Reporting: Responding to Allegations of Abuse
Staff and volunteers at the YSO (Youth-Serving Organization) should be proficient in discussing abuse and responding to disclosures of abuse. YSO…
Home / Safe Environments / Safe Environment Strategies: Visibility
Whether or not you can control the design of your space, physical safety depends on your ability to continuously account for all the children and youth in your care. From this perspective, visibility is key to protecting children and youth. Being seen is the greatest fear of those who would bully, assault, steal from, sexually abuse, or otherwise victimize children. Therefore, you should take actions within your means to design, build, or adapt your existing spaces to maximize visibility; to minimize or eliminate space where children and youth cannot be seen; and to establish policies and procedures for access to and use of the space (when both on- and off-site). Those policies should include:
*Find more information on staff-to-child ratios from the American Camp Association, and the Massachusetts Afterschool Research Study Report.
Overnight trips present different challenges related to visibility. If youth are staying in hotel/motel rooms, policies and procedures should:
Reporting
Staff and volunteers at the YSO (Youth-Serving Organization) should be proficient in discussing abuse and responding to disclosures of abuse. YSO…
Training
Training Contractors, Consultants, and Interns When it comes to training your contractors, consultants, and interns, there is certain core…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Conduct will provide your staff, volunteers, and others responsible for children and youth with very specific guidelines that will…
Screening & Hiring
Here’s how you can develop a screening policy that fits your organization’s role, size, and resources: Know the screening rules and…
Screening & Hiring
A personal interview provides an opportunity for you to meet applicants and determine if they are a good fit for your organization. It’s also a …
Training
Once you have identified your training expectations and standards and have researched current and available local and national training, explore…
Training
Training for Different Audiences Training programs designed to prevent child sexual abuse take many forms and contain varying levels of detail,…
Reporting
Thinking of children or youth as capable of sexually abusing other children or youth can be difficult to consider and challenging to address. In…
Reporting
Recognizing Abuse & Neglect The minimum required safety elements for you to prepare leadership, staff, and volunteers to recognize, respond…
Training
Training should be used to increase knowledge and awareness of child abuse prevention, to teach staff about responding to children who disclose…
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
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