Prevent Child Sexual Abuse in the New Year   

This New Year, pledge to protect children from sexual abuse at your organization. Now is an optimal time to reflect on the safety efforts of the past year and to continue preventing child sexual abuse in the new year. Keep children safe all year round at your organization with the following guidance:  

• Communicating your commitment to child sexual abuse prevention to all staff. Use supervision and all staff meetings to routinely emphasize your charge to keeping children safe. Leadership is responsible for ensuring safety initiatives are in place and followed to prevent child sexual abuse.  

• Conducting routine ongoing evaluation of current policies and procedures. Collect and analyze annual policy reviews and internal audits to gauge your organizations effectiveness in building a culture of safety. Gather data on adherence to safety measures and update as needed to ensure the child sexual abuse prevention plans are working.  

• Providing training to all staff highlighting your dedication to protecting children. Research and identify trainings programs by local, statewide, or national resources and organizations. Trainings should educate staff on the signs and symptoms of child abuse, the long-term impacts on survivors, and how to report suspicions and allegations of abuse. 

• Minimizing or eliminating spaces where children cannot be seen at your site. Adapt the physical space so that children are in within eyesight. All activities must be observable or interruptible and unused areas locked and inaccessible.  

• Ensuring all staff know how to report suspicions or allegations of abuse. Reiterate the duty of all staff and volunteers to come forward with any knowledge or suspicion of suspected abuse. Remind them they are protected against legal action under Massachusetts law.  

All children deserve to be protected from sexual abuse. Explore the full Elements of Prevention on your safety journey in the New Year. Make child sexual abuse prevention a priority at your organization this year!