Green Bear Junction aims to teach parents, children about body safety

With the help of the mascots Green Bear and his sister Tiffy Bear, Discovery Playhouse hopes to provide an entertaining and informational experience to both parents and children.

At 10 a.m. April 9, Discovery Playhouse in Cape Girardeau will open its Green Bear exhibit to provide information and resources to parents and children about body safety. The children's museum has partnered with the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence (SEMO-NASV) for a pilot program teaching children how to recognize and tell an adult when they have been treated inappropriately or abused.

The program will also provide parents with helpful resources to protect their children who do report being abused and for parents who have experienced abuse in their pasts.

The Green Bear Project was created by Leasa Stone in 2001 in memory of 2-year-old Baby Ty, who was tragically killed by his biological parents after returning from Stone's foster care. According to Stone on The Green Bear Project website, "Baby Ty was a boy who loved to be loved, and gave so much love in return. I was his foster mother for 1/4 of his short life. No child should suffer this abuse. It is up to concerned adults to protect our children from harm."

The Green Bear Project exhibit will be installed in a corner of Discovery Playhouse purchased by Southeast Hospital and will consist of multiple educational and entertaining features for children including games, a puppet show, scavenger hunt and interactive activities, according to Michael Toeniskoetter, executive director at Discovery Playhouse.

"We have this train that's going on the wall and each car of the train is a part of your community, so it is a 'Who can you tell train?' One car is your household, or family, and another car is your school," Toeniskoetter said. "What it teaches is, if you tell an adult and that adult doesn't do anything and that abuse keeps happening, you keep telling someone until someone does something."

The goal of the partnership between Discovery Playhouse and SEMO-NASV's Green Bear pilot program is to determine, over the course of a year, what parts of the exhibit are effective in sexual prevention education. The two organizations will then distribute the program to other museums across the nation when the program is thoroughly fleshed out.

According to www.missourikidsfirst.org at least 1 in 7 children in Missouri are abused or neglected each year and only 38% of children report being sexual abused.

Toeniskoetter believes talking about child abuse and prevention needs to become a less taboo topic and not continue to be an issue swept under the rug.

"We're a little nervous, too, because this is a really touchy subject and it's uncomfortable for people to talk about. Most things that used to be uncomfortable in history that are now commonplace, you have to start somewhere," Toeniskoetter said. "So, that's what we're trying to do, as well as make these conversations as normal as 'look both ways before you cross the street'."

Multiple universities have peer-reviewed the content displayed in Green Bear Junction and the employees of the playhouse have gone through SEMO-NASV reporter training, so if any child reports being mistreated or abused to them the employee can then contact the appropriate channels.

Discovery Playhouse is located at 502 Broadway in Cape Girardeau, and Green Bear Junction will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9 a.m. April 8 before the playhouse opens.