Collaboration among community groups is key to keeping young Georgians safe.
That’s why the Atlanta Boy Scouts will again join forces with various local, state and national leaders and experts for the 11th annual Youth Protection Seminar.
On Oct. 10, the Atlanta Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America will host the one-day seminar at its Cobb County headquarters, located at 1800 Circle 75 Parkway across from Truist Park. Anyone who works with children is invited to attend the seminar, which costs $35 and runs from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. The cost includes lunch.
The process of young victims disclosing their abuse will be among the key topics, along with building safer communities, according to event organizers.
“This is going to be the best Youth Protection Seminar that we’ve had so far,” Josh Kirkham, director of safe scouting, properties and facilities, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
This year’s seminar will be hosted by Naeshia McDowell, director of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation response team at the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Georgia. McDowell’s work focuses on getting help for the state’s youngest victims of sex trafficking.
“It is an issue that is affecting children in Georgia right now,” McDowell said.
Research shows that a majority of sex trafficking victims were previous victims of abuse, McDowell said.
“If we are not keeping children safe from child sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect, then we’re also not preventing child sex trafficking or labor trafficking,” she said.
A panel of survivors will speak and share their experiences.
“They’re the true experts since they’ve lived it,” McDowell said.
For more information and to register, visit AtlantaBSA.org/YPSeminar. Some scholarships are available for the nonprofit event, which has a variety of sponsors including the Joseph P. Whitehead foundation, Saprea, and LPCA, Licensed Professional Counseling Association of Georgia, along with anonymous donors.
Members of law enforcement or those in social services are eligible to receive training hours for attending. Others, including healthcare professionals, attorneys, educators and parents, are also encouraged to attend.
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