Sauti toll free telephone line helping Ugandan children avert violence

Miami is home to a special type of child welfare program called CHANCE (Citrus Helping Adolescents Negatively Impacted by Commercial Exploitation) that is designed specifically for youth in foster care that have been trafficked. CHANCE has an intensive curriculum that educates foster parents and clinicians about child sex trafficking and child trauma, and families are only allowed to take in one child at a time so that they are prepared for the child's unique health needs. Studies done on the program have found that the youth have significant improvement in many emotional and mental categories.

Cece Yara Child Advocacy Centre Foundation provides comprehensive care, protection and legal assistance to youth who suffered sexual abuse or are at risk. So far, they’ve helped reach eight convictions and have about 57 ongoing cases. The Foundation also emphasizes the importance of psychotherapy and education, empowering youth to learn about personal safety, boundaries and age-appropriate sex education in an effort to prevent reoccurring abuse.

Alarmed that child-welfare officials failed too often to prevent abuse within families, Florida responded six years ago with a crackdown that reversed official policy favoring preserving families if possible. But removing far more children from their homes backfired with an overwhelmed foster-care system unable to detect more child abuse in foster homes. Children were sent to homes with foster parents who were known to pose child-abuse risks. The state failed to hire enough caseworkers and failed to address the family problems that led to the abuse in the first place.

The Safe Babies program model trains judges to oversee foster-care cases with the goal of fixing the problems that led social workers to remove young children from their homes. Operating swiftly, so that babies do not lose precious weeks and months apart from their parents at a critical time, programs like Best For Babies in Pierce County, Washington, put teams of medical and mental health experts on a case. Nationwide, the program used in 30 states makes family reunification much more likely and rapid, with healthier parental attachments and child development.

To combat high rates of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria, the Spotlight Initiative supports several organizations providing counseling and educational services to victims and to women and girls at risk of abuse. One program from the NEEM Foundation countered the pandemic shutdown by distributing transistor radios to continue its classes for women. Another, Save the Child Initiative, intervened in a child rape case that local authorities ignored, convincing national police to arrest the attacker and providing counseling to the victim and her mother.

In 55 Ohio counties, judges can appoint volunteers from Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) programs to represent the interests of children when their families' struggles end up in court. CASA volunteers act as a judge's eyes and ears in the lives of children who are suspected of being victims of abuse or neglect, or who at least need a more stable home. They recommend placement options and treatment services. Such programs can save counties money, by replacing paid lawyers serving as guardians, and volunteers can be more attentive to children's needs.

In Colorado, a state law requiring the use of a screening tool is being used to combat sex trafficking at the individual level. The screening tool identifies and offers support and protection to victims of sex trafficking – many of whom are runaways from the foster care system – and has led to multiple prosecutions of sex traffickers.

In order to address child abuse and neglect community members got together to form: R.O.C.K Mat Su, a collaborative organization composed of several organizations that has “teamed up with government agencies, schools and judges to develop a comprehensive solution.” So far, they have been able to train 10 schools to become trauma informed schools, trained over 2,000 people in the community, and created an alternative judicial court for children that prioritizes family reunification.

Sexual abuse and rape are frequent and accepted parts of the social fabric in Malawi. To combat that, Malawi girls and boys take self defense classes to learn how to avert assault in order to protect themselves and others.

Be Safe uses tools like puppets to teach young children who are showing early signs of harmful sexual behavior how to control their sexual urges and what behavior is and isn’t appropriate. The goal is to intervene early to stop the behavior from developing into something more serious. So far, all but one child who graduated from Be Safe’s program has shown a reduction or total elimination of their behavior.