As a follow up to the May 2019 MyAFS News Article shown below, the new online Student Safety Module will be incorporated into both the Hosting and Support Affiliations (HSA) training and Refresher course effective August 1, 2019.

These materials can be accessed in Help & Learning by following this link: Student Safety.

The resources have been designed to build awareness of red flag behaviors related to child sexual abuse. Specifically, these resources will educate volunteers on identifying behaviors that may be precursors to sexual abuse, thus enabling them to address these behaviors before abuse occurs. Training is also provided on methods for reporting abuse when they believe it has taken place. Additional materials define appropriate behaviors and practices volunteers should maintain in order to protect themselves from false allegations rooted in cultural misunderstandings.

Resources include information on:

• Statistics on the prevalence of child sex abuse in the US
• Red flag behaviors, such as grooming
• Personal space considerations
• Best practices in texting and social media
• Signs that abuse may have occurred
• How to report abuse

Over the next few months we will be inserting sections of the above materials into the HSA and Liaison trainings. We encourage you to use these resources for your own personal learning and at the Chapter or Team level for volunteer training.