With Child Abuse Prevention Month coming up in April, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) is helping to spread the word about a new way to access the Children’s Safety Partnership (CSP) training, “Understanding and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse”.
The pandemic has changed everyone’s ability to gather and train together in-person. Recognizing that all school personnel are required to take the one-hour training, “Understanding and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse” every four years, the Children’s Safety Partnership, a program of the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault, has developed a completely online version of “Understanding and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse”.
The preference for this training is still that it be in-person, if possible. However, the hope is that this online course version will provide opportunities for school personnel who may not otherwise have access to the training to be able to complete it and to be in compliance.
The training and all supplemental materials are available on the Children’s Safety Partnership website for all educators who have previously taken the training of trainers with the CSP. Access is intended to be a support for those responsible for delivering and/or ensuring the training is completed. Those who have not completed a training of trainers but would like to access the materials can reach out to their local sexual assault support center prevention educators to learn more. This course was designed using the Teachable platform. It provides a road map of the content, while also offering the option to start and stop whenever is convenient for the participant.
If training facilitators have questions when delivering or monitoring the training, they should contact their local sexual assault support center prevention educators!