By building awareness among adults and children, child sexual abuse is preventable. Our goal is to stop sexual abuse before it happens or at the earliest possible time in order to minimize its long-term impact on healthy development. Our prevention approach to child sexual abuse is informed through our membership on the Massachusetts Legislative Task Force on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. This multi-agency collaboration, representing both private and public youth-serving organizations, develops prevention and intervention plans focused on sexual abuse.
Our organizational strategy for preventing child sexual abuse is straight forward:
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Making child and youth serving organizations ‘hostile environments’ for perpetrators of sexual abuse by implementing policies and practices that identify risks and immediate actions to address them
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Providing guidance to adults to help set clear parameters for acceptable interactions between children and adults and between children.
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Identifying the warning signs in children and teens who may have been sexually abused and in those who may be at risk to abuse others.
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