Who can know the darkness of heart that dwells within anyone? Until outed through charges being laid against them, predators are usually impossible to spot. But if we can’t spot the child molesters or pedophiles among us, how are we supposed to protect our children? The best we can do in identifying potential molesters is to identify common characteristics of those who have been caught and use them in a list of warning signs.

Hi everyone, my name is Victoria and I’m the director of training at Plan to Protect®. I’ve been working for Plan to Protect® for the past 3 years and have been overseeing all of our online, LIVE webinar and onsite training.

Today, I really wanted to open up and share a little bit more about myself.  Social media gives you a window into someone’s life. You can spend so much time listening to someone, hearing about their life or seeing photos of them that you think you know them. Feel like you’re friends.

But…social networking sites are a curated glimpse at someone’s life. It’s a small piece of the puzzle that makes up the whole.

Twenty years ago when Plan to Protect® the manual was written, it was written for a small denomination of churches in Canada. The original writers had no idea how big and how far Plan to Protect® would become. Here we are 20 years later, Plan to Protect® is being used by over 1500 organizations in Canada and the United States. But, did you know that Plan to Protect® has also traveled to other countries around the world? We have national trainers, organizations and charities using Plan to Protect® in the UK, Ghana, Cambodia and most recently Bolivia.

Victoria, our Director or Training, recently visited Bolivia to help a missions organization called El Jordan, write policies and do training for their volunteers and staff.  Here’s her story ...

All three of my children are teachers. My son teaches grade three students. My youngest daughter graduated with her Early Childhood Education. Victoria, as many of you know, is a licensed teacher in Ontario but is applying her education to abuse prevention and protection, as our Director of Training with Plan to Protect®. 

Each month, we receive a few copies of Professionally Speaking: The magazine of Ontario College of Teachers. Each issue has inspiring articles on bullying, classroom management, and modernizing teacher education. We often try to integrate the learnings from the magazine into our training initiatives at Plan to Protect®.

We all know young people use text, web and various social messaging channels to communicate directly and privately with friends, family, staff members and volunteers in trusted organizations they are a part of.

I have young adult children, and I know they do most of their communication via text and social media.  When my children created a profile on Facebook, I joined Facebook. When they signed up for Twitter, I was soon to follow. 

One of the reasons I joined was, if it was important to them and they were talking about it, I also wanted to experience it. With my children now living internationally, I am able to stay in touch with them in real time, able to share pictures and get tidbits of news.  

The purpose of this paper is to provide a strong standard of protection to minimize incidences of abuse, injury and harm and to minimize risk to the vulnerable sector, organizations and their staff and volunteers caring for the children.  

Pokémon Go is an augmented reality gaming application for use on smartphones. The game, made by Nintendo, is based on its predecessor that came out in 1996—allowing the previous generation of Pokémon trainers to indulge in a sweeping rush of nostalgia.  It is sweeping the world and has exceeded Twitter users.

A father of a 12-year-old announced in our training seminar recently that he found over 400 text messages on his son’s phone from a male that was 30 years older than his son.  He didn’t even know they were friends.  Apparently this was an occasional helper at a youth drop-in center where his son would go after school.  

Four years ago the Executive Director of a large community service agency asked me what our recommendations on the issue of transgender and gender dysphoria. This service organization had recently had boys asking to register for their all girl’s programs.  At the time, I did not have a well formulated, or well-researched response. I suggested they consult with a lawyer …  a safe answer as I didn’t have the answers to give.