Our Mission

AngelicPreneur Kathylee Forrester, Living Light Kids & Patches the Bear are dedicated to advocating for children, guiding them to find their voice. With the help of Patches and the eight expressive emotion face symbols, children can learn to name, understand and appropriately express the emotions he/she is feeling.  This enables children to learn, form relationships, build their sense of worth, develop coping skills and to express their feelings, all of which empower them to endure challenges, through life’s journey of happy times and painful moments.”

Patches the Bear was illustrated by - Robin James of The Serendipity Books

Patches new friend and “Spokesperson”  is child actress Audrey Scott!  Check out Patches and The AngelicPreneur FaceBook page to follow Audrey and Patches !

Audrey playing the part of Amy Poehler | Leslie Knope of Parks & Recreation

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AngelicPreneur & Child Abuse Expert, Kathylee Forrester Invites you to join our ” Patches Fuzzy Hugs ” Campaign!

Detective Darrin DeCoster - About Kathylee Forrester
Fairfax County Police Department
Major Crimes Division
Sex Crimes Investigations —-I attended Kathylee’s class a couple of years ago at a training seminar for professionals dealing with child abuse both physical and sexual in nature.  As an attendee you could pick from different tracts.  I am a Police Detective investigating Child Abuse and chose investigative in lieu of social worker or medical professional.  But what I kept hearing people say that were interested in all three tracts was, “make sure you attend Kathylee Forrester’s class.”  I had never heard of her but looked on the agenda and saw that she was a victim of abuse as a child and she was there to tell us what she went through.  Boy was that an understatement!

From the moment she started speaking she had me hooked.  I couldn’t look away, I was annoyed by anyone making noise, and I wanted to move to the front of the classroom so I didn’t miss a word.  She told us her story of abuse and I felt a strange mix of emotions.  I felt great sadness for her, I felt anger for her abusers, and I felt shame for me.  I felt shame because I then realized I hadn’t been taking care of my child victims like I should have.  In my career I had worked narcotics cases, assault cases, theft cases, and child abuse cases among many other kinds.  But I more or less treated all of my victims the same.  I treated them professionally but didn’t think much about them, their feelings, or how my treatment of them through the whole process could affect them forever.  I treated them like a “case” instead of a child.

What I realized is that I needed more empathy and needed to look at things from a child’s point of view more.  I needed to see what an adult, a Sheriff, and a courtroom looked like from their eyes.  That meant I needed to crouch down and see what all that looked like at three feet tall.  That meant listening to the way people talk in court and what “big words” they use and how they ask questions.  That meant understanding that I likely knew my abuser and there is now a family struggle.

It also meant listening to the child, making sure they knew I believed them and was there to help, and do whatever I needed to do to take care of them every step of the way.  In fact it meant doing things that aren’t “in my job description” and continue to even after the process is over, if it ever actually is for a child victim.

I am a trained and experienced person in this area of investigations but Kathylee opened my eyes and taught me there is no truer victim then a child and no more fragile.  No matter your “job” you have to have a heart, empathy, and you have to be willing to exceed the standard expectations or you aren’t taking care of that child like you should be.  Its OK, even as a professional, to care about your victim.  Make sure that child remembers you for the right reasons as they grow.  That little boy or girl will remember this experience and you forever.  How will you be remembered?

You completely changed my style and personality as a Detective Kathylee!  Thank you!!