A fundraiser to end child abuse and parental alienation, sponsored Psychological Abuse/Parental Alienation Support & Intervention (PAS/PASI) and Executive Director and Founder Joan T. Kloth-Zanard, is being planned for Sunday, June 30, from 2 to 7 pm, at Murphy’s Pub, 71 South Main Street. The event will include live music, buffet, and raffles.

Tickets for the annual event are $25 adults, $15 for young adults over 13, and $10 ages 13 and under.

Advance tickets are available at pas-intervention.org/events. For those who cannot attend but would like to support the cause, donations can be made via pas-intervention.org/donate-now.

Ms Kloth-Zanard started this group for divorced or separated children and spouses, she said, “because my husband became alienated and dealt with psychological abuse from his ex-wife.”

The abuse also hurt the children, she said.

“It was more his children dealing with the psychological abuse. The kids hate the father based on what they are told,” she explained.

According to pas-intervention.org, “Since 1996, [Ms Kloth-Zanard] has been working with survivors of abuse, and in particular, psychological abuse related to high-conflict divorce where one parent deliberately undermines a loving relationship with the other parent.”

She said, “It’s about ending this form of child abuse. Children don’t have the emotional and mental maturity “to handle a parent’s negativity.” Adults “can help ourselves,” but a child doesn’t have that ability, she said.

“Physical abuse, you can see. Psychological abuse, you only see signs and symptoms,” she said.

Ms Kloth-Kanard found “that many parents go through this, and I started the nonprofit providing information,” and a host of other resources to help families and children.

She does not believe the court system or children’s services “have the training and education” necessary to handle damage done by divorce or separation.

“We want to help them get this training,” she said. Ms Kloth-Zanard also can put families in touch with experts and professionals by referral.

“This is a genderless issue,” she said, and feels the family courts and professionals “are not properly trained to recognize or deal with.” She fears “huge mistakes” are causing children and families “great harm.”

During the past 23 years, she has “created tools and programs” for the children in need.

“I want to focus on ending child abuse,” she said.

Ms Kloth-Zanard is also author of Where Did I Go Wrong? How Did I Miss the Signs? Dealing with Hostile Parenting and Parental Alienation and Broken Family Bonds: Poems and Stories from Victims of Parental Alienation.

Funds raised through the sales of those books also support PASI’s free services and support groups, resources and information, referrals to professionals, and more. All funds help to keep the non-profit running.

According to pas-intervention.org, “No matter what you call it, it is a form of psychological abuse when a parent is alienated from their children. At PAS Intervention, we are dedicated to ending child abuse and parental alienation through educational awareness, research/development, free online support groups, legislation, legal and any other venue available to us.”

PAS Intervention is a tax-exempt charitable organization approved under Sec 501(c)(3) of the IRS. Learn more at pas-intervention.org and contact her at pasintervention@aol.com.