Step Up, Speak Out

Step Up, Speak Out “Step Up, Speak Out! Together We Can End Child Abuse”

“Step Up, Speak Out!” stemmed from Sam Sicard’s response to the recent Penn State events and the lack of actions initially taken against them. To better understand situations like these that could be happening in our area, Sam decided to tour the Hamilton House, a local center for abused children. He was shocked to learn of the immense number of cases the program sees per month, and was even more

stunned by how close these types of things were happening to our home. He then devised a plan that would gather the community to fight for these victims, and so “Step Up, Speak Out!” was born. A quote from Sam Sicard, Co-Chairperson “Step Up, Speak Out!”:

“On a personal level, I was moved when I saw all the children’s handprints on the wall of the Hamilton House, then I came home and stared at my daughter’s handprint we have on our refrigerator when she was 3 years old. In addition, when I went to the Hamilton House that day, there was a 3 year old there that had burn marks on her. I will never forget that day, and watching the Hamilton House staff and hearing the stories from law enforcement that they deal with everyday have caused me to realize there are real-life heroes in our community”

06/09/2020
Today is the 2019 Spring Block Parties for Step Up, Speak Out! Join us at Spradling Elementary from 4pm-6pm or at the Ev...
04/17/2019

Today is the 2019 Spring Block Parties for Step Up, Speak Out! Join us at Spradling Elementary from 4pm-6pm or at the Evans Boys and Girls Club from 5pm-7pm! Free hot dogs and snacks, t-shirts, games for the kids and your chance to take home a bike or a skateboard! Plus, learn valuable info about child abuse in our area and how you and your kids can STEP UP AND SPEAK OUT against it!

What do we do? Watch this:

This is why we do what we do...
04/04/2018

This is why we do what we do...

04/03/2018

We're at it again! The spring STEP UP SPEAK OUT Block Parties are set. Join us tomorrow (April 4th) starting at 5PM in Fort Smith at Trusty Elementary & Cavanaugh Elementary, and in Vian, Oklahoma! Then, another round coming up on April 19 in Ozark and Van Buren (Freedom Park.) This all started to help keep our kids safe, and there's still much work to do! Please join us and STEP UP and SPEAK OUT!

04/04/2017

Join us for our Spring 2017 Block Parties tomorrow (April 5th) from 5pm-7pm in Fort Smith at Beard Elementary & Lincoln Child Care Center and at the school grounds in Cedarville! Find one near you and come out for free food and drinks, bike and skateboard giveaways and important information on how we can help keep our kids safe!

It was aother great round of block parties this week! Thanks to all who helped make it happen, and thanks to the Southwe...
10/07/2016

It was aother great round of block parties this week! Thanks to all who helped make it happen, and thanks to the Southwest Times Record for the coverage! http://www.swtimes.com/sports/20161006/step-up-speak-out-in-mountainburg

Mountainburg Middle School students took part in a Step Up Speak Out event at the school on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016. Step Up Speak Out was created to

10/06/2016

"I would like to again thank all the tremendous volunteers and donors to Step Up Speak Out for allowing us to continue with our block parties to educate families on how to prevent, identify, and report the abuse of our community's children. We had 3 successful events last night thanks to the blessings of great weather and great volunteers. Most impressive was we had at least 600 at our first event at Mountainburg! That is hard to even fathom when the population of that community is around 630! To date, we have now had 36 Step Up Speak Out events with over 20,000 attendees. Our mission will continue, as hundreds of children from our community are being identified as being abused each year and one child being abused is too many!" -Sam Sicard

04/13/2016

Meet Josiah!

Planning next SUSO block parties! April 13 at Alma Boys & Girls Club and Lincoln Child Care, April 14 in Sallisaw!
03/30/2016

Planning next SUSO block parties! April 13 at Alma Boys & Girls Club and Lincoln Child Care, April 14 in Sallisaw!

03/28/2016

The Step Up Speak Out SPRING Block Parties are coming up Wednesday April 13th at the Alma Boys and Girls Club and Lincoln Child Care Center in Fort Smith! Stay connected for further details!

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Fort Smith, AR
72903

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