Darkness to Light's Stewards
of Children is a revolutionary sexual abuse prevention
training program that educates adults to prevent, recognize, and
react responsibly to child sexual abuse, and motivates them to
courageous action. Darkness to Light believes that adults should
be taking proactive steps to protect children from sexual abuse
so that more children will grow up healthy and whole. It is
unrealistic to think that a young child can take responsibility
for fending off sexual advances by an adult. Adults are
responsible for the safety of children: we strap them into car
seats, we walk them across the street, and we ask them where
they are going, all to keep them safe. Therefore, adults should
also be responsible for protecting and preventing children from
sexual abuse.
At the Children's Advocacy Center,
we want to turn this vision of child abuse prevention into
reality, and begin to take steps to protect the children of our
community. As the first step in prevention, it is essential to
become conscious of child sexual abuse by acknowledging the
prevalence and consequence of the abuse. Research indicates that
1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before their 18th
birthday and that 1 in 5 children are sexually solicited while
on the Internet (Doll, Koeing & Purcell, 2004). Furthermore, as
many as 60% of children are abused by someone the family trusts,
and that 90% of children know their abusers. This means that
fewer than 10% of abusers are strangers (Abel & Harlow, 2001).
There are many consequences of child sexual abuse to the child
and to our community. Victims of child sexual abuse report
physical, psychological, and social problems. They also have a
higher risk of engaging in risk taking behaviors such as drugs,
alcohol, eating disorders, suicidal ideations, and are more
likely to be sexually promiscuous than their non abused peers
(Kellogg, Hoffman & Taylor, 1999). Research indicates that the
direct and indirect costs of child sexual abuse cost United
States more than $23 billion a year. These numbers are epidemic.
We are not emphasizing this information in order to blame, but
to name what is actually happening. Child sexual abuse is a
community problem. It is a collective problem.
The Children's Advocacy Center
believes that in order to prevent child sexual abuse, adults
need to be educated in what active steps they can take. The
Children's Advocacy Center is very excited to offer this
prevention program to Ottawa County. CAC Staff have been trained
through Darkness to Light to offer the
2.5 hour "Stewards of Children" training to adults in Ottawa
County. This training helps adults understand the nature and
impact of child sexual abuse, and establish conditions to
protect the children in their lives through the '7 Steps to
Protecting our Children'. The Stewards of Children
training is applicable to parents, organizations, corporations,
and churches that serve or interact with children or youth. In
addition to prevention training for individuals, the full
program includes tools for organizations that facilitate the
development of policies and procedures for sexual abuse
prevention. For more information on this program please call
Angie Harwell at the
Children's Advocacy Center (616) 393-6123.
