INTEGRATING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION INTO YOUR COMMUNITY Nancy Corley, MA, LPC Marissa Gunther, MSW, LMSW

What do you want to get out of this training? What would make this time productive for you?

Training Outline  Effective Prevention: Public Health Model  Let’s Make this Practical: Target Areas for Action  Research  Public Awareness and Education  Policies and Organizational Practice  Collaborative Practice  Breaking it down: What does this mean for me?  Individual Action  Community Action  Policy-Level Action

Why is prevention important?

Public Health Model Tiers of Prevention:  Primary  Secondary  Tertiary Sexual abuse results as a combination of individual, relationship, community and societal factors, all need to be addressed to effectively prevent it. What would it mean to prevent child sexual abuse?  Fewer victims  Children are free to live without sexual trauma  Decrease the risk of future perpetration  Reduction in health care and mental health care costs  Increase engagement of bystanders  Promote healthy social norms  Promote healthy development and safe, stable relationships for children

Let’s Make this Practical Action Areas: Research Public Awareness and Education Policies and Organizational Practice Collaborative Practice As suggested by the National Plan to Prevent the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children

Research Promote the use of research to guide sexual abuse prevention practice. Find and use the most up-to-date research and trends to help understand:  Risk and protective factors  Help for victims  Help for perpetrators  Effective prevention, response and treatment models  What the issue looks like in your community

Research Resources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Sexual Violence Resource Center National Child Traumatic Stress Network Child Welfare Information Gateway  Advocate for further research to advance understanding of child sexual abuse.  Use research to develop effective prevention tools and share those tools.

Public Awareness and Education  Public awareness alone does not prevent child sexual abuse, but can lay a foundation for change.  Education can address knowledge, skills and behavior change. Sample Campaigns:

Community Implementation:  What exactly is my goal?  Community Outreach  Know your facts about child sexual abuse Missouri Kids Count  Know your community Who does what? Has that changed recently? Who do I (& Board, Boss, Co-workers, etc.) know?  Consider your target audience  Who do I need to spread the message to?  Why is that person(s) important? Public Awareness and Education

Activity: MAKE A LIST!  Name of Organization, Agency, Business, Professional Club, Key Stakeholder  Contact Person  Telephone number  address  Physical address  Why them? (Again, what’s my goal?)

Policies and Organizational Practices  Promote prevention programs that are evidence- based and can be molded to meet the needs of communities and organizations.  Example: Darkness to Light’s “Stewards of Children”  Choose and support policies that prevent child sexual abuse in your organization.  Resource: Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Preventing Child Sexual Abuse within Youth-Serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures

Policies and Organizational Practices  Maintain a balance between keeping children safe with the need to nature and care for them.  Share information about successful policies and procedures with other organizations in your community.

Policies and Organizational Practices Sample policies:  Create policies that address or eliminate one adult- one child situations.  What does this look like in your organization?  Insist on staff and volunteer screenings that include:  Criminal background checks  Personal Interviews  Professional reference checks  Complete screenings periodically

Policies and Organizational Practices Sample policies:  Monitor behavior between all adults and children, including older youth who may have the responsibility to care for children.  Create a response system to inappropriate behavior, suspicions and breaches in policy. Enforce it!  Insist on frequent and consistent training of all staff and volunteers about child sexual abuse.

Policies and Organizational Practice Adoption of different policies will vary depending on these contextual issues:  Your organization’s mission and activities  Culture and language of those served by your organization  Insurance requirements  Available resources

Collaborative Practice Promote local and state level collaboration among organizations to work together to prevent child abuse.  Build relationships with individuals and organizations in related areas to child abuse:  Child Advocacy Centers  Domestic Violence  Mental Health Professionals  Early Childhood Development  Animal Abuse  Others?? Who could you partner with?

Collaborative Practice  Combine resources to support prevention efforts.  What does this take?  Promote sexual abuse prevention as a unit.  Use “reach” of the collaboration to increase public awareness.  Identify your constituencies/target groups  Develop a shared message  Disseminate together

Collaborative Practice Community Coalition Implementation:  Who needs to be at the table? Other non-profits, organizations, businesses, faith- based organizations, key stakeholders  MAKE A LIST!  Top-down buy-in AND level-to-level buy-in  Convenient time/place to meet  Over lunch  Central location  Plenty of parking

Collaborative Practice: Examples Statewide Collaborations: Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children Missouri Prevention Partners Community-based Collaboration: The Alliance of Southwest Missouri (CBCAP Model)

Taking Action

Breaking it Down: Individual Action ALL ADULTS ARE RESPONSIBLE IN PREVENTING SEXUAL ABUSE  Promote adult and community responsibility.  Educate children, youth and adults about how to prevent, recognize and respond to child sexual abuse.  Example: Bring Darkness to Light’s “Stewards of Children” to your community  Encourage people in your life to speak up against child sexual abuse and change norms that encourage secrecy and denial.

Breaking it Down: Individual Action  Pay attention! Observe and monitor the relationships children have with the adults around you.  Create environments that are inhospitable to perpetrators of abuse.  Contact organizations already working to end child sexual abuse to offer support.  Suggest ways organizations can invite youth and adults to have a role in a community plan to prevent child sexual abuse.

Breaking it Down: Community Action Child Sexual Abuse is a community problem that requires a community effort in order to identify effective community-wide prevention solutions.  Identify and Encourage Family/Parent Leaders and GET THEM INVOLVED.  Identify local leaders and GET THEM INVOLVED  Part of Prevention is Intervention  Support quality treatment and advocacy services  Encourage, support and provide child sexual abuse prevention training for everyone serving or interacting with children and youth AT EVERY LEVEL.

Breaking it Down: Community Action  Training should be on-going and a regular part of every organization’s policies and practices.  Form a community coalition dedicated to child sexual abuse prevention or;  Assess your current coalition to identify any new partners you would like to engage in your prevention efforts.  Assist all organizations in writing, implementing and enforcing child protective policies.  Begin with your own agency!

Breaking it Down: Community Action  Build in community outreach  Start a speaker’s bureau  Develop resources, materials to hand-out  Contact local clubs, churches, organizations  Outreach Presentation  What’s my goal?  How do I best make the initial contact?  Who is the audience going to be?  What’s the most effective format? 1 to 1 or group presentation or other?  Who will make the best “sell or ask”?  What AV or handouts do I need?

Breaking it down: Policy-Level Action  Support policies and practices that address child sexual abuse.  Does your organization have policies in place?  Are they they always implemented? If not, why not?  Meet with community leaders and policymakers and educate them about the importance of prevention. Do you know your district Representative and Senator? Have they heard from you? Build a relationship!

Breaking it down: Policy-Level Action  Advocate for federal and state funding that supports prevention, intervention and treatment.  Support the development of evidence-based policies and laws that work to end child sexual abuse.  What is the benefit of evidence-based policy vs. reactive policy?

References  National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual abuse and Exploitation. (2012). National Plan to Prevent the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (Rev. ed.). Retrieved from  Darkness to Light. (2007). Stewards of Children: A Prevention and Response Program for Adults: Charleston, SC.  Saul J, Audage. (2007). Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-Serving Organizations: Getting Started with Policies and Procedures. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control: Atlanta, GA.  Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children. (2012). Report from the Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children. Missouri KidsFirst, Children’s Trust Fund & Great Circle: Jefferson City, MO.

Contact Information Nancy Corley, Project CARE Director The Alliance of Southwest Missouri Marissa Gunther, Prevention Coordinator Missouri KidsFirst