Junior Research Group – an additional training for educational professionals “Becoming a reference person in schools for handling cases of child sexual abuse”

The training will be suited to teachers, school psychologists and school social workers. As to achieve a well fitted curriculum, experts from the help systems as well as from the prosecution are involved in the training development. This training aims to have well educated teachers with skills in speaking appropriately to children and their reference persons. Moreover, they should be able to build and establish a network of distinct professionals at their schools. This process will be tested at two model schools in the last year of the project. Thus, new insights about supporting and hindering conditions for establishing this network can be gained and finally be implemented in the training.

Aim of the project

The project’s aim is to develop and evaluate an additional curriculum to the teacher training with the intention in training a reference person in schools to handle with cases of sexual child abuse with the focus on the secondary prevention. The training’s participants will learn how to implement following points at their school:

·         Develop a protection concept
·         Build und establish a network of different professionals and experts
·         Serve as a contact point in cases of child sexual abuse and be able to make the conversation with affected children and their kins. Moreover, support in reporting to the police

Cooperation partners:

For developing the curriculum, the junior research group’s aims an intensive discourse with experts from different professions. Therefore, the project cooperates with following partners:

• University of applied sciences – administration and service, subject police (Fachhochschule für Verwaltung und Dienstleistung, Fachbereich Polizei)
• Insitution for quality development in schools from the ministry of Education, Science and Cultural Affairs in Schleswig-Holstein (Institut für Qualitätsentwicklung an Schulen Schleswig–Holstein des Ministeriums für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur des Landes Schleswig–Holstein Zentrum für Prävention)
• Victim commissioner from the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Ministry of Justice, European Affairs and Consumer Protection (Opferschutzbeauftragte des Landes Schleswig–Holsten, Ministerium für Justiz, Europa und Verbraucherschutz)
• City of Flensburg – subject area Youth (Stadt Flensburg, Fachbereich Jugend)
• Wagemut – pro familia counseling center against sexual violence against girls and boys (Wagemut – pro familia Beratungsstelle gegen sexuelle Gewalt an Mädchen und Jungen)