Drake Creative

Child abuse is almost an impossible topic for discussion. We all know it’s wrong. It’s difficult just to think about it. But when 3.6 million children are abused in the US every year, a full 1 percent of our population, it’s not a conversation we can ignore.

In 2023, about 550 cases walked through the doors of the Center for Prevention of Child Abuse in Poughkeepsie, NY. Of those, 330 merited a forensic interview. Almost one every day. One of those children was Maddie. That’s not her real name, she’d like to protect her privacy. But she understood that telling her story might prevent other children and parents from experiencing what she and her family did.

The goal of documentary-style, mission-driven content is to show what an organization does through the real-world experiences of real people. Nothing conveys an idea with the same impact as empathy, and connecting with someone through story is as old as human civilization.

Real stories, well told, can accomplish a lot. They can teach a community while they unite it. They can open pocketbooks.

They can even heal. “I’ve known from the very beginning that I wanted to share my story and be as open about it as possible…. because I knew if I hid it, and I wasn’t honest and upfront about what had happened to me, I wouldn’t ever really be able to heal, because you can’t heal from the things you’re not honest about.” —Maddie