Child Protection United States Project #37814

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention/Education

by Fair Haven, Inc

Project Report | Sep 30, 2020
We Will Survive!

By Shana Robertson | Education & Outreach Coordinator

Community Outreach Shield

I am happy to report that we are moving forward with school presentations; offering different format options that match each school's needs and parameters, adding new curriculums that provide great education and follows copyrights, and meeting the CDC safety health requirements for outreach.

The new school year was quickly approaching and we were beginning to get nervous about our education program. Between Indiana's Govenor Holcomb messages of restrictions from the CDC and the requirements given by the Indiana Board of Education, the school districts in our region were quickly trying to get a plan together for moving forward with the format of the school year. Last school year 2019-2020, we had great success and our calendar schedule was booked for the year and for the 2020-2021 school year, we had yet to hear from anyone. We posed a lot of questions and concerns. Are students even going back to school? Are we going to be able to present in-person, recorded or will it have to be virtual? Will our curriculum copyright permit a recorded or virtual presentation? Will we need to find a new curriculum? Will schools even care to reach out? How will we even be able to do our job?

"Let's start at the very beginning of what we do know and work our way out of all the uncertainty." Bill 355 requires one hour of child sexual abuse prevention education every year, regardless of Covid-19 restrictions, so schools HAVE to figure out a way to get this requirement done. Fair Haven's Prevention Education Outreach department must move forward with providing education and/or outreach in the community. The Child Lures Prevention organization have copyright laws surrounding their curiculum, but they must be able to acclimate to the Covid-19 restrictions and offer the agencies utilizing their curriculum some way to continue presenting the education. So it was time to develop a plan.

Child Lures Prevention- contact and inquire regarding copyright and what is permitted.
School Districts- contact administration and present format options for education and enquire about their school year format for student education.
Prevention Education & Outreach department- begin curriculum and format modifications to acclimate program to new restrictions and student education formats. Continue other outreach opportunities while waiting for schools to acclimate to new format of student education, then begin scheduling presentations.

"We will survive!" As a rape crisis center, we use the empowerment model to inspire survivors of sexual trauma. The Covid-19 pandemic became the perfect opportunity to empower our programs as an agency and think 'outside the box' for ways to continue services. The Prevention Education & Outreach department also looked at this as an opportunity to grow professionally and learn about perserverance. There is no "I" in team so we jumped into agency renovations while client attendance in-person was low, we adapted to the CDC restrictions and found ways to 'present' education and for outreach, we researched for additional prevention education, we continued with professional and technical development, and we adapted to meet needs of the community, while maintaining safe boundaries and preserving ethical excellence.

PEO office amidst renovations

Links:

Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center updated website

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Jun 3, 2020
Prevention Education in a Pandemic

By Shana Robertson | Education & Outreach Coordinator

Miss Tami reading an Usborne Book

Covid- 19, the Corona virus, is a term that many people have come to understand and loathe hearing about. Besides for the health concern issues and global financial impact, this has created a crisis situation for programming within crisis centers and triggered victims of crime with the uncertainty for the future. Words like "unprecedented" do very little to accurately describe the problem-solving crisis on our hands for providing services within so many restrictions. "Shelter in place" creates more violence within a home and decreases the opportunity for intervention. This pandemic is a worse-case scenario for a crisis center. Prevention and education is a great solution, when there is access to a demographic!

Fair Haven's Prevention & Education team was finishing up the primary prevention education program in the schools and preparing to shift into a summer prevention program, when the quarantine began. We had to rapidly shift gears and try to use the only available means of reaching children, through the internet. Many organizations have been very generous in helping agencies problem-solve technology limitations, by offering free programming or supplying permissions. That was how our Education team found out that Usborne books was granting a copyright permissions for audio recordings to be published online, through social media until July 22, 2020.

Miss Tami, our School Education Advocate, uses her soothing voice to read a wonderful book every week and records it on the Fair Haven Friends Sharing Network through Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center's YouTube channel. These stories stimulate thinking, encourage healthy relationships and delight all ages! Tami has scripted an intro and conclusion that challenges social norms and empowers protective factors.

Fair Haven's Education team realized that there were more diverse outreach opportunities within our community. Our answer was to add Spanish translation book videos! Miss Sylvia, our Victim Advocate, has joined our 'book club' and reads the Spanish Usborne Books and posts the videos bi-weekly on a Sunday. Each English and Spanish video, provides a welcoming open door to other services we provide, while continuing our Education & Outreach efforts during the pandemic restrictions.

We encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to view and share these amazing videos while there is still time to enjoy before our permissions run out!

Prevention Education Posters

Miss Sylvia reading a Spanish Usborne Book

Links:

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Feb 14, 2020
"No More Secrets"

By Shana Robertson | Education & Outreach Coordinator

Workbooks purchased through Global Giving donation

Child Sexual Abuse is a horrific crime against children and 90% of the time, the perpetrator is a known person. Fair Haven uses the Child Lures Prevention program, Think First & Stay Safe, to reinforce to children that anytime a bully is uses their unsafe behavior, they will want you to keep it a secret so they don't get into trouble. March 2017, we were approached by the North Township Trustee to join the campaign, "No More Secrets", which connects community leaders into one mission, to end sexual abuse. Through that partnership, State Bill 355 was passed in the state of Indiana, requiring schools to provide a child sexual abuse prevention education for their students every year. We knew this was a great opportunity to create protective factors for children through education that empowers them to set personal boundaries and listen to their instincts when someone tries to lure them into abuse.

"No More Secrets" continues to be a mission in our community that Fair Haven still supports through presentations and symposiums and we have also created new partnerships with the schools and have presented to almost 72,000 students to date! The local newspaper just showcased the presentations the beginning of the year at the junior/senior high school, raising awareness and engaging others to join the movement.

Prevention education is the key to stopping child abuse and the long-term effects of trauma, but funding this enterprise has had it's share of challenges. Lake County is the 2nd largest county in the state of Indiana with 18 municipalities and has many school districts. Our team of 2 presenters can hardly service that many schools every year. The funding for materials quickly runs out, before implementing all the scheduled schools. This creates opportunities for problem solving and forming new partnerships.

The challenges are great, yet the victories are so rewarding. For instance, #GivingTuesday on GlobalGiving, provided workbooks for the remainder of our school year. Another victory, we were able to convince the administration of a local school district that the 45 minute assembly "No More Secrets" presentation on body safety is not as impactful as a 3-day classroom presentation about sexual abuse prevention could be at their elementary schools. The 12 elementary schools have many at-risk students that really need to be empowered to speak up for themselves. We have entered 9 of the 12 schools and have already had a great reception from the teaching staff about how age-appropriate and applicable the education is with their students. In this preferred setting, students can engage the presenters with questions, receive answers and there will be an increase of retention.

The last few months have had it's share of challenges for our program, but we are so thankful and blessed for the opportunity to bring this life-changing education to students. I will continue to share the message that all unsafe secrets must be told to a trusted adult, yet a child's body belongs to hisself and setting personal boundaries is important. Every child is unique and has great dignity and NO ONE can change that!

Every child has DIGNITY

Links:

NWI Times news article

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