Lee's longstanding commitment to children shows up everywhere she goes, and is very obvious in where she puts her support in Congress. Congresswoman Lee founded the Congressional Children's Caucus (CCC) during the 105th Congress in 1995, making kids a priority in the chambers of the federal government. The CCC is a bi-partisan forum that focuses on health and welfare challenges of children. She founded the Caucus because she realized that children traditionally do not get a hearing in high places. The CCC, and its sixty members of Congress made a commitment to kids of the U.S. to remember them, help them, and legislate on their behalves.

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee shows up where big things are happening that concern kids. Two years ago, in May of 2002, the UN held an unprecedented General Assembly on Children to discuss progress on children's health and welfare since the 1990 World Summit on Children. Heads of state, young people, government leaders, non-governmental organizations, and children's advocates attended. Areas in need of improvement were identified.

A month following the General Assembly on Children, an unprecedented Congressional briefing was held entitled: "The United Nations Special Session on Children: What Progress Will We Make in the Coming Decade." Representative Lee (D-TX), Chair of the CCC and Co-Chair, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), sponsored the briefing along with the Global Health Council, the U.S. Fund for Unicef, the U.S. Coalition for Child Survival and the UN Information Center. Over 125 Congressional staffers and healthcare professionals attended the briefing that the two leaders of the Congressional Children's Caucus stepped up to sponsor.

At the briefing, four areas in need of improvement were identified and plans of action were made. Of the areas in need of improvement two particularly relate to Stop the Silence's national goals and organizational structure. First, we must all do better "to protect children against abuse, exploitation and violence." Second, we must "go beyond government leadership" to adequately address the needs of the world's children.

The Race and Campaign to Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse is poised to address these two areas by continuing to into relationships with partners from every sector of society-from policymakers to bikers clubs; by drawing national attention to the public wall of silence surrounding child sexual abuse that must be taken down, together, brick by brick, 10k Race by 10k Race across this nation; and by supporting comprehensive programming that focuses on both the prevention and treatment of CSA through counseling, community outreach, training of service providers, research, policy development, and other prevention measures.

We are glad to share the Race course with Representative Sheila Jackson Lee and the many other Congressional supporters listed on our Home Page and those waiting in the ranks to join up. Many thanks to all of you. We hope to see you all walking or running in the Race with your staffers on April 17, 2004.