Special Report: Bringing awareness to child sexual abuse

GAINESVILLE - Since April is Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Prevention Month, local advocates have renewed their push to train a portion of Hall County's adults in preventing child sexual abuse.

Steve Collins, the president of the group Adults Protecting Children, said so far about 12-percent, or 840, of the 7,000 adults they want to train have taken the Stewards of Children training course. There's a reason, said Collins, that they have targeted 7,000 trainees.

"The goal in our initiative is to train five-percent of the adult population," said Collins. "Five-percent comes from Malcolm Gladwell's theory on the tipping point, where he says that if you can reach five percent of any audience with your message, you have reached that critical mass by which...you can actually bring about a cultural shift."

Collins said the focus is on training adults because they are the ones who should be responsible for protecting children. He said many parents have misconceptions about who the child sexual abusers are.

"[They think] as long as I protect my child from the guy in the trench coat at the park, I'm okay or as long as I know where the sex offender's living near my house, I'm okay," said Collins.

He said the truth of the matter is that 90-percent of children know their abusers. In addition, 80-percent of sexual abuse cases occur in a one child-one adult situation.

Collins said parents need to ask pointed questions any time they leave their children in the care of others, whether at school, at camp or at church.

"They need to ask the question, 'Do you have a child protect policy? Is there ever an occasion where my child is going to be alone with an adult or with an older child?'"

Collins said in the next several weeks, his group will offer four Stewards of Children Training sessions in the Gainesville-Hall County area, as advocates continue to push toward their goal. Each trainee will pay $15 for training materials and 2 1/2 hours of instruction, according to Collins.

The upcoming courses are as follows:

Tuesday, April 16
Lakewood Baptist Church
6:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 27
Gainesville Parks & Recreation
Frances Meadows Aquatic Center
1 p.m.

Friday, May 10
Gainesville Parks & Recreation
Frances Meadows Aquatic Center
5 p.m.

Thursday, May 16
Westminster Presbyterian Church
6:30 p.m.

Collins said other groups interested in offering training sessions for adults may contact him at [email protected].

Collins made his comments on a recent edition of WDUN's "Ken Coleman Show."

April is Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Prevention Month. Watch AccessNorthGA.com for other stories on this topic later in the month.