Paving The Healing Road For Child Survivors Of Sexual Abuse

Jewish Family Services (JFS) has been delivering the Child Abuse Prevention Program to local schools for 30 years. JFS presents the program at 150 area schools, curating age-appropriate presentations for each grade level. The program covers examples of safe and appropriate touching, as well as what to do if the child finds themselves in an unsafe situation and how to tell an adult.

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.

The DIKSHA youth club looks after the children of sex workers when their mothers are working. The club teaches youth about their rights, bodily autonomy and empowers them to take control of their futures and avoid joining the sex trade themselves. The club started in 2001, and over the past two decades, it has helped prevent young girls from joining the sex trade, reduced rates of trafficking in the area and also helped reduce the stigma children of sex workers face.

Hennepin County implemented a comprehensive overhaul of its child protection system, implementing a multi-pronged approach including increasing the staff and budget, splitting caseloads more evenly among workers, and instituting a two-month training program for new hires with ongoing education throughout their careers. The overhaul ensures families receive more comprehensive support, including therapy and addiction treatment services, reducing repeat cases and improving family outcomes.

The Hello Lagos! youth center provides a safe space for youth, particularly those experiencing teenage pregnancies, issues around sexual reproductive health, substance abuse and anything else that gets in the way of youth having a healthy lifestyle. One of the Center’s program, the young moms clinic, has led to a 20% decrease in teen pregnancy and 15% of those in the program have returned to school.

The Uganda Child Helpline is a 24/7 toll-free line, whose goal is to encourage children and adults to report cases of child abuse. The Helpline then links at-risk children to support and protection through case management services. Currently, there are call centers in 68 districts and the line receives an average of 9,509 calls a day.

Support and counseling from trusted volunteers empowers young women to stay in school and out of child marriage. In Nepal, the Sisters for Sisters program was the result of a governmental effort to reduce child marriages. Volunteers, many of whom were child brides themselves, help fight stigma and cultural pressures by leading discussions with young women on topics like sexual health and life choices.

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.

Uganda has sub-Saharan Africa’s only government-run child helpline--a free way for children to report physical, emotional, and sexual violence perpetrated against them. Police are supposed to work with probation officers to investigate the situation and connect children with medical and legal help. However, resource shortages remain, and some health workers refer victims to private clinics to make more money.

The organization, Friends of the Children, is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty by giving at-risk children adult mentors to help guide them. The program results in kids who avoid teen pregnancy, graduate from high school, and don't end up in the criminal justice system.