Lauren's Kids Walk Returns

Lauren’s Kids resumed its “Walk in My Shoes” tour on April 19, with founder Lauren Book leading the 11th annual statewide awareness walk in Gainesville. (wcjb.com) The 2026 walk is a 1,500-mile trek across Florida that began in Key West and is scheduled to end in Tallahassee on May 1. Lauren’s Kids says participants can join for a block, a mile, or longer at stops around the state. (laurenskidswalk.org) In Gainesville, the April 19 community walk started at Child Advocacy Centers Inc., according to the event registration page. WCJB reported that Book walked with local groups and partner organizations during the stop. (runsignup.com) (wcjb.com) The tour is timed to April’s National Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month. Lauren’s Kids says the walk is meant to raise awareness, expand prevention education, and connect survivors with support. (laurenskids.org) Book, a former Florida state senator and child sexual abuse survivor, founded Lauren’s Kids as a prevention and survivor-support organization. Florida Politics reported that this year’s walk also launched “The Voices Project,” an oral-history effort that collects anonymous survivor stories. (floridapolitics.com) (laurenskidswalk.org) Other 2026 stops have paired the walk with local service providers, including Palm Beach County Victim Services in Boca Raton and the Women’s Center of Jacksonville in Northeast Florida. Those partnerships mirror the Gainesville event’s focus on outreach beyond the walk itself. (cbs12.com) (thewcj.org) Lauren’s Kids says the 2026 route runs through dozens of Florida communities before the final stop at the Capitol. The Gainesville walk marked one more leg in a monthlong campaign built around showing up in person, city by city. (laurenskidswalk.org)