Web Seminar #11
Preventing and Dealing with Sexual Abuse in One to One Youth Mentoring Programs
Presenter: John Pearson, Nonprofit Risk Management Center
Description: One-to-one adult-child mentoring relationships have proven to be tremendously beneficial for children, especially when programs recruit the right type of caring adults to serve as mentors and when their mentoring relationships with children last over time.
Screening out the "wrong" individuals, those who are unsafe or not fit for the mentoring role, while "screening in" the ones who are a good fit, is essential. This webinar, and accompanying readings, focuses first on the volunteer interview and how to effectively screen volunteer mentors. Because no screening effort is ever perfect, this webinar also examines how you can uncover the "grooming" of children, and the early signs of abuse, through match support contacts and observation.
This session will be beneficial for staff new to mentoring and to seasoned veterans. The information presented is based upon over 30 years of study of incidents reported in one-to-one mentoring programs, as well as from research in the fields of child and youth protection, offender treatment programs, and the justice system.
Web Seminar Files:
- Recording of the session (high-quality streaming video, Flash format)
- Slides from the presentation (PDF file)
- Handout: Preventing Sexual Abuse of Children (PDF file)
- Edited transcript coming soon.
Grantee Options:
- Discuss this topic on the MRC Mentoring Forums
- Get technical assistance from the MRC on this topic now
Return to Web Seminar main page.