Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Through Increased Awareness

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a significant societal problem with devastating consequences. Research suggests that adults do an inadequate job of preventing abuse because of low awareness, limited knowledge of steps to protect children and reluctance to take action in response to suspicions of abuse. CSA is an issue for youth-serving organizations because they are often magnets for offenders seeking victims, their staff does not have adequate knowledge of CSA, and their policies and procedures are often inadequate. Darkness to Light has developed a vast array of CSA prevention resources and educational materials. The goal of this project is to capture the attention of the general public and the leaders of youth-serving organizations in order to acquaint them with these resources and educational materials. This project will place the issue of CSA in front of 75 million adults through public service announcement (PSA) exposure, will stimulate a 25% increase in the number of individuals exposed to resources and educational materials from the organizational website, and engage 300 leaders of youth-serving organizations in one-on-one consultation to review and improve their child protection policies and procedures.

NCA/NCF