An experience with a 10-year-old girl named Jasmine stuck in former San Diego City Attorney Casey Gwinn's mind for years.
"It was an amazing moment a number of years ago at Camp Hope when we were running it out in east San Diego County," Gwinn said. "I was just praising her at a campfire for being kind to the frogs that were jumping around on the shore of the lake one afternoon, and that night I honored her in front of the whole group and all the kids cheered for her."
After the campfire was over Gwinn recalled Jasmine came up to him and said, "Thank you, no one has ever cheered for me before."
That interaction inspired the title of Gwinn's new book, "Cheering for the Children: Creating Pathways to HOPE for Children Exposed to Trauma."
As co-founder of the national Family Justice Center Alliance, Gwinn works with children like Jasmine, who attended Camp Hope because she was exposed to domestic violence.
But how would something as simple as a sincere compliment make a difference in the life of a child like Jasmine?
[For more of this story, written by Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh, Peggy Pico, go to http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/may/18/giving-children-exposed-trauma-hope/]
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