A special guest post from D2L Certified Instructor (and former SCAN employee) Tracy Leonard: Although my family left Northern Virginia and I have left SCAN, I haven’t left the work. While at SCAN, I was fortunate enough to not only receive the training to become a Darkness to Light Authorized Facilitator, but also a Certified Instructor. […]
Next month, SCAN will host a facilitator workshop for Darkness to Light, where we’ll train adults to deliver the Stewards of Children® training program to others in our local community. Facilitators model the core principals of the curriculum by talking openly about child sexual abuse and engaging adults in discussion, and are expected to schedule and facilitate at least 4 […]
Goals are important to set for so many reasons–they keep us on track, hold us accountable and help push us to our limits. One goal that we can get behind at SCAN is Darkness to Light’s Four Million by 2020: Imagine 4 million adults who have been trained in Stewards of Children! 4 million adults who can prevent, […]
It is easy to look back at what happened to the over 100 victims of Larry Nassar and see who failed these athletes; Michigan State, USA Gymnastics, coaches and parents who didn’t believe their daughters. But what if we never had to look back? What if it had never happened? I find myself sounding like […]
As stories of sexual assault and harassment fill our newsfeeds, it’s critical that we talk to children about this issue and its impact. 1 in 10 children will be sexually abused by the time they turn 18, yet only a third will report it. As professionals, we need to be able to talk to the […]
December 11, 2017—SCAN of Northern Virginia has once again achieved “Partner in Prevention” status, a designation awarded by the nonprofit Darkness to Light to organizations which take extra steps to protect the children they serve by training staff to understand the issue of child sexual abuse, identify unsafe situations and practices, and react responsibly in the […]
I am writing this blog post fresh from the first Darkness to Light Facilitators Conference, Ignite! I was joined by 170 others from 32 states and 4 countries (including 4 of us from Northern Virginia). The conference was a fantastic mix of dynamic and engaging keynote speakers, experts in specific content related to Stewards of […]
SCAN has known for years that Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children is an excellent curriculum for teaching all adults how to protect children from child sexual abuse. We have trained close to 1,500 adults in Northern Virginia. However, there is a wider network of Darkness to Light facilitators in Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland […]
FACT: Child sexual abuse is far more prevalent than most people realize. Child sexual abuse is likely the most prevalent health problem children face with the most serious array of consequences. About one in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. This year, there will be about 400,000 […]
It’s a new school year and we’re excited to launch a new menu of workshops for the community! We encourage ALL groups of people to consider a workshop — from nonprofits, schools and government agencies to parenting groups, employers and faith groups. Our workshops are based on SCAN’s existing child abuse prevention and advocacy programs as well as the […]
Darkness to Light has aspired to reach a tipping point with adults in their home state of South Carolina to make sure that they are “actively preventing child sexual abuse by training 5% of the adult population to prevent, recognize and react to child sexual abuse!” This idea comes from The Tipping Point, a book […]
[This Letter to the Editor was first published 4/20/16 in LoudounNow.] Last week, I spent time with Loudoun County Public School staff providing a Stewards of Children training on how to recognize, react and respond to child sexual abuse. April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, so the timing couldn’t have been better. But we’ve actually been […]
March 1, 2016 SCAN will host two movie screenings of Breaking the Silence as part of its 2016 Northern Virginia Child Abuse Prevention Campaign (#kidsneedconnections) during National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April. Breaking the Silence is a documentary on child sexual abuse prevention that originally aired on TLC in August 2015, and was produced by our […]
Some might call Erin Merryn a survivor, an advocate, a hero, or all three. Erin Merryn is a remarkable, brave young woman. She is the drive behind Erin’s Law, which “requires age-appropriate sexual abuse and assault awareness and prevention education in grades Pre-kindergarten through 12 along with training school staff on the prevention of sexual abuse.” […]
Do you know what a “tipping point” is? Malcolm Gladwell’s book by the same name has championed the idea in recent years: The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. How exciting to hear that a fellow Darkness to Light partner […]
It’s a horrific issue that we sometimes become immune to in our line of work as child advocates. And while we talk about it on a regular basis, a fog of silence weighs on most people in our community when it comes to child sexual abuse. Last week’s article by Sarah Chang in the Washington Post […]
Earlier this week, we opened our Community Training Room to 10 adults for Stewards of Children, a child sexual abuse prevention training program from Darkness to Light. The class included parents, a lawyer, a nanny, SCAN board members, CASA volunteers, teachers and more. It was a perfect reflection of why we feel our work in child sexual abuse […]
A new report from the Human Rights Projects for Girls and Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality calls for an overhaul of the U.S. criminal justice system “to identify and treat sexual abuse trauma that lies at the root of victimized girls’ arrests, particularly girls of color.” This summer, we’ve trained HUNDREDS of adults […]
When you hear about child sexual abuse, many thoughts might go through your mind: “They should go to jail.” “Parents should keep a closer eye on their children.” “Who would do that to a child?” These statements distance us further from what has happened. These thoughts make it easier to dismiss the sexual abuse because […]
Last week, our national partner Darkness to Light posted a guest blog by Svava Brooks, a child sexual abuse survivor and prevention advocate. We’re sharing it here today because it paints an excellent picture of how simple, necessary and courageous it can be to protect the children in our families and communities when we notice something that […]
When SCAN moved its offices last month, one of the benefits was a new (larger) space for providing community trainings. As a staff, we started dreaming of the new ways this space could enlarge our circle of trained facilitators, volunteers and leaders. Every time we train an adult, our children gain a connection that could […]
This excellent post was shared most recently on the Darkness to Light blog (as well as Momastery’s Facebook page and originally appearing here), and it’s one that needs to be shared as many other places and with as many other people as possible: My beautiful cousin, who I’d not seen in 35 years, and I […]
Earlier this fall, 8 of our Darkness to Light Facilitators gathered for a discussion with Lisa Hunt, Executive Director of The Center for Clinical and Forensic Services, Inc. Our facilitators gather quarterly to keep up to date on the issues surrounding child sexual abuse and to discuss topics that will help us be effective facilitators […]
WORDS (noun) /wərd / ~ a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning After watching the Matthew Sandusky and Oprah Winfrey interview (you can watch some of it here, along with thoughts from the D2L blog), it is clear that one […]
Many of us will roll our eyes or comment on how hard it was when we were teenagers, but can you fathom being a teenager now? In an age where there are little to no expectations of privacy, where your personal information is readily available, and where the things you say or do can be […]