Georgia’s Stewards of Children Initiative
A program of the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy
Georgia’s Stewards of Children Initiative is the first state-wide launch
of Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children sexual abuse prevention training
program. The initiative’s goal is to provide training to 1,000,000 adults
by 2020, thereby reducing the occurrence of child sexual abuse in Georgia,
allowing for safe, productive childhoods to be enjoyed by all of Georgia’s
children. Georgia’s Stewards of Children Initiative is housed at the
Georgia Center for Child Advocacy, the nationally accredited child advocacy
center serving Fulton and DeKalb Counties.
For more information or to get involved, contact the State Prevention Coordinator,
Tiffany Sawyer, at (404) 378-6100 or stewards@georgiacenterforchildadvocacy.org.
Goals | Strategies | Accomplishments
Georgia’s Goals
- To train 1,000,000 Georgia adults in the Stewards of Children program by
the year 2020.
- Tip: It is important to establish a very large
goal. A goal of 1 million people for instance, shows that you are committed
for the long-run and that partners in the community need to think really
big, too. They wouldn’t
want to be left out of the project as it gains momentum. Get people
excited about the big goal and get them involved.
- Train 500 facilitators across targeted organization types that can deliver
the training to 200 adults per year.
- Tip: Establish reasonable goals for facilitators and base it on the number of adults you plan to train.
- Train staff, volunteers and parents of organizations within the GA Stewards’ target populations. Georgia’s Stewards Initiative Targeted Organizational Types:
- Schools and Educational Programs
- Higher Education
- Sports and Recreational League
- Faith Community
- Youth Serving Organizations
- Child Advocacy Centers and Multi-disciplinary Teams
- Medical Community
- Legal Community
- Parent Clubs
- General Public
- Build a strong staff infrastructure to develop and support the initiative.
- Tip: It is important to understand that an initiative this size is going to take more than one part-time staff member to accomplish. We have dedicated 2.5 staff members and a regular intern to this initiative plus the help of the Executive Director and Development staff for public relations and funding projects.
- Build a Task Force, Leadership, or Steering Committee to guide and support the growth of the initiative in the community.
- Tip: Although the Georgia Stewards Initiative has not used this model completely, we have benefitted from the leadership of an extremely influential, compassionate, and visionary community leader who has made this initiative her primary passion. Speak out about the need for a prevention initiative and for strong community leaders and involvement until you can find someone who will fully embrace the program. Courting this person may take several years until they are fully engaged.
- Integration of the Stewards of Children training into the curriculum at the university/college level for students of various degrees pertaining to children before they step into their roles.
- Newly empowered adults will then:
- Advocate on a grass-roots level for changes within child-serving organizations
to prevent the opportunity for child sexual abuse
- Implement policies
and procedures within these organizations that can prevent child
sexual abuse and create safe environments for children and youth as
well as reduce liability for the organization
- Actively take steps to
protect the children in their own live
Georgia’s Strategies
Because of the taboo nature of child sexual abuse, youth-serving organizations are slow to commit, and multiple contacts and approaches are necessary. Therefore, Georgia Center for Child Advocacy Stewards’ staff devotes much of their time
to marketing and promoting the program throughout communities and organizations. It is important to be persistent with organizations because the momentum will grow. It sometimes takes 6 months to a year for an organization to realize
they need to focus on sexual abuse prevention and then actually implement the program.
Try the following strategies:
- Working through the state child advocacy center chapter to encourage CAC’s to use the program as a way to promote their center and raise community awareness about child advocacy centers to support broad funding initiatives.
- Incorporating the program into large organizational networks like school districts and state-wide agencies.
- Working with public and private schools to develop screening and prevention policies as well as a system of response for sexual abuse incidences, by encouraging them to train ALL faculty, staff, and parents along with partnering with their local CAC to help with response and reporting concerns
- Scheduling breakfast or lunch presentations and inviting similar types of organizations while having a current partner sponsor/host the event.
- Using parents and other individuals as influencers to open doors into organizations and advocate for training.
- Accumulating letters of support from different agencies currently utilizing the Stewards program to use as a marketing tool
- Presenting at local, state, and national conferences.
- Supporting facilitators through: quarterly regional meetings, a promotional Power Point, the use of a partner facilitator system, and a monthly newsletter
- Integrating training and policies and procedures into funding applications and requirements
- Hiring student interns to assist and participate in the roll-out of the Stewards of Children Program
- Acquiring continuing education, for the three hour training, including: LMFT, LCSW, LPC, MD, Nurses, Educators, and Law Enforcement
- Submitting program information in local and organizational newsletters and listservs. See example: Southeastern Council of Foundations Newsletter
Georgia’s Accomplishments
In two years we have trained 125 facilitators throughout GA who are now certified to train other using the Stewards of Children program. The Georgia Stewards of Children Initiative has many exciting accomplishments and new projects on the horizon, including the following highlights:
- Rome/Floyd County and Macon/Bibb County Implementation
- Thanks to the help of Harbor House in Rome and the Peyton Anderson Foundation in Macon, the first community-wide implementations were launched this year. Rome: Harbor House facilitators have worked very closely with Rome City Schools, Rome Department of Family and Children Services, Floyd County Juvenile Court, and Floyd County Recreation and Sports Authority to bring prevention to adults and organizations in the community. Macon: Forty-five facilitators were trained and six organizations have stepped forward to lead the project including, Crescent House Child Advocacy Center of the Children’s Medical Center of Central Georgia, Bibb County School District, Bibb County Department of Family and Children Services, Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, and Macon Police Department.
- Continuing Education Units
- The Stewards of Children training has been approved in Georgia for CEU’s for all licensed counselors and social workers, as well as law enforcement; pursuing CEU’s
for education and medical fields.
- Atlanta Public Schools
- Stewards of Children trainings will be implemented in 3 Atlanta Public elementary schools over the next 3 years through a small anonymous grant. This pilot work will help to bring Stewards to all schools in the Atlanta Public School System.
- Center for Disease Control Evaluation
- The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy is part of a multi-site, federally funded research study to determine the efficacy of the instructor-led and online versions of the Stewards training led by the Crime Victims Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. Other sites include Bend, OR and Beaufort, SC.
- L.E.A.D. Atlanta
- Georgia Stewards was selected by Leadership Atlanta for an 8-month cohort project
for L.E.A.D. Atlanta, which will focus on expanding the reach of Stewards
of Children in Atlanta area youth-serving organizations.
- Kennesaw State University
- Georgia Stewards’ staff is exploring the incorporation of Stewards into the curriculums for youth-serving majors at Kennesaw State University. KSU, along with CAC’s of GA, will also be hosting a Stewards training on November 19th inviting students and the public for Prevent Child Abuse World Day.
- DeKalb County Initiative
- Stewards’ staff is working with Bob Wilson, former DeKalb District Attorney
and founder of Georgia Center for Children, to implement Stewards in DeKalb
County by hosting an informational breakfast for community leaders.
- Gwinnett County Initiative
- Gwinnett Sexual Assault Center & Child Advocacy Center is spearheading a Stewards county-wide initiative. The preliminary meeting was held August 21 followed by a presentation at the Gwinnett County DA’s Office “Predators Among Us” Conference.
The next planning meetings are scheduled for December and January during
their Child Abuse Protocol meeting.
- Southeast Georgia Initiative
- August 2007 started the Southeast Georgia Initiative in Swainsboro, GA by training five facilitators at the Sunshine House Child Advocacy Center. They have dedicated 1 part-time staff person to the Georgia Stewards Initiative to spread the program through Southeast Georgia.
- Conferences/Presentations
- Presentations and exhibitions were made at 24 state and national conferences in 2007, with 17 applications confirmed and pending in 2008.
- Smart Start GA Contract
- Smart Start GA is contracting with a Play to Learn training coordinator to obtain Bright From the Start (GA early childhood education accrediting body) continuing education approval and provide the Stewards of Children training to at least 1000 employees of child care centers and family homecare providers throughout Georgia.
- Atlanta Area Private Schools
- Private schools throughout Atlanta are beginning to adopt the Stewards program for their staff, including Atlanta International School, the Galloway School, Cliff Valley School, and Woodward Academy. Woodward Academy, the country’s largest private school, and Atlanta International School have trained all of their faculty and are slowly spreading the training out to other staff, contract employees, after-school workers, volunteers, and parents. The Galloway School is hosting a Stewards presentation breakfast to which we are inviting headmasters and counselors of private schools throughout Atlanta.
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