Leonardtown Survivor Turns Personal Experience Into Mission To Help Families Navigate Life After Abuse

LEONARDTOWN, Md. — For Andrew Tinsley, the idea behind OSPREY began with a deeply personal experience and one persistent question:

“Who helps a family keep track of the whole picture?”

Tinsley, a Leonardtown native and survivor of childhood sexual abuse, is the founder of OSPREY, an early-stage nonprofit being developed to help young survivors and their families navigate the complicated network of services that can follow disclosure or reporting.

A family may suddenly find itself working with advocacy organizations, health care providers, investigators, attorneys, schools and community services. Each organization may be responsible for an important part of the response, but Tinsley said families can still be left trying to understand what happens next and whether essential connections were ever completed.

“The challenge is not always a lack of services,” Tinsley said in an interview with The BayNet. “It is that different services are often provided by different organizations, each with its own role, process and timeline.”

OSPREY — the Organization for Safety, Prevention and Reform for Exploited Youth — is not yet enrolling families or operating a live navigation service. Tinsley emphasized that the organization remains in its development stage as it works toward a responsibly designed pilot program.

The nonprofit will be introduced locally through a quarter auction Friday, Aug. 28, at the St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds in Leonardtown. The fundraiser will help OSPREY continue building the safeguards, partnerships, technology and operational foundation needed before it begins serving families.

A Personal Experience Becomes A Mission

Tinsley said his experience as a survivor is a significant part of what led him to establish OSPREY.

After childhood sexual abuse is disclosed or reported, families may be referred to several different organizations. However, receiving a referral does not necessarily mean a family has successfully connected with the service.

Families may still need to schedule appointments, arrange transportation, understand why a particular service is important and follow up when something does not happen as expected. They may be managing medical care, mental health support, advocacy, legal questions, an investigation and a child’s educational needs at the same time as their everyday responsibilities.

“What kept bringing me back to this work was a basic question: Who helps a family keep track of the whole picture?” Tinsley said.

His professional experience in clinical operations, care management, logistics and technology helped shape his approach to the problem.

“OSPREY grew from bringing those two parts of my life together: a problem I understand personally and the operational experience to begin building a practical response,” he said.

Introducing the organization in Leonardtown also carries personal meaning for Tinsley.

“Leonardtown is where I grew up, so introducing OSPREY here is meaningful to me,” he said. “The August 28 fundraiser is an opportunity to introduce the organization in my hometown and begin raising awareness of the problem it was created to address.”

Helping Families Navigate The Space Between Services

OSPREY’s proposed family-navigation model is intended to provide greater continuity as families move among specialized organizations.

The model would help families understand the process, identify their immediate needs and barriers, connect with appropriate professionals and follow up to determine whether those connections occurred. It would also help families maintain a clearer plan as responsibilities shift from one organization to another.

“The principle behind the organization is straightforward: no family should have to coordinate its own response to childhood sexual abuse,” Tinsley said.

OSPREY is not intended to replace child advocacy organizations, health care professionals, mental health providers, investigators, attorneys or other specialists already serving survivors.

Instead, the proposed model would focus on what happens between those services — helping families understand transitions, track referrals and maintain continuity throughout the process.

“The purpose is not to replace the professionals already providing treatment, advocacy, legal assistance, health care or investigative services,” Tinsley said. “It is to help families navigate the space between those services with greater clarity and continuity.”

Building Before Serving Families

Much of OSPREY’s current work is focused on preparing for a future pilot program.

That preparation includes defining what a navigator should and should not do, developing privacy and safeguarding practices, creating referral and follow-up procedures, establishing training and supervision requirements, and strengthening the nonprofit’s governance and financial foundation.

OSPREY is also developing Waypoint, a custom-built technology platform intended to support future coordination.

Tinsley said the organization must eventually measure more than how many referrals are issued. It will need to determine whether families made meaningful connections, whether barriers were addressed and whether the navigation model provided useful continuity without duplicating the work of existing organizations.

“We are building toward a pilot, but the right partnerships, operating agreements, funding and safeguards must be in place first,” Tinsley said.

OSPREY ultimately hopes to work alongside child advocacy organizations, victim-service providers, health care and mental health professionals, legal services, schools, social services and other community organizations. Those relationships are still being developed, and no formal partnerships have been established.

Quarter Auction To Support Early Development

The quarter auction benefiting OSPREY will be held Friday, Aug. 28, at the St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds, 42455 Fairgrounds Road in Leonardtown.

Doors open at 6 p.m., and the auction begins at 7 p.m.

During a quarter auction, attendees purchase numbered bidding paddles and use quarters to bid on prizes. When an item is presented, participants place the required number of quarters into a collection container and raise their paddles. A number is then selected, and the bidder wins the item if the corresponding paddle was raised and the correct bid was placed.

Paddles will be available for purchase at the event. Guests are encouraged to bring quarters, although a limited supply will be available to exchange for cash.

OSPREY will also have an informational table where attendees can meet organization representatives, learn more about the proposed navigation model and make direct donations.

Money received by OSPREY will support the work required to prepare for a pilot, including safeguarding and legal guidance, partner development, operating procedures, training standards, coordination technology and systems to evaluate and improve the model.

The organization has also established a $10,000 direct-donation goal through its Zeffy campaign. Tinsley clarified that the figure applies to donations made directly to OSPREY and is not an estimate of the auction’s anticipated proceeds.

Those unable to attend can learn more at OSPREY’s website or contribute through the organization’s Zeffy donation campaign.

For quarter-auction participation information, contact (301) 904-3277.

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