Establishing A First Line of Defense

Top Abuse Prevention Methods and Protective Tactics.

Organizations must take a proactive stance to protect their most vulnerable. Every day, predators work to gain authority and trust and use their access and control to victimize. The most effective way to prevent predators from entering your organization is to focus on establishing a first line of defense. This means creating high-level policies that help increase safety and guide the day-to-day protective measures.

To successfully stop predators, you should create abuse prevention policies, guidelines, and procedures with two objectives: reducing isolation and increasing accountability.

Predators seek separation, seclusion, and an environment that enables them to isolate their victims easily. To combat these behaviors, you’ll need to make it difficult for an adult to be alone with a child and always have multiple sets of eyes watching over and safeguarding the children. This increases your chances of preventing an incident.

Here are the top prevention methods to establish:

• Utilize a well-written Child Protection Plan.
• Craft an incident response and reporting process.
• Prioritize safety training and education. Think, educate, and reeducate.
• Establish a screening process for adults and youth.
• Create a Speak Up Culture that encourages transparency & prioritizes communication.
• Understand your state’s mandatory reporting.
• Define transportation procedures.
• Make known your organization’s commitment to child protection.

While it’s essential to establish high-level policies, most abuse prevention success will come from consistently adhering to the day-to-day processes and guidelines, which we refer to as protective measures or tactics.

Here are a few of the top protective measures to implement:

• Use an established check-in and check-out
• Get comfortable with saying “NO.” Your responsibility is to the safety of the children.
• Complete a background check every 18-24 months on all adults working with and around the children.
• Establish classroom expectations for discipline, appropriate touch, and bathroom procedures.
• Follow the Rule of Two.
• Determine appropriate classroom ratios.
• Create highly visible child areas.
• Never put a minor in charge of other minors.
• Keep good attendance
• Take children’s comments, feedback, and observations seriously.
• Watch over more vulnerable children.

While it’s impossible to eliminate 100% of abuse, taking steps to reduce risk intentionally goes a long way in deterring bad behavior and making it more difficult for predators to operate.

Click here to learn more about the benefits of using secure children’s, youth check-in, and volunteer scheduling to help manage your events.

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Photo by Marisa Howenstine on Unsplash Blog