Six Pillars for Prevention

“Our focus is on America’s children and making sure they are able to have great childhoods that are free of sexual abuse and exploitation. We know we can’t do this alone. We hope that the dialogue begun with the Six Pillars will help provide the momentum to move these needed policies forward.” - Prevention Coalition Past President Karen Baker

Read the Press Release!

“We believe deeply that in order to truly prevent the sexual abuse and exploitation of children we need a comprehensive policy agenda that carves out a role for not only legislators, but businesspeople, community leaders, and citizens across the country,” said James Hmurovich, the Prevention Coalition’s 2015 President. “The dialogue we hope to advance with the Six Pillars will hopefully lead to meaningful policy changes that will make a positive impact on the lives of children and families.”

The content of this publication may be reprinted with the following acknowledgement: This material was reprinted, with permission, from the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation’s Six Pillars for Prevention.

Webinar Recording Now Available for the Pillars of Policy for Child Sexual Abuse: A Discussion

On Wednesday, March 18, 2015 Prevention Coalition members Karen Baker, Cordelia Anderson and Joan Tabachnick led a discussion "to build a dialogue around the creation of a comprehensive policy agenda to benefit children and prevent sexual abuse. In this web conference, participants will learn how policy matters in prevention work, and what tools they can use to bridge the theory of action with the practice of action. In this web conference, participants will learn how policy matters in prevention work, and what tools they can use to bridge the theory of action with the practice of action."

The Six Pillars of Prevention is a guiding document that outlines six critical components to the prevention of abuse. With the release of this document, the Prevention Coalition is hoping to build a dialogue around the creation of a comprehensive policy agenda to benefit children and prevent sexual abuse.

Explaining that there is no one policy that can combat child sexual abuse and exploitation, the Prevention Coalition chose instead to identify six areas in which policies can have the most impact on prevention. The Six Pillars are:

Strengthen Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs) sexual abuse and exploitation prevention capacity,
Support the healthy development of children,
Promote healthy relationships and sexuality education for children and youth,
End the demand for children as sexual commodities,
Have sustainable funds for prevention, and
Prevent initial perpetration of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Suggested citation: National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. (2015). Six Pillars for Prevention. Retrieved from www.preventtogether.org