April 2022

Welcome to the MassKids Chronicle, our quarterly e-newsletter on the latest
news about MassKids’ child sexual abuse prevention efforts and how you can
get involved. MassKids directs the Enough Abuse Campaign that works
through training, education and advocacy to prevent child sexual abuse.

Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in Lowell, Lynn and Medford

With support from the Cummings Foundation's 2021 $25 million grant program,
MassKids received a $100,000 grant to provide child sexual abuse prevention
trainings and technical assistance on prevention policies for schools and
youth-serving organizations in Lowell, Lynn and Medford over the next three
years. With previous support from the Parker Foundation, nearly 1,200
employees across Lowell's 30 public schools completed our [1]Enough!
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in My School e-learning course, and three
virtual trainings for Lowell-area youth-serving organizations were held.
The Cummings grant allows us to offer our trainings to the 20 communities
that make up the Greater Lowell area. In partnership with the Greater
Lowell Health Alliance and the Center for Hope and Healing, outreach to
over 100 youth organizations has been made which are now eligible to
participate free of charge in our second e-learning course, [2]Enough!
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in My Youth Organization.

The Cummings grant will also us to build upon previous efforts in Lynn,
including a Training of Trainers that certified two dozen advocates to
deliver Enough Abuse workshops in the community. We invited 48 youth
organizations in Lynn to take the e-learning course and met with 25 key
community leaders who make up the Lynn Education District. MassKids
Director Jetta Bernier and School Superintendent Patrick Tutwiler were
guests this month on the 30-minute [3]American Dream Cable TV program
hosted by Jim Carrigan, Esq. to discuss this prevention initiative and how
Lynn schools can benefit from this crucial training. Mayor Jared
Nicholson's office is helping promote the training opportunity for youth
organizations and the Lynn Daily Item will be publishing a feature article
about the initiative in an upcoming edition.

In Medford, with support from Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, 37 youth
organizations have been urged to adopt the Enough! course. School Committee
member Melanie McLaughlin is serving as our liaison with Medford Public
Schools where rollout of the school course is expected this fall.

Tell MA Legislators to Pass the Prevention Package!

A package of bills in the current legislative session in the Massachusetts
Senate and House would improve MA's child sexual abuse prevention policies.
S369 would require prevention training for all schools and youth
organizations. (Reported out favorably from the Committee on Education.)

S132 would prohibit sexual misconduct by a person in a position of
authority or trust and prohibit consent by a minor 16-18 years of age from
being used as a defense in such cases. (Reported out favorably from the
Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities. These bills
are now in front of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.)

S1091 and H1471 would strengthen the screening of applicants for positions
in schools to identify any past sexual misconduct and prohibit aiding and
abetting a school employee engaged in sexual misconduct with a student to
secure a position in another school. These bills are being considered in
the Judiciary Committee until June 30th.

Contact your legislators to urge them to Pass the Prevention Package! You
can send an already drafted email to your legislators through our Action
Network letter campaign. Click the button below.

[4]Email your legislators!

To draw attention to Pass the Prevention Package! on social media, you can
share a post and tag your legislators. Check out [5]our social media
toolkit.

Other Enough Abuse Training News...

MassKids Director presented a 90-minute virtual training on child sexual
abuse prevention on April 6th to 60 physicians, nurses and social workers
at Boston Children’s Hospital. The training was sponsored by the
Hospital’s Child Protection Team that oversees all cases of child
maltreatment that present at the Hospital.

Schools in all 56 school districts in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long
Island in New York will now have free access to MassKids’ Enough! online,
evidence-based course to address child sexual abuse, through a $30,000
grant from Nassau BOCES, the largest Board of Cooperative Educational
Services in New York State. To bring this high quality educational
training to your school, [6]click here.

State Policy Exchange: Passing Prevention Laws in Every State

In March, 26 participants from 14 states participated in MassKids’
first meeting of our State Policy Exchange (SPE), launched to provide
opportunities for information sharing and peer support for legislators and
child advocates seeking to push for child sexual abuse prevention
legislation in their states. Among the participants were: Prevent Child
Abuse America national staff and PCA chapters in Illinois, Kentucky,
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota and Rhode Island; Prevent
Together (National Coalition to Prevent CSA/E) members from Florida and
Massachusetts; representatives from the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office;
and other policymakers and advocates.

The State Policy Exchange is a follow-up to our 3-part webinar series for
Policymakers and Advocates held in November. These recorded webinars are
available [7]on our homepage. Over 80 advocates from 25 states registered
for those webinars to learn how to use our [8]Call to Action Report[9] to
advocate for CSA prevention legislation, and several have pledged to begin
efforts to introduce new prevention legislation or amend current laws that
lack recommended provisions.

The SPE will meet bimonthly via Zoom. If you are interested in joining the
State Policy Exchange, email[10] [11][email protected].

You can help prevent child sexual abuse.

We'll show you how. Take the Pledge to Prevent today.

Take specific, achievable actions to prevent child sexual abuse today.
Visit [12]www.pledgetoprevent.org and join the almost 1,600 survivors,
parents, teachers, nurses, sorority sisters and other allies who have
pledged to take action to end this silent epidemic affecting 1 in 10
children.

[13]Take the Pledge to Prevent!

Do you work with children? Will you take a short survey?

If you or your organization works with children or adolescents, The
Legislative Task Force on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse could use
your help. Please [14]CLICK HERE to complete this short 10-minute survey
before April 30, 2022.

It is designed to explore how professionals in Massachusetts recognize and
respond to children and adolescents who display problematic sexual
behaviors (PSB). These survey results may provide insight into how these
children and their families are able to get the help they need. The results
of the survey will be made available to anyone who participates.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month but MassKids works hard every month
to prevent child abuse from ever happening. Become a partner in prevention.

[15]Donate today!

Shop through Amazon Smile and donate a percentage of your purchase to
MassKids! Shop from [16]this link to save us as your charity of choice, or
go to [17]smile.amazon.com and choose Massachusetts Citizens for Children
from the list of charities.

[18]

Stay connected:

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[21]Website [22]Email Address

References

1. [link removed]! School Course Flyer - Natl.pdf
2. [link removed]! YSO course flyer 2022.pdf
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6. [link removed]! School Course Flyer - Natl.pdf
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10. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Joining the State Policy Exchange&body=Hello MassKids, please add me to the State Policy Exchange email list. I would like to participate.
11. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Joining the State Policy Exchange&body=Hello MassKids, please add me to the State Policy Exchange email list. I would like to participate.
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