Preventing and Addressing Child Sexual Abuse in Youth Serving Organizations: A Desk Guide for Organizational Leaders

Written by Sarah Orton

The new report Preventing and Addressing Child Sexual Abuse in Youth Serving Organizations: A Desk Guide for Organizational Leaders provides recommendations for prevention practices in youth serving organizations (YSOs). Many of the best practice standards set by YSOs are often disregarded due to structural and capacity issues which can make a YSO’s culture one where rule breaking becomes the norm.

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is preventable. PreventConnect has many resources highlighting the roles that youth-serving organizations can take to advance prevention. The Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse releases this desk guide that shifts the emphasis away from strict adherence to individual rules (for example, two adults must be supervising a child at all times) and towards the achievement of overarching goals that are intended to create protective environments. To support early detection and decrease the likelihood of abuse occurring in the first place, the report’s framework integrates organizational theory, ecological theory, and a public health model.

Utilizing this framework, the report also includes concrete suggestions that can be implemented to protect against CSA. Additionally, for each suggested strategy, the desk guide includes a chart depicting critical questions, goals, and specific actions to achieve each goal. The eight practices addressed in the report include:

• Focus on child wellbeing and safety above all else
• Make training and cornerstone of the YSO’s approach
• Increase the monitoring of adult-child interactions in YSO programs
• Collaborate with children and parents
• Identify safety concerns and generate solutions to specific organizational CSA safety risks
• Practice YSO evaluation and accountability
• Address youth sexual behavior
• Strengthen human resource management

To read the full desk guide and learn about specific steps to achieving practices to prevention child sexual abuse in youth serving organizations, click HERE.