Programs to protect children came from the Sandusky scandal. 10 years later, the work continues
When the Jerry Sandusky scandal shook Happy Valley to its core in 2011, an immediate need was identified by community leaders: more services to help prevent child abuse and to protect children.
Ten years later, programs born out of the scandal — Stewards of Children and the Children’s Advocacy Center of Centre County — continue to keep a focus on that mission. While the anniversary of the scandal is in some ways the anniversary of the birth of Stewards of Children, its director said she doesn’t want the program to be tied to Sandusky.
“We’re not just preventing child sexual abuse, we’re preventing all of the consequences of child sexual abuse, these things manifest throughout these kids’ lives in many different ways,” said Jamie SanFilippo, director of community outreach at the YMCA of Centre County.
SanFilippo has been involved with the Darkness to Light Stewards of Children training program since its beginning in Centre County. She’s also the lead trainer and coordinator for all of the Stewards of Children program training in the county.
Stewards of Children is a training program that teaches adults how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse. Its website states it has trained nearly 2 million adults in 76 countries on how to protect children.
The idea for a local program started after Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was arrested in 2011 on child sex abuse charges. When the news broke, the CEO of the YMCA at the time said they should bring a child sexual abuse prevention training to the county, SanFilippo said.
Anne Ard, executive director of Centre Safe, said the community looked to those who worked with children.
“What became really clear after Jerry Sandusky was arrested, was that ... the community needed something from us. And by us, I mean it’s not just Centre Safe, but all of those of us in the community who worked with kids,” she said.
Milestones reached and challenges to meet
For years, programs about child sexual assault prevention had been offered at Centre Safe (then the Centre County Women’s Resource Center), but people weren’t particularly interested in them, Ard said.
That changed after the scandal broke.
“They researched a few (trainings), but the best fit seemed to be Darkness to Light Stewards of Children,” SanFilippo said. A collaboration between the YMCA of Centre County, the Centre County United Way, Centre County Youth Service Bureau and the Centre County Women’s Resource Center came about.
The partners designed and received a two-year grant to fund a comprehensive Child Abuse Prevention Project, which had the Stewards of Children training as its centerpiece. The project launched in the spring of 2012.
They also received some money when the university was hit with a fine; some of that money had to stay within the county to be used for child abuse prevention, SanFilippo said.
The money paid for some salaries, but it also kept the training completely free and accessible to every adult in the county. Today, the YMCA of Centre County covers the cost. It continues through a collaboration with the YMCA, Centre Safe, YSB and the Penn State Child Maltreatment Solutions Network.
In 2015, Stewards of Children hit what was seen as a major milestone — 5% of the adults in Centre County were trained through the program. Studies have shown that when 5% of adults are trained in anything, that’s really when the cultural shift can start to be seen, SanFilippo said.
But since then, SanFilippo said she’s seen community interest wane somewhat (the organization shifted to virtual trainings during the pandemic).
“I think the community couldn’t get enough of it at first. ... super supportive, really wanted to show the nation and even the world how serious we are about preventing child sexual abuse,” SanFilippo said. “Since then I think the support has gone down a little bit. I would like to see a lot more people still being involved and be more supportive of the program.”
To date, almost 8,000 adults have been trained.
What’s next for the program?
Ard said that though milestones have been hit, because the community in Centre County is so transient, the percentage of the population that has been trained can be difficult to pinpoint.
For training to be effective, it also needs to be ongoing.
“I think part of what is important to do is to say, ‘OK what does our community need now?’ Do we need to revisit this? Do people who’ve been trained, do we need to offer a refresher course?” Ard said.
And, there is no “end date” for child sexual abuse.
She likes the idea of the Stewards of Children training program becoming part of prenatal training.
“That’s the level of prevention that we need. That any time anybody is becoming a parent ... before they ever enroll their kids in youth serving activities or in preschool or child care or send them to a Sunday school class, that they would ask the kinds of questions the Stewards of Children encourages you to ask,” Ard said.
That would include asking things like: What is your safe sanctuary policy? Do you have policies in place about adults and being alone with the children? And how do you enforce that?
When the programs were set up here, Ard said they were set up to measure how many people were trained. By that metric, it has been successful. But it’s harder to measure if incidents of child sexual abuse and child abuse have gone down.
There are some measures that indicate that’s not the case, Ard said, but part of that is because the community is more responsive to it. There are things in place that weren’t there before, such as the Children’s Advocacy Center.
Children’s Advocacy Center of Centre County
Prior to the creation of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Centre County at Mount Nittany Health, there were no accredited CACs nearby and only 12 in the state, which required children and their families in central Pennsylvania to travel well beyond the area, a Mount Nittany Health spokesperson wrote in an email.
In 2011, a task force with people from social services, the court system, law enforcement, health care and education discussed how to improve support services for children and their families. A year and a half later, the CAC concept was adopted, a spokesperson wrote.
“The overall need was to create a child-focused and compassionate setting for the child to share his or her account of the abuse. This was an intentional part of the healing process.”
The CAC of Centre County is accredited by the National Children’s Alliance and “serves as an interagency coordinated response center for children who have experienced physical or sexual abuse or have experienced a crime or traumatic event.”
It offers a multi-disciplinary approach to treating children who are victims of abuse, according to Mount Nittany Health officials. Its mission is to meet the needs of children and families by providing a community based, child-focused center that facilitates a compassionate approach to the prevention, identification, intervention and treatment of child abuse, its website states.
“I am proud that Centre County has a facility that allows children to share their story in a safe environment so that they can start the healing process,” Dr. Rachel Schwab, Mount Nittany Health physician, pediatrics and medical director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Centre County, wrote in an email.
Kathleen Rhine, president and CEO of Mount Nittany Health, wrote that it’s a privilege to support some of the community’s most vulnerable individuals through the CAC.
“We do this by providing the resources needed to ensure these important services are available to Centre County and the surrounding area. Our work to support children and their families is an important way we live out our mission — healthier people, a stronger community,” she wrote.
For both programs that sprung up out of the scandal, the need and work to continue is ongoing, Ard said.
“These are issues that we have to continually work on going forward in our community and I think in many ways, this is probably a safer community than a lot of places, because we have had to deal with this,” Ard said.
Resources
- To sign up for a Stewards of Children training, visit https://www.ymcaofcentrecounty.org/programs/social-responsibility/stewards-of-children/. Training is currently offered virtually.
- Visit www.mountnittany.org/childadvocacycenter to learn more about the CAC of Centre County.
- Centre Safe has a 24-hour hotline, 814-234-5050 or toll free 1-877-234-5050.
- If you suspect child abuse or neglect, Call CHILDLINE at 1-800-932-0313. If a child is in immediate danger, first call 911. Then report it to CHILDLINE.
