Prevent Together Blog!

 

National Plan Strategic Consultant

Request for Proposals - Due November 29, 2022

SCOPE OF WORK 

Project Description:

The National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (Prevent Together) is comprised of organizations and experts who collaborate together to:

●      Convey positive prevention messaging and communication.

●      Provide education on legislation that will effectively prevent abuse and exploitation.

●      Encourage collaborative interventions among leading experts and youth serving organizations.

●      Support quality research, and promote prevention strategies that are evidence informed and evidence-based.

●      Strengthen the quality and professionalism of those working in the field.

●      Foster collaborative funding opportunities for child sexual abuse and exploitation prevention initiatives.

To support and guide this work for both the membership and for external stakeholders and others whose profession involves some aspect of preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSA/E), Prevent Together provides a National Plan to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. Originally published in 2008, and recently revised in 2021, the National Plan is comprised of 6 Pillars of Prevention designed to inform and engage individuals and organizations to increase dialog, activities, and collaboration, with the ultimate goal of maximizing our collective impact to prevent CSA/E.

Prevent Together now seeks a consultant to provide strategic direction for activation, communication, and dissemination of the National Plan.

Timeline:

●      12 months, starting January 2023, including attending an in person Steering Committee meeting January 23 or 24 in Washington, D.C. (travel costs for the meeting will be included in the contract).

●      Approximately 15-20 hours per month

Location:

Remote

Consultant Responsibilities:

1. Become familiar with the current process and progress of National Plan  implementation and opportunities for impact by reviewing relevant documents and meeting with the Steering Committee, National Plan Committee and the Communications Committee.
2. Explore how similar issue-focused groups, and particularly coalitions, are communicating their objectives both among members, and beyond membership to include members of the public impacted by CSA.
3. In partnership with the Communications Committee and the National Plan Committee, develop a communications plan detailing how the National Plan supports the overall strategy of Prevent Together.
4. Develop an implementation plan providing both short-term and long-term action plans for members of the coalition to further utilize the Pillars of the National Plan.
5. Provide recommendations on how to use the National Plan strategically to build membership and increase engagement that impacts child sexual abuse prevention and exploitation.
6. Participate in Steering committee meetings, all member meetings and National Plan subcommittee meetings as necessary.

Deliverables:

1. Internal and external communication/dissemination plans for engaging current members around the National Plan/Pillars and for increasing membership in the coalition.
2. Implementation and/or activation plans to further develop the Pillars and guide individuals/organizations in how to best incorporate the Pillars into their current and future work.
3. Strategic recommendations for tracking analytics and usage of the National Plan (internal and external) and for updating and future/long-term promotion of the Plan.

Submission:
To apply submit the below materials here by November 29, 2022:

●      Name, email address and phone number

●      Hourly rate

●      CV or resume

●      Proposal with project sample/s

●      Three professional references

PDF Version

BOSTON-A new report, “A Call to Action for Policymakers and Advocates: Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Legislation in the States,” urges President Biden to appoint a Policy Czar and federal Interagency Task Force to work with private sector abuse prevention experts in addressing what law enforcement and public health experts are calling a pandemic within a pandemic. The 116-page report, researched by the Enough Abuse Campaign, documents the alarming increase in both in-home and online sexual abuse of minors and calls for urgent action to address it.  

According to Jetta Bernier, Campaign Director and the report’s author, “Children from every community and from all economic, racial and cultural groups are included in the estimated one in ten children who are victims of child sexual abuse. And the pandemic has placed children at significantly greater risk, as confirmed by the unprecedented numbers of calls to rape crisis hotlines by minors over the past year. Consider the sad fact that over two-thirds of online child sexual abuse images appear to have been taken in a home setting.”

To address the crisis, the report calls for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to immediately fund training and technical assistance Resource Centers in each of the ten federal regions to assist all 50 states in implementing evidence-based programs and a set of prevention policies and practices.  

The report’s recommendations, endorsed by collaborating partner Prevent Child Abuse America, the nation’s largest child abuse prevention organization, call upon lawmakers in every state to introduce legislation mandating all school employees and students to receive training on how to prevent, early identify and report child sexual abuse. According to Prevent Child Abuse America CEO Melissa Merrick, “While 32 states and D.C. have passed such laws, only 14 require training for all school employees and all students. Given U.S. Department of Education data that indicates 4.5 million school children experience some type of sexual misconduct or abuse by an adult in their schools, we must support schools to make this critical prevention education available.”

Adoption of a model Code of Conduct for all schools is also urged that details the inappropriate and boundary-violating interactions by adults with children, that if left unchecked, could lead to illegal and reportable sexual offenses. Stronger policies are proposed to screen applicants for school jobs to identify past sexual misconduct, prohibit confidentiality agreements aimed at suppressing information about an employee’s past misconduct and the practice referred to by the U.S. Department of Education as “passing the trash,” i.e., aiding an employee engaged in sexual misconduct or abuse to get a job in another school.

• The report urges national and community foundations to step up funding to support the scaling up of evidence-based child sexual abuse prevention education programs in schools and youth organizations, the development of new promising strategies and research to expand the knowledge base for prevention. According to Bernier, “There is a significant under-resourcing of prevention programs as most foundations focus their support on programs that address the aftermath of child abuse rather than on those aimed at preventing it in the first place. We urge funders to join the movement to prevent child sexual abuse and not be bystanders to the crisis.”
• The National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation has also endorsed the report. Its membership of over 35 child sexual abuse prevention experts and organizations lead the movement to prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation in the U.S.  

About Enough Abuse:

The Enough Abuse Campaign is a multi-state, citizen education and community mobilization initiative initially developed under a 5-year grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2003-2008). It is a program of MassKids, a private, statewide child advocacy organization with a 60-year history of effective advocacy on behalf of the state’s most vulnerable children. MassKids is the site of Prevent Child Abuse Massachusetts, the state Chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America. 

For more information, visit www.enoughabuse.org, contact us at info@enoughabuse.org or call 617-827-5218 for media interviews.

By Jetta Bernier

On New Year’s Day, the American Flag was raised atop the U.S. Capitol Building “in honor of survivors and victims of childhood sexual abuse.”  This show of solidarity, initiated by Texas Senator John Cornyn, was a powerful reminder that child sexual abuse is, according to the America Medical Association, “a silent, violent epidemic.”  An estimated 42 million Americans living today are victims. One-third of them are infants, toddlers, school-aged children and teens; the average age of child victims is eight.  According to a U.S. Department of Education study, one in ten or 4.5 million students report experiencing some form of sexual abuse or misconduct by a school employee sometime between Kindergarten and 12^th grade.

Last month the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that in 2018 alone, tech companies and the public made 18.4 million reports to the Center’s Cyber-Tipline, that involved over 45 million photos and videos of children being sexually abused – more than double the preceding year, and exponentially greater than the 100,000 reports received in 2008.  These paralyzing figures have prompted public health officials to declare that sexual abuse and the online sexual exploitation of children have now reached a pandemic level.

Numbers tell only a partial story. Research confirms that the impact of sexual abuse on children and teens can profoundly affect their physical and mental health, their capacity to learn and succeed academically, and their ability to form healthy social and emotional relationships. The trauma of sexual abuse often expresses itself in adulthood through depression, substance abuse, broken relationships, or criminal behavior. Our nation spends billions each year as law enforcement agencies, courts, child protection, health and mental health systems and social services programs struggle to deal with the aftermath of sexual abuse. Prevention holds the best promise of reducing the staggering human and fiscal costs.

While raising the flag on the U.S. Capitol was intended to raise awareness about the problem, the reality is that citizens are already reminded with sickening regularity about the extent of child sexual abuse and its devastating impact on our children and communities. Names like Jerry Sandusky, Larry Nasser, R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein, and so many more have infiltrated our national consciousness. Every day, dozens of other names of those arrested for child sexual abuse are reported in local media. We hold our breath waiting to learn about the next parent, neighbor, teacher, clergy, police officer, public figure, youth counselor, theatre director, tutor, etc. whose sexual misconduct has violated our children and our trust. 

Clearly, the nation is benefitting greatly from the #MeToo movement that challenges the sexual assault of adults in the workplace. Children, however, remain largely on the sidelines of this conversation. What is required now is a #KidsToo movement to prevent the sexual assault of children in their “workplaces,” that is, in the places children live, learn, and play.

MassKids, the nation’s oldest non-profit child advocacy organization, is taking bold action to do just that. Its unique online action campaign, Pledge to Prevent™, is capitalizing on the public’s heightened awareness about child sexual abuse and is building the knowledge and skills of everyday citizens to take specific, concrete and achievable actions to prevent sexual abuse from ever occurring. 

Partnering with parents, national organizations, sexual abuse survivors, college students, etc., the campaign is challenging people everywhere to choose one of over 30 pledges as either a Learner to get the basic facts, a Prevention Influencer to educate others, a Safe Community Promoter to engage schools and youth organizations, or a Movement Builder to promote prevention legislation and policies. Pledgers immediately receive resources matched to their specific pledge in order to build their knowledge and confidence, and empower them to carry out their selected prevention action. 

The campaign’s goal is to reach 42 million pledgers – the number of estimated U.S. victims living today. A national launch is planned in April to commemorate Child Abuse Prevention Month. “Celebrity survivors” from entertainment, music, and sports will serve as Pledge Ambassadors who will then challenge thousands of their online followers to take action. 

We collectively raised the flag on New Year’s Day to commemorate survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Now, let our 2020 resolution be to raise our voices, get educated, take action, and reclaim the right of all our children to a healthy and safe childhood.

Jetta Bernier is Executive Director of MassKids, the Boston-based child advocacy organization where she leads the Enough Abuse Campaign, a child sexual abuse prevention initiative that has been adopted in 8 states. She is Policy Co-Chair for the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.

 

 

Marcus Erooga, Ph.D. and Prevention Coalition member, Keith Kaufman, Ph.D., have edited a special issue on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse for the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. This edition includes an article co-authored by Prevention Coalition members, Joan Tabachnick and Jenny Coleman focused on member Stop It Now’s work.

The issue offers insights into a variety of important emerging issues in our field.  According to their introduction: 

This Special Edition brings together innovative research from leading figures in their field of work from the USA, UK and Australia. With its focus on prevention, it is designed to highlight a broad international sample of cutting-edge child sexual abuse prevention thinking, intended to both spur additional prevention research and sharing these creative approaches to preventing sexual abuse.  

The chapters include:  

Table of Contents
Journal of Interpersonal Violence- Volume: 34, Number: 20 (October 2019): https://bit.ly/2keWVAs

Introduction to Special Issue on Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse: https://bit.ly/2kEOPB4

 

Recommendations for Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in Youth-Serving Organizations: Implications From an Australian Royal Commission Review of the Literature: https://bit.ly/2maf3vS

 

“I Didn’t Know Where To Go”: An Examination of Stop It Now!’s Sexual Abuse Prevention Helpline: https://bit.ly/2lGQgiQ

Is Preventive Treatment for Individuals With Sexual Interest in Children Viable in a Discretionary Reporting Context: https://bit.ly/2kD09xK

“I Could Never Work With Those People . . . ”: Secondary Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Via a Brief Training for Therapists About Pedophilia: https://bit.ly/2m979Tt

What Deters Child Sex Offenders? A Comparison Between Completed and Noncompleted Offenses: https://bit.ly/2m5qox6

Sexual Abuse Prevention Education in Australian Primary Schools: A National Survey of Programs: https://bit.ly/2lOKf3p

The Prevention Coalition has just completed its year-long social media campaign focusing on each of the Six Pillars of Prevention, a prevention framework developed by the Coalition. For the next six months the Prevention Coalition will focus its social media on prevention strategies suggested by members. If you follow our Twitter feed you will see expert suggestions and comments that are based on Prevention Coalition email threads. Watch for new email questions from the Prevention Coalition in August if you would like to participate.

 If you don’t follow the Prevention Coalition on Twitter (@PreventTogether), be sure to start today. Please also take the time to like and retweet the great content our members have provided. Check out our website and blogs at www.preventtogether.org and our Linked In site at www.linkedin.com . Some of our favorite tweets for the month of July include:

 

.@PreventTogether member and prevention expert, Anthony Rizzuto, believes that easy and inexpensive accessibility to information, particularly for youth serving organizations, is critical to preventing the perpetration of abuse. #preventcsa

 

.@PreventTogether member, Carol Smolenski of ECPAT, points out that addressing demand in the adult sex industry also helps protect children. #preventcsa

 

Children are not the sum of their behaviors: punitive and one-size-fits-all interventions for youth exhibiting sexual behavior problems are not proven effective. @MakeSocietySafe has 5 things you should know http://www.atsa.com/infographic #preventcsa #HealthyKids

 

.@PreventTogether member, Dr Keith Kaufman, points out that efforts must be made to address the situational risks that allow abuse/exploitation to occur in youth serving orgs. Often these risks go unnoticed or unaddressed. #preventcsa

 

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

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

                    I.            Strengthen Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs) sexual abuse and exploitation prevention capacity,

                  II.            Support the healthy development of children,

                 III.            Promote healthy relationships and sexuality education for children and youth,

                IV.            End the demand for children as sexual commodities,

                  V.            Have sustainable funds for prevention, and

                VI.            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 

Over the last ten months, the Prevention Coalition has focused its social media on Pillars II – VI. To cap off the year-long Six Pillars campaign, the Prevention Coalition is concentrating its May-June social media on Strengthening Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs).

In furtherance of Pillar I, the Prevention Coalition advocates for special attention to stronger policies and best practices within YSOs in order to further reduce the potential for someone to perpetrate sexual abuse or exploitation within these organizations. Simultaneously, at the community, state and federal levels, the Prevention Coalition advocates for policies that encourage all types of YSOs (e.g., leisure, camps, schools, sports) to actively institute child sexual abuse and exploitation prevention initiatives that address face-to-face as well as technology-facilitated interactions.

Prevention Coalition member, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is “sponsoring” the Strengthening Youth Serving Organizations Pillar. Thank you to Julie Novak, Vice President of Youth Protection, for her perspective on this important subject. Thank you also to the Prevention Coalition thought leaders who answered the question “What are the three best prevention strategies for youth serving organizations?” The array of answers is fascinating.

The Prevention Coalition encourages its members to use these pillars as a tool to influence the conversation about a comprehensive prevention policy agenda and to expand what is currently considered as relevant prevention policy. The Coalition hopes these pillars are useful to expand the conversation and strategic planning around prevention-related policies in communities across the country.

The views and information provided in materials and products developed for or disseminated by the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation do not necessarily represent the opinions of the individual members or organizations that make up the Prevention Coalition.

Pillar Four: End the Demand for Children as Sexual Commodities

In March and April, the Prevention Coalition will be focusing its social media on ending the demand for children as sexual commodities. “End the Demand” is a wide-ranging subject that includes everything from addressing underage prostitution to changing societal norms defined by advertising and other cultural factors.

Prevention Coalition member, Cordelia Anderson, MA, is the primary content provider for the “End the Demand” campaign. Cordelia is an expert in this area, and offers programs on the subject through her consulting firm, Sensibilities, Inc. Also providing content is Prevention Coalition member, the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA). Their perspective and knowledge in preventing re-offending among sexual abusers is invaluable. Thank you to these sponsors!

Some of the social media topics that will be included:

·         Visits to Pornhub – which is only ONE website - totaled 33.5 billion over the course of 2018, an increase of 5 billion visits over 2017.  https://tinyurl.com/ybztgdbp

·         Our communities deserve evidence-based laws, policies, public education, and behavioral interventions that enhance community safety and minimize the risk of an individual sexually reoffending.https://tinyurl.com/y57hhy4e

·         The Sex Buyer Act in five European countries includes the criminalization of buying sex acts, the decriminalization of selling sex acts and support services for those exploited. https://tinyurl.com/y3xky97p

·         “Yesterday’s pornography is today’s main stream media and pornography” – Cordelia Anderson.

·         In most modern societies, sex is ubiquitously commoditized. Advertisements—whether for vodka or a cell phone—link sex to consumption. https://tinyurl.com/y2rtdvo3

·         [The US Justice Department of Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS)]works to deter and eradicate the production, distribution and possession of child pornography.https://tinyurl.com/jmkavop

 

An often-overlooked tenet of the Six Pillars for Prevention is developing adequate and sustainable funding for prevention. Without funding, most efforts to advocate for the healthy development of children, strengthen youth serving organizations in the development of standards and policy or end the demand for children as sexual commodities are for naught. Developing sustainable funding is an important precursor to a viable program to prevent child sexual abuse.

 

In January and February, the Prevention Coalition is exploring this subject on social media. This campaign is being sponsored by Committee for Children. This organization is a leader in developing federal and state funding for the prevention of child sexual abuse. Many thanks to Melina Rozzisi and Jordan Posamentier of Committee for Children for their content and guidance, and to Nicole Epps and Zoe Persson of World Childhood Foundation for their work developing tweets around this subject.

 

Committee for Children is inviting Prevention Coalition members to a Congressional Briefing being held in Washington, DC on January 29^th.

 

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention &

the Need for Evidence Based Response 

 

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

385 Senate Russell Office Building

 

Featured Presenters Include

Moderator, Joan Duffell

Executive Director, Committee for Children

 

Deborah Chosewood

Deputy Director, Prevention and Community Support Section

Georgia Division of Family and Children Services

 

Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau

Director, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

 

Dr. James Mercy

Director, Division of Violence Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

 

C.T. Wilson

Maryland State Delegate

 

RSVP by January 26^th to ahall@bpagdc.com

 

Reflections

By Cordelia Anderson, MA, Prevention Consultant & founding Chair of the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation.

 

 In 1976 when I began my career - Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald Ford for US Presidency, Alex Haley’s book “Roots” came out, the Album of the year was “Still Crazy After All These Years,” by Paul Simon and the Record of the Year was “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain and Tennille.

I had boundless energy and I wanted to do sexuality education. I was able to teach a ten-week sexuality course to women in the criminal justice system. This led to seeing a significant percentage of them whose histories included trauma from being sexually abused as children. I also got a part-time job as a research assistant on a legislatively mandated study on the effectiveness of sex offender treatment – this work was new, radical and there weren’t many programs to compare with nationwide. The same year, an incest survivor started Christopher Street, an incest treatment program in Minneapolis. Survivors who were raped as adults had begun to speak out, but there was still precious little attention to children. At the time, the efforts related to child abuse and child welfare, technically included child sexual abuse (CSA), but these efforts paid it little attention. Clearly, there were those traumatized from being sexually abused as children whose voices weren’t being heard.  In 1977, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office Sexual Assault Services (HCAO) program got a grant to hire me to help prepare child victims for court (pre-Children’s Advocacy Centers and the science of forensic interviewing) and to develop a child sexual abuse prevention program. Around that time, a few other prevention programs were launching around the country. In 1980, I along with the program moved out of the HCAO and into Illusion Theater.  Attention to this issue was growing and we had coauthored a play called TOUCH and were touring nationally. That same year we got federal funding from the former National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect to provide technical assistance to five other CSA prevention sites around the country.

When I left the theater in 1992 and started my own consulting business, I wanted to work to advance prevention in as many ways as possible. I was interested in spreading information, not only about individual programs already available, but also focusing on systemic and cultural changes needed beyond education and training efforts.  I consulted with a broad range of local, regional and national organization. In 1997 I joined the board of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In 2005, I was asked to take a leave of absence from serving on the board to develop a prevention advisory committee. It quickly became clear that what was really needed was an independent national coalition of agencies and leaders doing this work. I became the founding chair of what is now the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation and served that role for several years.  To create a strong working coalition between the many organizations, individuals, and perspectives at the table, we worked to build relationships, to articulate shared values, and then together we were able to develop a national plan and prevention fact sheets. Later we focused more on one aspect of the national plan – policy - and developed 6 pillars of prevention policy.

A few years ago, I pulled back from my intensive, active involvement in the Coalition but continued to develop resources to support these important prevention efforts. Between 2015-2017, I worked with Just Beginnings Collaborative, (JBC), the first foundation to focus exclusively on child sexual abuse, to research and write a report on the status of U.S.A based Child Sexual Abuse Services and Prevention Programs.  It was a humbling experience. I thought I had a good handle on what was happening in the field, but I soon learned that programs had expanded their understanding of this complex issue and were offering more depth, expanded opportunities for actions and attention to the lived experiences of everyone involved in this issue. I also had the opportunity to engage with both new programs and leaders focusing on communities of color that were far from represented in more visible programs and funding streams. I gained a deeper understanding of how separate we are still working and of how many people are doing incredibly important related work that were not familiar with each other or each other’s work. The 350-page report was left in a draft version (which I’m happy to share with anyone interested). The JBC plans to turn the content into a comprehensive online platform, that could easily be accessed and updated, changed when leadership changed within JBC. Such a platform is still needed and may be a great undertaking for this Coalition.

In the last few years, with more visibility to the #MeToo movement (launched over a decade ago by Tarana Burke) and with funding from Raliance and others to focus on preventing the development of sexually harmful behaviors and perpetration, there is a completely different level of public discourse and possibility for significant change than ever before - despite political setbacks. I also find much of my early work has come full circle and that I’m back addressing historic trauma from decades old cases and arguing for restorative/transformative approaches – which was an intense focus for me in the 1990’s. While some things are very different in this field now (e.g. technology facilitated sexual harm and sex crimes against children, , access to online pornography and so many doing this work that its challenging to stay current), other aspects remain the same (e.g., the need to name the harm; the need to fight to change the conditions that make the sexual abuse and exploitation of children likely instead of unlikely; the need to address the intersections between all forms of oppression and entitlements; the need to understand the difference between healthy and expected sexual behaviors and those that are harmful or destructive; and finally, the need to invest in wellness so that those who do this work can be as healthy as possible as individuals and organizations).

At the October 2018 annual Coalition meeting, I looked around and realized there were several people I didn’t know.  After decades of this work, it was odd to not know everyone; – as I step back from my work, it is very exciting to see these new faces and hear these new voices -- and both are completely necessary.  At the meeting I acknowledged that in June 2019, I will be stepping away from my 42 years of work to prevent child sexual abuse/exploitation and sexual violence. It is time.  I can see there are many others who have the qualifications, the passion, and the insights and who can do this important work.  In so many ways, we have Roots, and remain “still crazy after all these years” – in our fight for children and justice. We also know relationships matter – we need each other and indeed “Love will keep us together.”

*******

A special thanks to Julie Patrick who initially was hired by NCMEC to support my work with the Coalition. Julie’s skills and support were essential.  Thanks to all of you for your support over the years (and at the last Coalition meeting) and for what you contribute to the Coalition. Finally, thank you for the opportunity to serve on this important Coalition. I know it is in good hands.

During the months of November and December, the Prevention Coalition will be focusing its communications efforts on Pillar for Prevention #2: The Healthy Development of Children

There is a plethora of research that demonstrates that perpetrators of sexual abuse often seek out vulnerable children. Resilient, informed and healthy children are far less likely to be sexually abused. It follows that an important strategy for preventing sexual abuse is providing parents and other adults with information and tips on fostering the healthy development and sexuality of children.

Many of our members have contributed content and resources to this communications campaign. Thank you to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), Stop It Now!, the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), and Janet Rosenzweig, Ph.D.

If you don’t follow the Prevention Coalition on Twitter (@PreventTogether), be sure to start today. Please also take the time to like and retweet the great content our members have provided.