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A Comprehensive Resource to Keep Children Safe
Ready to learn more about preventing child sexual abuse at your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO)? Access your Learning Center and choose your learning path today.
There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to keeping children safe from sexual abuse. That’s why we took an inclusive approach to creating this resource, addressing the child protection needs and concerns of any organization, establishment, facility, small business, or club that provides services and activities for children. We present an evidence-based process with the building blocks that Youth-Serving Organizations (YSOs) of every type need to create a comprehensive child sexual abuse prevention program. In this way, each YSO can assess and strengthen their current safety practices or craft a safety program that applies to their environment, community, function, culture, and broader circumstances.
Safe Kids Thrive provides tools and resources at no cost to Youth-Serving Organizations (YSOs) to keep children safe from sexual abuse. Our guidelines are based on best practices and recommendations from the Massachusetts Legislative Task Force on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. Our prevention practices and tools can be applied by individuals or groups and tailored to meet the wide range of needs of Youth-Serving Organizations (YSOs) of every type, size, and function.
- Child abuse prevention policies and procedures establishing your mission’s commitment to holding each other accountable and ensuring child safety.
- A Code of Conduct detailing expected and prohibited behaviors and interactions between staff, volunteers, children and youth
- A Safe Environment policy that covers physical and procedural protocols for in-person and virtual environments
- Monitoring behavior and reporting protocols for staff and volunteers in the event a child discloses abuse, or when abuse is suspected or observed
- A screening and hiring process to detect and deter prospective employees and volunteers who should not be placed in positions of trust with minor children
- A child sexual abuse prevention training and education program for all staff and volunteers.
A Leadership Imperative
Our recommended organizational changes and policy initiatives require leadership—not only in making the case for the new safety initiatives, but in ensuring a wide collaboration among all those who will be affected by them: managers, supervisors, employees, volunteers, parents, and children. Collaboration must account for both the necessary strategies and the organizational culture in which the changes and new processes are going to take place. Maintaining forward movement in your safety program depends on monitoring, assessment, feedback, open lines of communication, encouragement, and sustained engagement—all focused on that one important outcome: child safety.
