Champions for Youth

I recently read the article, "Have Sexual Abuse and Physical Abuse Declined Since the 1990's?" by David Finkelhor & Lisa Jones and although a bit confusing the final conclusion after reviewing statistics, trends and indicators is that sexual abuse has indeed declined since the early 1990's.  The authors write, "Our judgment is that the decline in sexual abuse is about as well established as crime trends can be in contemporary social science." 

A decline means we're headed in the right direction, but we still haven't reached the end goal yet of preventing sexual abuse from occurring in the first place.  Consider these concerning statistics:

• One out of every 10 (9.8%) students have been physically forced to have sex, with female students (14.5%) having this experience more than males (5.2%). (2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS).
• There were were 3,081 cases of substantiated sexual abuse in 2011.  

MCCOY is continuing to play it's role in protecting children from child sexual abuse by offering FREE Stewards of Children trainings in 2013.  In 2012 MCCOY trained 475 adults on how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.  Additionally, youth serving organizations learned how to improve policies and practices to help keep kids safe while attending enrichment and extracurricular activities.  MCCOY hopes to increase the number of adults trained in 2013 as each adult trained can better protect up to 10 children.

In celebration of MCCOY's 20th Anniversary we have identified 20 dates for organizations to host a Stewards of Children training for their staff, volunteers, board members and clients for FREE (and we come to your location).  We appreciate the great response as most of the first quarter slots are already taken.  If you're interested in hosting a training on one of the following dates, please contact Shanna Martin.  (If 20 or more people register we'll bring Chipotle with us!!).
• Tuesday, March 5th from noon - 3 p.m.
• Tuesday, April 2nd from 9 a.m. - noon
• Wednesday, May 22nd from 9 a.m. - noon
• Thursday, June 13th from noon - 3 p.m.
• Wednesday, July 24th from 6-9 p.m.
• Tuesday, August 6th from 9 a.m. - noon
• Saturday, August 31st from 9 a.m. - noon
• Tuesday, September 3rd from noon - 3 p.m.
• Wednesday, September 11th from 6-9 p.m.
• Saturday, September 28th from 9 a.m. - noon
• Tuesday, October 1st from 9 a.m. - noon
• Thursday, October 17th from 6-9 p.m.

Feel free to visit our website to learn more about Stewards of Children and to register for an already scheduled training.