Strangers are not the main offenders when it comes to child sexual abuse. Children and youth are much more likely to be abused by people they know and trust. That’s why you need an organizational training strategy on child sexual abuse prevention, to decrease the chances that a child will be harmed.

The purpose of a Training Toolkit is to support your organization in planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining your training programs. The tools, resources, and strategies described below will help you engage a variety of training participants, maintain a focus on desired competencies, and evaluate for training goals. You can find even more information here.

Training Implementation Toolkit

Crucial Components

• Planning, Needs Assessment, Organizing
• Design, Development, and Delivery
• Evaluation
• Public Awareness Materials/Communication documents
• Information for Parents, Community members, staff and volunteers (brochures, checklists, etc.)

Adult training programs strive to educate adults in the community about child sexual abuse prevention and their responsibility for preventing abuse from occurring in the first place. Training programs for adults must be firmly grounded in Adult Learning Theory—which describes the most effective ways in which adult learners acquire and retain information—and must provide participants with strategies and tools that can be easily implemented. Training must be offered in a variety of formats and be considerate of scheduling conflicts and varied learning styles.

Regular training should be offered so that new employees can be trained before having access to children/youth. You could achieve this through a combination of online training and collaborations with other local youth-serving organizations. Training must be available in multiple languages and be culturally relevant. 

Training content for adults should include:

• What is child sexual abuse?
• Adult responsibility
• Grooming
• Signs and symptoms 
• The impact of child sexual abuse on a child, adult, and community
• Strategies for responding to child sexual abuse (local resources, online resources, state and national resources)
• Self-care strategies
• Prevention strategies 
• What adults can do to protect children and youth in their communities

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