Child Abuse Prevention Month — April 2026 The child safety policies governing most youth-serving organizations today emerged from a physical world. They address one-on-one contact in rooms, buildings, and vehicles. They establish supervision ratios for in-person activities. They create protocols for transportation, overnight programming, and facility access. And they leave largely unaddressed the space where…

Child Abuse Prevention Month — April 2026 Nothing tests an organization’s commitment to child safety like an allegation against its most trusted, most popular, most beloved staff member. The youth pastor who built the program from the ground up. The coach who took the team to state championships. The teacher every parent requests by name….

Jackie Robinson Day — April 15, 2026 Every April 15, Major League Baseball pauses to honor Jackie Robinson. Every player, coach, and umpire wears number 42. The ceremony commemorates the day in 1947 when Robinson walked onto Ebbets Field and broke baseball’s color line—a moment of extraordinary courage that changed American sports and American culture….

Child Abuse Prevention Month — April 2026 The phrase hangs on bulletin boards and appears in staff handbooks across the youth-serving sector: “If you see something, say something.” It sounds empowering. It places responsibility on every member of the organization to serve as a watchdog for child safety. And in practice, it fails—consistently and predictably—because…

Child Abuse Prevention Month — April 2026 Summer programming season approaches fast, and with it comes an influx of new staff, expanded activities, and extended hours of direct contact between adults and children. For youth-serving organizations, summer represents both an extraordinary opportunity to serve young people and a period of heightened vulnerability. The casual atmosphere,…

Child Abuse Prevention Month — April 2026 Every April, organizations across the country change their profile pictures to blue, hang awareness ribbons in their lobbies, and post statistics about child abuse on social media. These gestures matter. They signal that an organization takes the issue seriously—or at least wants to appear to. But awareness and…

Today is Tolkien Reading Day, a day I get to indulge one of my favorite hobbies, exploring the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. This year’s theme is Unlikely Heroes. The Tolkien Society chose the theme to invite readers to reflect on Tolkien’s most quietly revolutionary idea: that the fate of Middle-earth did not turn on Gandalf…

Every year on March 14th, people around the world observe National Write Your Story Day — a simple invitation to write about what’s on your mind. Founded in 2017, the day is a reminder that story matters. For those of us who work with young people who have experienced trauma, it’s also an opportunity to…

When serious allegations surface and you want investigators with experience, it’s common to turn to attorneys and former law enforcement.  As a former prosecutor and currenty attorney in private practice, I obviously think that instinct is a good one.  But you need to consider the distinct strengths and limitations that each profession brings to investigations….

Government entities implementing child protection measures often focus solely on effectiveness—does this policy make children safer? But a recent Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision reminds us that even well-intentioned safety measures must respect constitutional boundaries. The recent ruling in Sanderson v. Hanaway, following the logic of the 11th Circuit in 2022 in McClendon v. Long,…