Keeping Children Safe Usa Inc

Safeguarding Children is Not a Choice.  It’s A Responsibility

Let’s Be Honest. You Can’t Be With Them All The Time

Despite parents' best efforts, we cannot be with our children all the time. Many children have both parents working, or they come from single-parent families who depend on one income for wages and benefits. Unemployment is not an option. Children attend school or daycare, and they may be involved in sports, music, or other after-school activities. They may participate in faith-based youth programs or community service and leadership programs. They may rely on aid or peacekeeping operations. 

Parents rely on organizations to protect their children from violence, exploitation, and abuse when under their care. Organizations have a duty of care to children with whom they work, are in contact with, or who are affected by their work and operations, yet day after day, year after year, we see or read in the news where organizations have miserably failed the children entrusted to their care. 

In the USA alone, well-documented sexual abuse scandals include:

• USA Gymnastics team ($380 million in settlements and over 150 victims), 
• Penn State University – Jerry Sandusky ($109 million in settlements and 33 victims), 
• University of Southern California ($825 million in settlements and approx. 700 victims),
• Michigan State University ($500 million in settlements and 332 victims), 
• University of Michigan ($490 million in settlements and 1050 victims),
• Catholic Church ($3 billion in settlements to date, and well-over 500 victims), 
• Boy Scouts of America ($850 million in settlements to date, and more than 84,000 victims, and the list goes on and on.  

These are organizations that many parents trusted because the assumption was they had robust policies protecting children from harm. Protecting children from harm includes misconduct by staff, associates, and others; poor practice; and operational activities that may harm or put children at risk due to poor design or delivery. Their policies may have improved, but the damage has already been done.

WHY CHILD SAFEGUARDING? Every five minutes, a child dies from violence. Every day, in every country, children are abused, beaten, raped, and more. Tragically, the perpetrator is usually someone the child knows and trusts. Too often, they work for an organization that's meant to help children; a sports club, school, faith institution, not-for-profit organization, or peacekeeping force, but these perpetrators abuse their power and the child's trust. Disabled children are almost four times more likely to be subjected to violence and neglect.

ABUSERS INFILTRATE ORGANIZATIONS: In some cases, perpetrators set up organizations or work to infiltrate trusted institutions to access children to abuse; in others, they simply take advantage of the situation and the extreme imbalance of power. All organizations have the responsibility to protect children. While the majority do everything they can to keep children safe, too many have serious gaps in safeguarding which put children at risk of harm.

SOME LEADERS PROTECT ORGANIZATIONS, NOT CHILDREN: History has shown us that some organizations fail to act on concerns or actively cover up abuse, in some cases, for decades. Senior leaders did not recognize that their organization was putting children at risk, and then when the abuse occurred, they acted to protect the organization, not the child.

KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE USA HAS ONE GOAL: to PREVENT crimes against children from happening in the first place. ALL children should be safe from exploitation and abuse. That's why we're here, and it's what drives everything we do. It's our passion. As our colleagues at the British Council have said, "Every child matters - everywhere." That includes your children or grandchildren because organizational policies, or the lack thereof, affect your child's safety when they're not with you. 

WHO WE ARE: Keeping Children Safe USA is an independent, not-for-profit, charitable organization organized under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, contributions to which are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. You can look up the status of our not-for-profit organization on the IRS website. Our EIN is 85-0827780. 

We assist organizations of all types and sizes, who work with, or whose work affects children, to implement rigorous policies and procedures that protect children from exploitation and abuse. We don't just help organizations embed rigorous international child safeguarding standards into their everyday operations. Through research, we also impact the policies and actions of governments, international institutes, and the corporate sector, mobilizing and driving them to enact these rigorous standards. In this way, Keeping Children Safe USA creates real change, transforming the lives of children.

PLEASE make a tax-deductible donation to support and further our work. TOGETHER, we can transform lives now and for years to come.