Workshops - Safe Schools: Supporting schools address child sexual abuse, holistically
Hello
Safe Schools: Supporting schools address child sexual abuse, holistically is the theme
this time of Tulir - Center for the Prevention
and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse ‘s continuing workshop series - Connecting the Dots.
They will be held
in Chennai between November 28 – 30, 2016.
Topics (Scroll down for details)
1. PREVENTION OF
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: EVOLVING A CHILD
PROTECTION POLICY
2. AN INTRODUCTION TO PERSONAL SAFETY EDUCATION –
CONCEPTS & PRACTISE
3. ADDRESSING
SEXUAL MISBEHAVIORS IN CHILDREN & YOUTH
4. POCSO, EDUCATORS & SCHOOLS
The lead facilitator will be Dr Lois J
Engelbrecht, who has helped create systems of prevention and response to
sexual abuse of children in the Phillippines, Malaysia, China,
India, Saudi Arabia, Ghana and Vietnam. Read more about Dr Engelbrecht at
A school’s
integrity and worth is not based on whether cases of sexual
violence against children happen to children on its rolls. Instead it is
based on the acceptance of the possibilities of
occurrence and proactive steps taken to
both safeguard and respond in a timely and appropriate way to ensure
that its children may benefit from its caring and foresight to truly have the
right to be safe all the time, everywhere. Besides,
as places where children spend a large portion of their time, schools have a
legal and ethical responsibility to keep their students safe. The situation is compounded by
mounting research about adverse childhood events’ lifelong effect on people’s
lives, so creating a safe and protective school community should be of paramount importance to educators.
Increasing
school enrollment is the core of all child related policies, schemes and
programs with the school already the one social institution outside
the family with which many children have consistent ongoing contact. With
a large part of the truly “awake” time of a child’s waking hours being spent at
school, schools are at the frontline of child protection. Besides educators
have a special role in combating child sexual abuse, as they possess the
knowledge, training and opportunity to observe and respond to children's
behaviour and physical conditions over a period of time. Additionally, because
of the close daily contact they are in a unique position to identify these
children who need help and protection.
Child sexual abuse cannot happen in a vacuum. Various factors together are involved
which allow
for abuse to happen but these
very same aspects when reworked, can provide
for a holistic and coordinated program
to safeguard children in a school setting and establish a culture of safety.
PREVENTION OF CHILD SEXUAL
ABUSE: EVOLVING A CHILD PROTECTION
POLICY
A child
protection policy (CPP) articulates an organization’s zero tolerance approach to child abuse. An
important step towards achieving this objective
would be for every institution which works with and for children to develop and adhere to a
child protection policy, taking into
account their unique idiosyncrasies, which would have clear cut guidelines and
protocols to provide for a safe and conducive environment
for both children and the adults with
whom they interact. This is especially
significant as there is enough evidence,
both anecdotally and research based, to indicate offenders often intentionally target
child-serving organizations due to the proximity and accessibility the work
offers to children - a corollary to the
well established fact that children are
usually abused by people who are
responsible for their well being and welfare and whom they trust. Abusers
particularly take advantage of those organizations they perceive as unsafe -
lack of protocols and
supervision, careless in managing risks etc. On the
one hand a CPP helps protect the staff of an organization
from allegations of abuse, giving them the confidence to know there is a clear
cut system of redress in case an allegation is leveled, on the other it helps
organizations be proactive in safeguarding children.
AN INTRODUCTION TO PERSONAL
SAFETY EDUCATION – CONCEPTS & PRACTISE
With the
objective of empowering primary school going age children to
safeguard themselves against CSA, the sessions on Personal Safety
Education is to provide participants with an understanding of
age-appropriate information and the accompanying
non-threatening methods to convey it while utilizing a
variety of resources developed specifically for this purpose
ADDRESSING
SEXUAL MISBEHAVIORS IN CHILDREN & YOUTH
Children
and young people abusing their peers or
other children with heightened vulnerabilities, is a reality today. The causes of sexual
abusive behaviors are varied and include both victimization experience and
learning from family and community behaviors and culture. If parents, educators and communities remain reluctant to acknowledge
the existence of sexual misbehaviors by
children and youth and respond to these
behaviors inappropriately, they could
worsen situations It is necessary to identify and promote
practical ideas to work with communities to build positive messages and
behaviours and practice appropriate response
to children with sexual misbehavior issues for healthy sexual development
POCSO, EDUCATORS & SCHOOLS
With
various aspects of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) 2012
including sectors apart from the
criminal justice system, a presentation on the highlights of the Act and
its relevance to educators and educational institutions will wrap up the workshop
Understanding the dynamics of child sexual abuse, and knowing
the community resources and services available, will be
integral aspects for the specific workshops mentioned below
Since limited seats are available,
participants will be selected based on their completed application forms
(Please find attached Application form) which will be
accepted up to Nov 26, 2016. Participants will be informed of their acceptance
within a day of Tulir receiving the application.
The venue of the workshop will
be in Kilpauk, Chennai - 600 010 and will be intimated after completion
of registration formalities – completed application form, acceptance and prior payment which can be made through
DD/cheque/electronic transfer
Registration fee will be Rs 800/- per day including lunch and tea
Relevant learning material
will be provided. The workshops will be in English
Timings : Only on Day 1 the workshop
will be from10 am - 5pm. All other days will be 9.30 am- 4.30pm.
Participants will
have to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. (Tulir can assist with suggestions)
Please contact tulircphcsa@yahoo.co.in or
call 26618026 (10 am - 6 pm, Monday – Friday) for further details. We will be
glad to clarify any other related queries and encourage you to share
this information with others who you think may be interested.
Thanks and looking forward
Tulir
Tulir
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