A grant received by Fayette FACTOR (Fayette Alliance Coordinating Teamwork Outreach and Resources) will allow all school employees to be trained in Darkness to Light’s child sexual abuse prevention program, Stewards of Children.
The grant, from the Pittuloch Foundation in Atlanta, is funding the majority of the training initiative that will take place during post-planning, after the school year ends, and during pre-planning, before the next school year begins.
FACTOR and PCA (Prevent Child Abuse) Fayette recently held a benefit dinner to raise the remaining funds needed to complete the training and purchase workbooks.
The two-hour workshop will teach staff how to recognize the signs that an opportunity exists for abuse to occur, and the signs that abuse has occurred.
The training also details the critical proper reaction and steps to reporting the signs of abuse, or disclosure of abuse by a child.
Ten school personnel have already been trained to become Stewards of Children facilitators. They will redeliver training to system employees over the next several months. The facilitators are school system psychologists Erika Schaeuble and Rhonda Williams; Coordinator of School Psychological Services, Stephen Worth; school system social workers Michelle Martin, Kim Bryan, and Eulene Paulk, Alternative School counselor Tere Goodwin; J.C. Booth Middle School counselor Kristin Cristelli; Robert J. Burch Elementary School counselor Kelly Hubbard; and Peeples Elementary School physical education teacher Deborah Friday.
The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy has launched a statewide county-by-county child sexual abuse prevention initiative. Fayette FACTOR and PCA has partnered with the Georgia Center to make Fayette County the safest place in the state to raise children.
“Our strategy is to train adults in how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse. We believe that there must be a focus on prevention,” said Becky Smith, executive director of FACTOR.
