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



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Invitation to interactive session - Safe Schools: Supporting schools address child sexual abuse, holistically