Commit to Kids

January 22, 2011 permalink

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair wants to stamp out sexual abuse of children. There is little to disagree with in his statements. The disagreement is with what he did not say. The main form of "protection" offered to children is taking them away from mom and dad. As shown many times in these columns, the main danger of sexual abuse for children comes not from parents but from childcare workers — social worker, foster parent, psychiatrist, group home staff. These are logical career choices for pedophiles. Mr Blair will not be tracking down pedophiles in these trades, instead will be educating childcare workers to get their help in the struggle to separate children from parents.

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Cops step up child abuse fight

By TRACY WOOLCOCK, Toronto Sun, Last Updated: January 20, 2011 8:11pm

Chief Bill Blair looks on during a program aimed at preventing child abuse by creating policies and procedures that educate childcare workers on Jan. 20, 2010.

(VERONICA HENRI, Toronto Sun)

Toronto child exploitation officers are taking the fight against sexual abuse one step further.

The Commit to Kids public awareness campaign, designed for front-line childcare workers to determine if their children are being sexually abused, was launched Thursday at the Toronto Police headquarters.

Chief William Blair said “one of the greatest challenges we face in our society is protecting our most vulnerable members.”

The program aims to prevent child abuse by creating policies and procedures that educate childcare workers about the signs of sex abuse.

Child offenders seek out organizations that deal with kids in order to gain easy access to them, Sex Crimes Unit Det. Sue Burke said.

Commit to Kids aims at stopping child offenders before sexual abuse occurs, Burke said.

Discussing the issue of sexual abuse is embarrassing for victims, therefore the need for this program is imperative, Canadian Centre for Child Protection director Signy Arnason said.

“This program will make sure offenders won’t have the time or access needed to harm another innocent child,” she said.

Although childcare workers strive to protect and maintain a safe environment for children, they’re not always successful in identifying the early stages of child abuse.

This program helps organizations deal with grey areas of misconduct and catch abuse before it happens Burke said.

Arnason’s hope for the future is that all child-serving organization uses Commit to Kids program and so far, 10,000 education kits were sent out to community and childcare groups.

tracy.woolcock@sunmedia.ca

Source: Toronto Sun