Kidpower Teams Up with Positive Coaching Alliance To Prevent Sexual Abuse In Youth Sports

Kidpower, a nonprofit leader in abuse, bullying and violence prevention, and PCA host free webinars and provide resources that youth sports leaders, coaches and parents can use right away to help keep kids safe.

Santa Cruz, CA (PRWEB) February 28, 2012

Kidpower®, an international non-profit leader in child abuse, bullying and abduction prevention, teams up with the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), a Stanford University-based non-profit organization, to educate youth sports leaders, coaches and parents about protecting kids from sexual abuse and bullying as recent child abuse stories continue to play out in the news.

"Our first webinar series with the PCA is something every youth league, sports organization and parent can use right away to help kids be safe," says Irene van der Zande, executive director and founder of Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International (known as Kidpower for short). "We are excited to work with PCA to educate this vital group of caring adults who are committed to building character through youth sports and who were, of course, horrified by recent sexual abuse stories in the news."

Kidpower responded to the recent abuse scandals by reaching out to PCA to offer resources specifically targeted to preventing child sexual abuse and bullying in youth sports.

The "Child Abuse Prevention in Youth Sports" webinar series, produced and released this month, drew 248 live participants and is now posted online for youth organizations to use in their staff and parent education and orientation programs.

"We've all heard, time and again, about how good people failed to protect the children in their care from abuse and bullying because they didn't know what to do, they didn't want to embarrass anyone, or they trusted someone they shouldn't have," says van der Zande. "The Penn State and other scandals highlight how important it is that institutions have the structures in place - that's leadership, policies and practical skills - for preventing and addressing abuse, ensuring that everyone understands them and knows what to do to keep kids safe."

The webinar series offers practical advice and tools to help coaches, youth leaders, and parents take charge of the safety of children in their care by taking positive, effective action to prevent abuse and bullying and building skills to help children to speak up about problems and get help from adults.

“We are grateful to Kidpower for offering its extensive expertise in child protection to help PCA take a pro-active educational approach in the wake of recent high-profile allegations of child abuse in youth sports,” says Jim Thompson, PCA founder and CEO. “Kidpower partnered with us to present child abuse prevention webinars addressing coaches, parents, and youth sports leaders and provided consultation on the development of our child abuse and bullying prevention resources and recommended policies.”

“PCA and the people we serve have benefited greatly from Kidpower's extensive experience and carefully developed resources,” says Thompson, who moderated the webinar series, featuring van der Zande and Mike Town, a former trial judge involved in many child advocacy cases, youth sports coach, and PCA workshop leader. “We look forward to continuing our teamwork with Kidpower in utilizing the organization's excellent resources to help protect kids in youth sports from abuse, bullying, and other violence.”

"Just one month before the news broke about Penn State abuse cases, Kidpower launched our One Million Safer Kids campaign," says van der Zande. "We hope that the caring adults we can reach through PCA will have a strong ripple effect for helping make kids safer."

View and use the two-part webinar series, “Child Abuse Prevention in Youth Sports,” and presentation slides free as part of youth sports organization staff and parent education and orientation programs. http://www.kidpower.org/blog/prevent-child-abuse-webinar-series/

Webinar I: Child Abuse Prevention in Youth Sports – Focus on Coaches and Youth Leaders (recorded Feb. 2, 2012). Viewers will learn about:

• Why should coaches and youth sports leaders address this problem if they aren't the ones abusing anyone?
• Six steps to take if a child mentions being abused or another child being abused
• Taking a stand as a team to prevent bullying, abuse and other violence
• Six ways to avoid being falsely accused of abuse
• How to use Kidpower's personal boundary rules for touch, teasing and games with your team(s)

Webinar II: Child Abuse Prevention in Youth Sports – Focus on Parents (recorded Feb. 9, 2012). Viewers will learn about:

• What can parents do to watch out for and recognize possible signs of abuse?
• Four strategies for parents to help keep kids safe from abuse when participating in youth sports
• Skills parents can teach kids to help protect them from abuse while they are participating in youth sports
• Kidpower's positive practice method™ for practicing safety skills in a way that's fun – not scary
• Q&A: What should I do if a child says something that makes me worried about possible abuse?
• How to encourage your child's sports organization to adopt safety policies and procedures

About Kidpower

Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International®, known as Kidpower® (http://www.kidpower.org), is highly recommended by experts worldwide for taking a positive, skills-based approach to violence and abuse prevention. Instead of using fear to teach young people about violence prevention, the Kidpower Method™ makes it fun to learn to be safe, building habits that increase the skills and confidence of kids, parents, teachers and other caring adults that can last a lifetime.

Kidpower has directly served more than 2 million people of all ages and abilities, since its founding in 1989, offering workshops and an extensive free and low-cost library of articles, podcasts, blog posts, curriculum teaching kits and books, including: "Bullying — What Adults Need to Know and Do to Keep Kids Safe," the "Kidpower Safety Comics" series, and "The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults," a comprehensive resource for adults who want to learn how to protect the emotional and physical safety of the young people in their lives. Kidpower's newest global initiative is the "One Million Safer Kids" campaign which has the goal of making at least one million young people safer from bullying, violence, and abuse through greater awareness, action, and skills by July 1, 2016 or sooner.

About Positive Coaching Alliance

Founded as a non-profit within the Stanford University Athletic Department in 1998, Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is committed to providing all youth and high school athletes a positive, character-building youth sports experience. To that end, PCA has conducted more than 10,000 live group workshops nationwide for more than 475,000 youth and high school sports coaches, parents, student-athletes and school/organizational leaders. Through workshops and companion online courses, PCA has impacted more than 4 million youth.

PCA's partnership network includes more than 1,700 youth sports organizations, cities and schools. In 2012, PCA will conduct roughly 1,200 live, group workshops across the U.S., while assisting tens of thousands of other individuals via online courses at http://www.PositiveCoach.org.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebKidpower/prevent-abuse-webinar/prweb9226647.htm