Train Adults

Best Practice 6: Train Adults is based on a simple premise: education enables safeguarding. It is an adult’s responsibility to safeguard children; it is never children’s responsibility to protect themselves from maltreatment. Given that reality, this Best Practice will help you to expand your circle of community members who are educated about child maltreatment and proper intervention protocols. Those who seek to harm children may look like ordinary community members, but certain behaviors are “red flags” indicating the need for immediate intervention.

Proper training empowers community members to identify these behaviors and intervene immediately, quickly de-escalating a situation and following up with appropriate protocols. When every person in a community clearly understands child protection policies, all members of that community are able to uphold agreed-upon norms and model safe behavior as a united front. While each educated individual is one critical thread in achieving this goal, it is the ripple effect of intentional community-wide adult education regarding child maltreatment that creates a tightly knit cord. As we learn from Ecclesiastes, “the threefold cord will not quickly be broken.” As educated individuals, we are strong. As an educated community, we give strength to others.