Most administrators think of a code of conduct as a child protection tool. Attorneys and courts think of it as evidence. If your organization receives any federal funding, a written harassment or conduct policy will likely become a central exhibit in any serious Title IX…
On July 17, 1938, pilot Douglas Corrigan took off from Brooklyn with a flight plan filed for California. He landed in Dublin, Ireland twenty-eight hours later and blamed a faulty compass. History remembers him fondly as “Wrong Way” Corrigan. Your organization’s child protection program will…
Debbie Ausburn and Tom Rawlings are leading a free webinar on July 22 that walks youth-serving organizations through building a child protection policy that works in real life, not just one that reads well in a binder. The session runs 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET…
Research on overparenting is giving youth administrators a useful tool: peer-reviewed evidence that age-appropriate independence is not a supervision gap. It is good program design. Understanding that research, and its limits, can help you push back on parent pressure, defend your supervision policies, and build…
This week, Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It is easy to treat July 4th as a celebration of a single dramatic moment, a group of men signing a document and changing history. But the more instructive story is what happened…
Most youth-serving organizations have a supervision policy. Far fewer have a supervision system — a structure that actually generates information about what staff are doing, gets that information to someone with authority to act on it, and creates a record of what the organization did in response….
Tom Rawlings and I recorded a six-part podcast series for YSO Academy, and all six episodes are now available. The series is called “Cultivating a Culture of Safety,” and it walks through the full arc of building a child protection program from the ground up….
June 26 is PTSD Awareness Day, but your legal obligations extend well beyond PTSD. When a child with any mental health diagnosis enrolls in your program and you see associated behavioral problems, the ADA governs what your organization must do next. It sets specific rules…
Recent revelations that a Maine US Senate candidate had an account on Kik, described by NBC as a “notorious chat app,” once again highlight the need for adults to protect children from the very real dangers of social media. In particular, Kik —where users can chat anonymously…
Monday’s post covered what the research says about stress tolerance in children: that it is a learnable capacity, that adult relationships are the primary buffer between tolerable and toxic stress, and that youth programs directly influence the conditions that build it. This post covers what…
May I remind you—–it’s okay! Whatever it is that you are feeling, thinking, fearing, hating, or loving I want to offer you a reassurance in the fight towards resilience by saying–it is okay! We all need to hear this. May we all read it, speak it,…
Youth program staff spend a lot of time trying to reduce stress for the children in their care. That instinct is understandable, and within limits, correct. But a growing body of developmental research suggests the real goal should not be to minimize stress. We should…