The Safety System
Every organization providing services to children should enrich the life of the child, while ensuring his or her safety. Safety in children’s organizations requires an overlapping system of protection. At Abuse Prevention Systems, we recommend the implementation of a five part system of protection, including:
- Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Training for staff and volunteers
- Training in Skillful Screening
- Appropriate Background Checks
- Effective Policies and Procedures, tailored to individual programs
- Systems for Monitoring and Oversight
Although each element of the system provides a degree of protection, one element alone will not sustain a protective environment for children or teens. Each element is designed to interlock with other elements, creating internal checks and balances within the system. All elements interconnect to provide a protective environment for children and students receiving services from the organization.
Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Training
Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Training is an important element of the safey system advocated by Abuse Prevention Systems. In the State of Texas this training is required for Youth Camps by the Youth Camp Act, and Abuse Prevention Systems is a state-approved provider of the training. In addition, Abuse Prevention Systems offers Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Training for a myriad of organizational settings, including foster care, adoption services, camps and children’s charities. When staff members or volunteers have an awareness of the basic characteristics of a sexual abuser, the process by which an abuser picks and prepares a child for abuse, and indicators of child sexual abuse, they are better equipped to recognize and prevent abuse in an organization’s programs. We recommend that each staff member and volunteer complete Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Training.
Policies and Procedures
Every organization should operate within carefully tailored policies and procedures which balance the mission of the organization with the risks inherent in children's programming. For every program or activity, inherent risks must be evaluated and addressed in policies and procedures which reduce the likelihood of harm to children or teens. The only circumstance worse than having no policy is having policy that your staff or volunteers don't follow, either because they don't know the policy, or they don't believe it's practical or applicable to their work. Policies and procedures cobbled together from various sources are rarely effective, because 'patchwork' policies are seldom tailored to an organization’s activities, physical facilities and specific programming risks. Effective policies and procedures minimize or prevent risk. Staff members and volunteers who are trained to understand and apply effective policy will reduce the risks inherent in children's programming.
Appropriate Background Checks
At Abuse Prevention Systems, we believe every staff member and volunteer should undergo an appropriate criminal background check. Many services provide criminal background checks, at varying degrees of effectiveness. For each staff member or volunteer, the depth of a criminal background check should be determined by the extent of direct contact with children and degree of authority within an organizational activity or program. For a higher level employee, or a volunteer or staff member with extensive contact with children or teens, a more comprehensive background check may be advisable.
Skillful Screening Training
An appropriate background check alone will not insure the safety of children in an organization’s programs, because so many molesters will never be criminally prosecuted. Experts estimate fewer than 15% of perpetrators are ever criminally prosecuted, due to the passage of time, legal time limits, adults who minimize an abuse outcry, or kids who never tell. Skillful Screening Training allows managerial staff to identify known risk indicators during the application process, thereby eliminating high risk employees or volunteers during the screening process, and before these individuals have access to children. Skillful Screening Training includes the use of Abuse Prevention Systems’ state of the art screening forms, including employment applications, volunteer applications, reference check forms, interview questions and release form to be signed by the applicant.
Systems for Monitoring and Oversight
No safety system is complete without accountability. At Abuse Prevention Systems, our training modules include checks and balances within the safety system to monitor compliance and encourage the flow of information from staff members and volunteers to supervisors.