April Is Youth Protection Month

By Katherine Listi
Custom Communication Division

Youth Protection training is an opportunity for your council to position itself as a community leader in child development. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and you and your council are encouraged to promote April 2006 as Youth Protection Month. Information to help your district in this effort is available on the intranet and extranet. This information includes

• A list of BSA Youth Protection resources
• A Four Rules for Personal Safety comic book order form
• A presenter orientation
• A proposed council rollout schedule
• News articles
• Sample letters to parents of all programs
• Meeting guides for all youth DVD presentations
• A sample funding proposal packet for youth protection emphasis.

Benefits to your council adopting this plan include

• Helping train and increase the awareness of our youth members and their families about child abuse prevention
• Helping prevent summer camp and Cub Scout camp-related issues
• Emphasizing the council's role as a leading advocate for children
• Establishing community agency cooperation and collaboration to benefit non-Scouting families
• Establishing Scouting as an authority on the subject of youth protection within your community

Our commitment to the Youth Protection training program remains steadfast and adapts to meet new times, trends, and technology:

• The critically acclaimed A Time to Tell is updated.
• It Happened to Me is revised and includes the four rules of safety for Cub Scouts.
• Facilitators' guides can now be downloaded and printed from the Internet.
• The next issue of the Cub Scout and Boy Scout handbooks will contain a fresh, innovative parent's guide to youth protection.
• The next comic book in the Power Pack Pals series focuses on the Four Rules for Personal Safety from It Happened to Me.
• All Youth Protection training materials are available in Spanish.
• Internet versions of Youth Protection training are available for Cub Scout and Boy Scout leaders as well as Venturing Advisors.

Look for opportunities to share these materials with your adult leaders and volunteers because your district's promotion of the Youth Protection training program is vital to the safety and well-being of our members.

The Merits of Marketing (marketing.scouting.org) is a resource for local councils, developed by the Marketing & Communications Division of the National Council, Boy Scouts of America.