Nothing tests an organization’s commitment to child protection like an allegation against its most trusted, most popular, most beloved staff member. The youth pastor who built the program from the ground up. The coach who took the team to state championships. The teacher every parent…
Every April 15, Major League Baseball pauses to honor Jackie Robinson. Every player, coach, and umpire wears number 42. The ceremony commemorates the day in 1947 when Robinson walked onto Ebbets Field and broke baseball’s color line—a moment of extraordinary courage that changed American sports…
The phrase hangs on bulletin boards and appears in staff handbooks across the youth-serving sector: “If you see something, say something.” It sounds empowering. It places responsibility on every member of the organization to serve as a watchdog for child safety. And in practice, it…
Summer programming season approaches fast, and with it comes an influx of new staff, expanded activities, and extended hours of direct contact between adults and children. For youth-serving organizations, summer represents both an extraordinary opportunity to serve young people and a period of heightened vulnerability….
A landmark 12-year longitudinal study reframes what your organization can do—and why it matters. Many staff members and leaders in youth-serving organizations carry a quiet tension. They engage with the ACE research, they understand the cumulative weight of adverse childhood experiences on the children and…
In early March, the Georgia Court of Appeals issued a ruling that youth-serving organizations should note. The case — Darlington School v. Philadelphia Indemnity et al. — reversed a $345 million judgment against five insurance carriers, finding that policies written decades after abuse occurred cannot…
Any time an independent investigation finds wrongdoing, the alleged perpetrator will be upset. They often file lawsuits against the investigator or the youth organization or both. A story about a recent lawsuit from California illustrates the pitfalls of not asking enough questions in an investigation and why…
You’ve read through every page of the independent report and appreciate that the investigator identified clear paths forward. But here’s the next difficult question for you: How do you ensure these recommendations become part of your safety culture and don’t simply become another binder on…
Commissioning an independent investigation is a difficult decision for a youth organization, and it is only the beginning of the process. What happens after the report lands on your desk — how you read it, who sees it, what you do with it, and how…
This is the latest in our series about hiring and supervising an independent investigator. Check our archive for the previous posts. You hired an independent investigator to find the truth. But knowing what "the truth" requires — and what a thorough search for it actually…
A groundbreaking new study tells us that kids with ADHD may not be destined to a life of difficulties after all. We’ve watched kids bounce off the walls during homework time, interrupt at the dinner table, lose their jacket for the fourth time this month,…
In times of trouble, there are still ways to find hope! Political controversies, the pandemic, crisis, mental health, disaster, fear, worry, anxiety, finances, and long-term effects of hard times seem to be the common language rolling off both our tongues and media platforms. Many days…