Children of Domestic Violence (CDV), the world’s leading organization focused on building awareness and developing scalable, effective solutions to help children and adults impacted by DV in childhood, just announced the launch of a new recognition called “CDV Champion” and named Roger Lockridge of Lewisburg the first Champion. This distinction is intended to highlight an exceptional person who faced domestic violence as a child, but has broken the cycle as an adult, is working to reach their full potential, and is helping others who were impacted to do the same.
Roger Lockridge is the first man in West Virginia to serve a domestic violence program as a speaking survivor, staff member, and member of the Board of Directors – all for Family Refuge Center. Roger is also well known in the bodybuilding and fitness industry as an award-winning fitness writer for Bodybuilding.com, Iron Man Magazine, and Labrada Nutrition, as well as for his own muscle-building transformation that has been featured all over the world. In addition, he currently works for the Child and Youth Advocacy Center as the Program Coordinator.
“To be recognized as the first CDV Champion is a tremendous honor,” Roger says. “The work they do to help children and adults impacted by childhood domestic violence around the world is incredible and making a huge difference for many people. To be associated with such a great group of people is inspiring and I thank CDV for this recognition and for the essential work they do for so many folks.”
Roger was recently featured in a Beckley community panel discussion on childhood domestic violence which was part of a local screening by the Women’s Resource Center (www.wrcwv.org) of CDV’s award-winning documentary film The Children Next Door. Roger has been working collaboratively with CDV over the past year to help elevate community awareness of this silent global epidemic, which is alarmingly low.
Childhood Domestic Violence – domestic violence when children are present – impacts nearly 1 billion globally. 5 million children experience it each year in the US alone and 40 million adult Americans used to be these children. That’s 1 in 6 Americans. The impact is hard to ignore. Children of domestic violence are 6 times more likely to commit suicide, 50 times more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, 74 times more likely to commit a violent crime…and 3 times more likely to repeat the cycle. UNICEF calls this silent epidemic “one of the greatest human rights violations in the world today.” But awareness of the impact on the children is less than 10 percent. Awareness and education are key to breaking the cycle. Help break the cycle. Visit www.cdv.org or call 212-330-8016.
Children of Domestic Violence (CDV) is a national nonprofit that works to help those who experience domestic violence in childhood break the cycle and reach their full potential. They do this by working to build universal awareness of childhood domestic violence, which is currently less than 10 percent, and by developing and deploying simple, free, research-based, scalable solutions with few barriers to access that can help as many people as possible. CDV is one of very few organizations worldwide to focus specifically on the experience of domestic violence in childhood and the potential lifelong impact. www.cdv.org.
CDV’s award-winning documentary, The Children Next Door, is an essential component of a national awareness campaign launched in September 2013 to spread awareness and education. www.TheChildrenNextDoor.com CDV’s groundbreaking Change a Life program, spearheaded by the world’s leading researcher, and endorsed by UNICEF, is available online to help train any caring adult to step into the life of a child of domestic violence with simple support and messages of hope that can help change their life. There’s no other program like it in the world today. www.cdv.org/change-a-life
