, please email me at marlenawilliams@att.net
Thank you,