The Importance of Child Safety Policies
The Importance of Child Safety Policies
Approximately 90% of youth who are sexually abused are abused by someone they know and trust. When people learn this statistic in the Stewards of Children™ classes I teach, many of them assume most kids are abused by someone in the home – a family member. Then they learn that roughly 30% are abused by someone in their family and nearly twice as many are abused by someone outside of their family. Participants often express shock at this point. How are people able to do this when a youth has parents and other adults in their lives who protect them?
There are many ways someone who plans to abuse a child could try to gain isolated one-on-one time with them. One possible way is by working or volunteering at organizations that serve youth. LexisNexis, a leading provider of background checks, conducted an audit in 2007 of background checks conducted for nonprofit organizations. What that audit revealed was disturbing to say the least. Each day, 144 people with a criminal conviction applied to work or volunteer at a nonprofit organization. When they looked at specific convictions, they found that someone who was previously convicted of a sex offense applied at a nonprofit organization every 11.5 hours. And this just revealed those required to have a background check that had been successfully prosecuted for sex offenses. Many more potentially dangerous people go undetected either because they have never been convicted or because the nonprofit does not require a background check for their position. In 2004, the Department of Education reported that 7% of 8th to 11th graders - that’s 3.5 million youth – said they had sexual contact with an adult in their school. Luckily, there are policies youth-serving agencies and program directors can implement to keep the youth they serve safe even if someone who may pose a danger to children slips through their screening process. Every single organization that serves youth needs to have policies and procedures in their organization that go beyond mandated reporting. Organizations need to be proactive in protecting the youth they serve. And there is a lot of great information available to help organizations create safe environments for youth. The Stewards of Children™ class we offer at ICPYAS provides a great overview, and staff here at ICPYAS can always direct agency leaders to additional resources. But we cannot leave all the work to directors of youth-serving organizations and programs.
We all have a role to play in creating safe environments for youth. Whether you are a parent, someone who works or volunteers with youth, or a decision-maker at a foundation that funds youth programs, there is something you can do to ensure youth-serving organizations have policies and procedures that keep kids safe. Parents can ask youth-serving organizations about their child protection policies and procedures. If the organization does not have strong policies in place, encourage them to get in touch with ICPYAS or a similar agency in your area. If you work or volunteer directly with children, you can advocate for your organization to adopt policies and procedures that foster safety for everyone. Foundations that fund youth-serving programs can ensure that organizations have the resources needed to create safe spaces for youth. When we all work together to keep kids safe, we send a clear message to would-be-offenders. Not here, not ever.