Meet Alli Neal of Revved Up Kids

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alli Neal.

Alli, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The beginning of Revved Up Kids was an inspiration from God. I felt called to do this work, to protect children from the horrible abuses they face from predators. More than 1 in 10 of our children are sexually abused before they turn 18, and most abuse is never disclosed. This subject is so dark and scary that parents feel ill-equipped to discuss it with their children.

So the training Revved Up Kids provides addresses that by teaching kids in an age-appropriate way who predators are, how they operate, and what they can do to protect themselves if they ever meet a predator. We’re opening the conversation for parents, and then we’re providing follow up resources to help parents keep talking with their children about safety.

When we first started in 2010, we were providing our training for private groups who could afford to pay tuition. It was scout troops, neighborhood groups, private clubs, churches, etc. By 2013, the word was getting out about our training, and we were getting a lot of calls from groups who served economically disadvantaged children whose parents couldn’t afford tuition.

These kids needed our training but did not have financial access. We recognized the importance of the service we were providing to the community, and we wanted it to be available to ALL children, regardless of ability to pay. So in 2014, we reincorporated Revved Up Kids as a 501c3 nonprofit. This has enabled us to raise money that allows us to provide free training for those children.

Today, for every one child who pays tuition for our training, we train at least one child from a low-income community at no charge. As of December 2017, we have trained almost 12,000 children and teens throughout Atlanta to be safer from sexual abuse and exploitation.

Has it been a smooth road?
Our single biggest challenge is our mission focus! People simply do not want to talk about, or hear about, sexual abuse and exploitation of children. The problem is, the easiest target for a predator is the child who doesn’t know predators exist. So until we are able to talk about it openly, we’re never going to be able to put an end to it.

I was recently asked to submit a blog to an organization, and my blog was about the things I would have done differently in terms of safety with my own children if I had known then what I know now. In the blog, I mentioned the importance of using the proper names for private parts instead of the cute nicknames we often assign, and I listed proper names.

I also mentioned some statistics and mentioned trafficking. The organization came back to me and said they couldn’t publish the blog because it might be uncomfortable for some readers. This is exactly what we are up against every single day, and we continue to press forward because our precious children deserve to be safe.

Additionally, people don’t want to believe that it would ever happen to their child. They can’t fathom that anyone in their personal circle would be a child predator, but the truth is, that’s exactly who the predators are. They’re the people in your neighborhood, sitting behind you in church, leading your clubs; they’re the politicians, the judges, the community volunteers.

In every aspect of their lives, they are perfectly normal, except for this one horrible thing. Revved Up Kids helps parents understand this, understand that predators are everywhere that our children are, and understand how important it is to talk with our children about it so they know how to guard against being victimized.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Revved Up Kids is the only Atlanta based nonprofit whose sole focus is preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation. We work with private groups, schools, and child-serving organizations throughout metro-Atlanta and North Georgia, and we provide single session training programs that teach participants to recognize unsafe people, avoid dangerous situations, and escape attackers.

Our programs for children and teens include a self-defense component that teaches kids how to injure and escape a larger, stronger attacker. Our programs for parents help them understand how predators operate in their real and online worlds, and what they can do to protect their children.

Our programs for youth-serving organizations help them put safety protocols in place to ensure that they are doing everything they can to “predator-proof” their environments. We are completely focused on our vision, “a world where children are safe,” and we work tirelessly every day to spread our safety messages to groups throughout Atlanta.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Atlanta has been my home since the mid 80’s, and I can’t imagine living and working anywhere else. There are so many opportunities for small business people to network, find resources to grow, and to thrive.

Our state is strategic about the importance of creating a business-friendly environment, and I think they are doing a remarkable job. It’s encouraging to see large and small companies relocating to our area because they see what we already know, Atlanta is awesome!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.revvedupkids.org
• Phone: 678.526.3335
• Email: contact@revvedupkids.org
• Facebook: facebook.com/revvedupkids
• Twitter: twitter.com/revvedupkids
• Other: http://www.revvedupkids.org/donate/

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