Shifting Child Sexual Abuse Paradigms - Primary Prevention Symposium
On October 8th & 9th, Empowering Adults - Protecting Children, Inc. hosted the first every Symposium in middle America for shifting the paradigm of child sexual abuse prevention. The Symposium was held on the OU Tulsa Campus in the Schusterman Center Perkins Auditorium. Approximately 150 organizational decision makers and professionals from many areas attended the sessions. The Symposium featured presentations by several excellent presenters who offered a new view of prevention of child sexual abuse that focuses on the education of adults. The presentations laid the ground work by showing a startling and enlightening film about the reality of child sexual abuse for the children and their families filmed in Oklahoma. "In a Town This Size" told the story of a pediatrician in Bartlesville, Oklahoma who preyed on the children of that community for over 25 years and how he was able to continue to abuse children without recompense. The documentary left participants with a view of what it looks like, in reality, for a prominent member of the community to prey on the children entrusted to his care and to cultivate relationships with the parents and siblings of the children to assure that he continued to have access and would never be caught.
Dr. Robert Block, past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Emeritus Faculty at the OU College of Medicine was Honorary Chair and spoke about the real economic impact of the failure of Oklahoma to effectively address child sexual abuse and protect children.
The Symposium then turned its attention to a new view of child sexual abuse prevention through presentations featuring experts inprimary prevention programs that offer a new paradigm for prevention of child sexual abuse. Sharon W. Doty, of Arpeggias and an international speaker on primary prevention through adult education. and creator of the adult education program. She spoke about the new paradigm, how it was developed, and how it can be implemented through a new approach to prevention programming, which she demonstrated with a piece of the program she developed, Keeping Them Safe. Pat Neal and Crispin Ketlehut of National Catholic Services, LLC presented a non-Catholic version of their Virtus™ adult prevention program and joined Ms. Doty in discussing what works in adult education implementation strategy.
The Symposium was a great success and the catalyst to a new emphasis on adult education for the prevention of child sexual abuse. The organization is considering sponsoring continuing work in this area every two years. If you are interested in future programs, please let us know and we will put you on the distribution list for other events.