Singer Lance Bass headlines Fight Child Abuse episode for Barbara Sinatra Center

Entertainer Lance Bass has partnered with The Barbara Sinatra Children's Center to headline the new episode of its fightchildabuse.org virtual series.

Bass’ episode was part of a larger month-long campaign by the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center for National Child Abuse Prevention month in April, which called for 100,000 people across the globe to pledge their commitment to the prevention of child abuse.

The goal of this virtual campaign's third series is to bring child abuse prevention and awareness content to life, pairing notable figures who are advocates or have survived sexual abuse with customized, interactive segments and animated conversations with characters from the Fight Child Abuse campaign. While the series works to enable young people to identify signs of abuse, Bass’ episode focused specifically on parents and trusted adults and how they can speak to their children about protecting themselves from abuse.

In October, Bass became a new parent himself, and he has done previous advocacy work around child abuse prevention.

“Protecting children has always been a cause I've felt compelled to be an advocate for, especially as someone who grew up in the entertainment industry,” Bass said. “And now that I’m a parent, the fight to increase awareness, prevention and make the world safer for kids has come with new meaning on a personal level.”

Past episodes in the virtual series starred gold medalist Aly Raisman and American Ninja Warrior Flip Rodriquez, both child abuse survivors, who discussed ways to help recognize and respond to abuse. The $1.5 million fightchildabuse.org campaign debuted in 2020 and was designed in direct response to the heightened risks children were facing due to the pandemic.

"Our virtual event series was developed as a resource to help protect and advocate for those in vulnerable situations," said John Thoresen, director and CEO of the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center Foundation. “We are so excited to be partnering with Lance Bass, who brings a new perspective as a parent to this campaign. Lance is extremely influential, passionate and articulate helping to drive the conversation to a wider audience."

To view Bass’ episode, visit: fightchildabuse.org/virtualseries and click “watch” or watch via YouTube at youtu.be/isz8D73-fRo.

As a result of the campaigns, the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center's abuse prevention videos have reached more than 100 million children worldwide, including 50 million individual and group viewings on YouTube. Translated versions of the videos are now being used in China, Ukraine, Tanzania and India and are also available to Spanish-speaking communities in the United States and abroad. All its videos are produced in conjunction with the Joshua Center for Child Sexual Abuse at the University of Washington and Wonder Media, LLC.

About the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center

Founded in 1986 by Barbara and Frank Sinatra, the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center is dedicated to ensuring every child's right to a normal, healthy and secure childhood. Since its creation, about 23,000 children have received outpatient mental health and counseling services at the center, which provides individual, group and family therapy and special programs that address issues associated with children suffering the effects of child abuse and neglect. An estimated 700 children are counseled annually on an outpatient basis, and no child is ever turned away because of a family's inability to pay.

The center also provides forensic services and child abuse counseling services to more than 1,000 children a year at its facility on the campus of Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage.

For more information on the organization call (760) 773-1627 or visit fightchildabuse.org.

Kathleen Bennett is the founder/principal of Resort Marketing, an award-winning company based in Palm Springs with the experience and expertise to assist in achieving the dreams and goals of each client. Since establishing her firm 25 years ago, Bennett consults in the fields of hospitality, business and nonprofit organizations. She is on the executive committee for the Palm Springs Walk of the Stars and still finds time to volunteer in the community.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Lance Bass headlines Fight Child Abuse episode for Sinatra Center