In an effort to help other families recovering from the aftermath of an abduction Jaycee Dugard addressed the media for the first time since her interview 4-years-ago with Diane Sawyer at Missouri Western Wednesday to talk about the JAYC foundation.

“Something very important to my family was that we had a place to connect and rediscover each other in a very non-threatening, very safe environment and that’s exactly what we’ve created with the JAYC foundation,” Dugard said.

In 1991 Dugard was kidnapped at the age of 11 by two strangers from a bus stop in her hometown of Lake Tahoe.  After 18-years of physical and emotion abuse she was reunited with her mother and family in 2009. During her time in captivity she also gave birth to two daughters.

Dugard was one of the keynote speakers during Western’s third annual conference on Child Abuse: Education, Prevention and Investigation.

“I’m really excited to be here and to be able to share the foundation and what we do,” Dugard said. “The more important thing is the connection of families and that there is hope after trauma, whether it be abduction or even taken by a family member…any kind of post-trauma. It’s really important that you give the sense that there is hope for re-connection with your family and that it’s never too late.”

Dugard was joined by Dr. Rebecca Bailey, a clinical psychologist and forensic psychologist who specializes on complex case scenarios and Jane Dickel who is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

“I think that it’s really important that the community has a big role in how these families can adjust, ” Dr. Bailey said. “Cause this also happens to the community.  Jay didn’t happen to go back to the community she was abducted from but that could very well be the case.”

Dickel said the simplest thing to do it based on what the JAYC Foundation’s message is, “Just Ask Yourself to Care.”

“That’s really easy to say but a lot more difficult to sometimes put into play,” Dickel said. “The importance of just asking yourself to care about even little things and the power of choice.”

During Wednesday evening’s presentation Dickel said just noticing who people around you are could lead to the rescue of individuals in situations like Jaycee’s.

Dugard talked about coming home again during the presentation after not seeing her family for 18-years and the difficulty she faced reunifying her two daughter and herself into the environment.

Because of her experience she said she wanted to create the foundation to help families receive reunification assistance to aid in their recovery.

“When something like this happens to an individual the whole family is just lifted up and dumped on their heads.  There is no normal anymore there’s a new normal that they can learn from the services but it effects immediate family, extended family and what was normal before just isn’t going to be normal anymore,” Dr. Bailey said.