Educating Faith-Based Partners
Faith Communities: United by Shared Values to Protect Our Children
At the Children’s Advocacy Center, we believe that prevention is most effective when it is rooted in the shared values of care, protection, and community responsibility. Faith communities - pastors, staff, volunteers, and congregations - play a uniquely powerful role in building environments where children are safe, families are supported, and healing is possible. By partnering with us, you help create spaces where children are protected, families can rebuild trust, and abuse is confronted with courage and compassion.
Why Faith Partners Matter
Trusted Influence
As spiritual leaders and community anchors, faith partners have the trust and respect necessary to create meaningful dialogue about safety and boundaries.
Safe Spaces
Churches and faith-based groups often serve as safe and supportive places for children and families—spaces where prevention messages can be heard, integrated, and reinforced.
Networked Outreach
Through your networks and relationships, you help ensure that vital child safety messages reach families throughout the community.
How You Can Partner With Us
Host Prevention Trainings
Invite our team to deliver evidence-based sessions—like Darkness to Light, Grooming Awareness, Mandated Reporter Training, or Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Basics—at your faith center. These free trainings help equip your community with vital knowledge and action tools.
Strengthen Organizational Best Practices
Get informed about prevention-focused best practices for your congregation. This includes clear child protection policies, consistent volunteer screening, staff training, and understanding reporting procedures. These steps help ensure your faith community is both safe for children and trusted by families.
Encourage Conversations About Safety and Boundaries
Help families create a culture of safety by talking openly about body safety, boundaries, and safe adults. With our trusted resources, parents and caregivers can lead these protective, strength-building conversations at home.
Embed Safety in Faith Formation
Integrate messages from the Child Abuse Prevention: Kids Have Rights program—like identifying safe adults, recognizing “not safe” touches, and knowing the right to be heard and believed—into faith-based youth education settings.
Raise Awareness During Prevention Month
Join us each April for Child Abuse Prevention Month. Host a "Wear Blue" Sunday, invite leaders to attend a Lunch & Learn session, or display a yard sign to symbolize the carefree childhood every child deserves.
Faith Partners Bring Hope
Just as prevention is most effective when delivered consistently, children's sense of safety grows strongest when faith, families, and professionals unite around them. As a faith partner, you:
Model care, compassion, and courage
Encourage healing through shared values and community
Help elevate prevention from an individual act to a collective calling
Next Steps
Want to host a training or prevention event for faith leaders? Have questions about strengthening best practices in your faith community? Please contact our Prevention and Community Outreach Director, Julie Leeson, at 616-393-6123 or jleeson@cac-ottawa.org to get started.
Together, we can build a community where children flourish in faith—and in safety.