Safe Church

Safe Church’s vision is to equip and inspire people of faith to become proactive in protecting children from abuse – not only at church, but in the community.

 

SafeChurch is a movement of people of faith who don’t want the church to be silent about child sexual abuse. People from all faith and religious backgrounds can join together to form “Core Groups” to participate in this year’s SafeChurch program. SARA will provide 6 trainings over the course of the coming year, to give participants in-depth knowledge about how to identify, respond to, report, and prevent child abuse.

 

SARA partners with congregations to achieve this vision by:

 

Clarifying your church’s theological framework and stance on child sexual abuse.

 

Speaking and acting proactively to bring child sexual abuse out of the shadows, to make it clear with your congregation that you understand and care about protecting children, and that your congregation is a place where people are informed about red flags and ready to act.

 

Moving beyond static policies and training to shifting culture to inspire and equip adults to protect children from sexual harm in church and in the community.

 

Connecting with other people of faith who share the vision to take leadership and end the conditions that allow one in four girls and one in six boys to be sexually abused.

 

Engaging survivors as sources of wisdom and leaders.

 

Providing a core group of deeply educated adults who can help you address cases of child sexual abuse as they arise.

 

Participants will gain an in-depth knowledge about:

• Trauma and the impact of child abuse

• Mandated reporting

• Walking with child, teen, and adult survivors

• Understanding abusers

• Prevention of sexual abuse

• Policies for treatment of known offenders within (or outside) the congregation

• Prevention tools