news article
Take time to acknowledge importance of child abuse prevention
April 7, 2015 / By UNY Communications / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time to acknowledge the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse. The Safe Sanctuaries team of the Upper New York Conference’s Sexual Ethics Committee provides standard training about safe sanctuaries – “making congregations safe places where children, youth and elders may experience the abiding love of God and fellowship within the community of faith” – across the Conference.
The Lake Effect Cooperative Ministries and the Pennellville United Methodist Church will facilitate a Safe Sanctuaries Training from 6-9 p.m. April 17 at the Pennellville UMC, 389 County Route 54. To register, contact Martha Wilber at (315) 695-5964 or lwilbur1@twcny.rr.com with your name, church, address and phone number. Churches may register as a group; just give the name of the church, number attending, and a contact number.
The three-hour course is based on the Conference’s “The Minimum Standards.” A majority of the course consists of six learning stations where participants work in small groups to complete activities. The station topics include:
- Why safe sanctuaries?
- The nuts and bolts of safe sanctuaries
- Abuse: The types, signs, and effects
- Responding and reporting abuse
- Beyond Sunday school and youth group
April was first declared Child Abuse Prevention Month by presidential proclamation in 1983. Child Maltreatment 2013 reported that in federal fiscal year 2013 in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, an estimated 679,000 children were victims of child abuse, and 1,484 children died as a result of abuse or neglect. The majority of child abuse cases stemmed from situations and conditions that can be preventable when community programs and systems are engaged and supportive.
Click here for more information on the prevention of child abuse.