The Role of Communication for Sustainability
In order to uphold a culture of safety at your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO), communication between leadership, staff and volunteers must focus…
Sustainability
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What is Sustainability?
Long-term organizational change is a process of continuous review and evaluation and includes regularly examining what is working and what requires improvement.
At a minimum, Sustainability includes:
- An organizational culture focused on the shared responsibility of all staff and volunteers to ensure child safety and transform policy into practice.
- Managing and monitoring ongoing implementation of child sexual abuse prevention plans at your organization.
- Ongoing communication from leadership on the effort and commitment to keep kids safe.
- Consistent collaboration, and communication with staff, volunteers, community partners and other stakeholders.
- An annual review of all policies and procedures and a comprehensive review of your overall prevention efforts every three years.
Sustainability
How-To in 3 Steps
Learn more about the Sustainability of your child abuse prevention plans. Download a free copy to keep and share with your team.
Step 1
Communication
- Give regular reminders during staff meetings and emails of the shared responsibility of all to hold each other accountable for maintaining a culture of safety.
- Provide individual guidance, feedback, and positive reinforcement during ongoing supervision meetings and performance reviews.
- Ensure leadership models ongoing commitment to safety, communicates expectations, and responds promptly to concerns, suspicions, or allegations brought forward.
- Establish leadership’s role in building and maintaining an environment where conversations about child sexual abuse and prevention becomes normative.
- Disseminate results from internal audits, policy reviews, and after-incident reports with staff to reinforce best practices and address areas that need improvement.
Step 2
Stakeholder Collaboration
- Maintain consistent communication from program leadership to all stakeholders and outlines your YSO’s commitment to preventing child sexual abuse.
- Engage with community partners to discuss child abuse prevention efforts, the sharing of resources and expertise, coordination of training events, and working together to identify and address community needs and gaps in services.
- Build transparency by regular communication with the communities you serve, the public, and the media to create stronger relationships, support, and advocacy and to announce your commitment to safe environments.
- Act as an advocate in larger, societal efforts that address child abuse and neglect as a shared concern.
- Stay up to date with current efforts from your local Child Advocacy Center and other regional and statewide child abuse prevention organizations.
Step 3
Ongoing Evaluation and Feedback
- An identified individual or team leads ongoing child sexual abuse prevention efforts, serves as a resource for staff, and is staffed and supported by leadership.
- Utilize checklists and other data collection methods to support day-to-day adherence to all policies and procedures and the attitudes and behaviors that support compliance.
- Implement annual policy reviews, internal audits, and after-incident reports and incorporate improvements to maximize program effectiveness.
- Conduct comprehensive analysis of the entire child safety and abuse prevention framework every three years.
- Collect, analyze, and utilize data gathered to measure progress and ensure your child sexual abuse prevention plans are working to achieve desired outcomes.
- Evaluate internal and external communication to ensure stakeholders, partners, and your community are kept informed and included in your prevention efforts.
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