Key points
- Youth-serving organizations play an essential role in promoting child health and well-being.
- Partnering with these organizations can further the development of essential resources to support child abuse prevention efforts.
Overview
Millions of youth in the U.S. participate daily in youth-serving organization (YSO) activities and develop relationships with other youth, adult staff, and volunteers.
These organizations play a vital role in promoting child well-being, youth connectedness, and resilience. Because of this, YSOs are critical partners for preventing all forms of child abuse, including child sexual abuse (CSA).
Goals
This project's goal is to develop resources based on the best available evidence to support diverse YSOs in preventing CSA and ensuring safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for youth. Many YSOs have implemented policies and procedures based on CDC's 2007 publication, Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures.
To support YSOs in their child sexual abuse prevention efforts, the project team will publish an update to this publication in 2024. The team will also develop new online resources, including customizable tools and worksheets designed to meet organizations where they are in CSA prevention policy planning and implementation.
Accomplishments
We held a partner panel meeting with 25 experts in the field and incorporated their feedback into key aspects of the project.
Additionally, we conducted a comprehensive literature review covering the past 15 years of new research related to CSA prevention within YSOs.
We also conducted focus groups and in-depth interviews with YSO representatives. This included a review of current programs and policies across national and local YSOs. In this phase, we had a special focus on YSOs working with diverse populations. This includes organizations that serve:
- American Indian/Alaska Native youth.
- Youth who are experiencing or at-risk for homelessness.
- Youth who are immigrants, migrants, or refugees.
- Youth with disabilities.
- Youth who are LGBTQ+.
Findings from these activities will be incorporated into the updated publication and online resources available on CDC's VetoViolence website.
Funding sources
This project is a collaborative effort funded and led by the CDC Foundation with technical assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Violence Prevention.
CDC Foundation funding for the project is supported by grants from The Oak Foundation, Porticus, and World Childhood Foundation USA.
Contacts
If you have questions or are interested in signing up for our quarterly newsletter, please contact dvpinquiries@cdc.gov.