In 2009 19,000 S.C. teachers completed child sexual abuse prevention training through a partnership between Darkness to Light, the S.C. Department of Education and a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The initial goal of this pilot project was to train 10,000 S.C. teachers, but interest was so high it was necessary to find other ways to meet all the training requests. Many thanks to Select Health of S.C., Blue Cross Blue Shield of S.C., the Mark Elliott Motley Foundation and the individual school districts that stepped up to meet the need.
The exciting news is that the project will be continued with private funds in 2010. Thanks to the support of Select Health of S.C. and the S.C. Association of Parent-Teacher a further 7,500 educators will receive training. This means that nearly 50% of S.C. teachers will have the skills to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.
This is the largest scale and most significant child sexual abuse project ever implemented. It is already serving as a model for educational systems everywhere.
Are your teacher’s trained? Ask your school to empower your teachers with Stewards of Children training.
