When sexual abuse occurs in the context of an organization serving youths or other vulnerable populations, the first question is always “HOW?” How could this have happened on our watch? How did we miss the signs? How could we not have known that the person who perpetrated the abuse had such horrible intentions?
Despite prevailing myths, organizational sexual abuse is rarely a simple matter of a “bad actor” infiltrating an organization and preying upon its consumers. To learn from incidents and, therefore, help prevent them in the future, incidents must be evaluated in the context of the organization and the environment in which abuse was ultimately possible.
Praesidium’s Safety Equation® identifies eight organizational operations that provide opportunities to decrease the risk of abuse by employees, volunteers, or other program participants.
Over the past six years, River Oaks Baptist School has turned to Praesidium for abuse prevention training, criminal background checks, policy development, and ongoing consultation. We were pleased to obtain Praesidium Accreditation; an achievement that communicates to our faculty and staff, parents, and community that our school adheres to the highest standards in the industry.
We look forward to continuing our partnership in promoting a safe environment.
— Paul Mayhew, Associate Head of School for Operations,
River Oaks Baptist School
The Praesidium Accreditation Standards for Consumer Serving Organizations© are informed by thousands of root cause analyses, continuous scientific research and over three decades of field experience with more than 4,000 organizations that serve children, youths, and vulnerable persons. Anchored by the Safety Equation, these Standards provide a framework to help organizations focus their efforts where we know it makes the greatest impact.
There are a total of 23 standards across the eight operations of the Safety Equation and these standards are designed for any consumer-serving organization. Each standard has components that need to be implemented to meet the standard. Components have specified criteria to identify a level of implementation.
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Learn more about the Praesidium Accreditation Standards
and the research that supports them
For Casa Alianza Nicaragua, the process of support from Praesidium has been very professional, thus ensuring that our organization meets international standards for child protection. The children express feeling safer at Casa Alianza, and our staff has greater clarity regarding their role as companions throughout each moment of the day. This has allowed us to reduce and prevent situations of risk and incidents in our residences. Because of this, we can focus on the essential part of our mission, which is the emotional recovery and social reintegration of the children we serve every day.
— María José Arguello, Executive Director, Casa Alianza Nicaragua
