Protecting Other People’s Children: 120 Days to a Strong Child Safety Policy

A one-of-a-kind guide for youth-serving organizations to help build out their own child protection policies in just 120 days.

Expert guidance, worksheets, and checklists take the guesswork out of confusing industry standards--so you can focus on helping kids learn, grow, and flourish.

Written by two legal experts with more than 60 years of experience helping youth-serving organizations (YSOs), Protecting Other People’s Children provides a blueprint for organizations to develop their own child safety policies.

From private schools to church youth groups to mentoring organizations to summer camps, YSOs provide unparalleled opportunities for children to learn, grow, and flourish. Unfortunately, because they serve a vulnerable population, those groups also face unparalleled risks.

With Protecting Other People’s Children, organizations will be able to:

• Recognize and avoid common pitfalls and mistakes
• Set up a workable timeline for implementation
• Create and confirm their own commitments and principles
• Access several supportive worksheets, checklists, and activity guides
• Learn how to pick the right people (leaders, team, volunteers, etc.)
• Understand and adhere important protocols and guidelines
• Appropriately respond to serious incidents

Protecting Other People’s Children enables YSOs to develop robust, sustainable child protection plans, holding everyone accountable while protecting both the programs and the minors they serve.

Debbie Ausburn is a social worker, foster parent, criminal prosecutor, and civil trial attorney. That background has given her unique insights into defending child care centers, camps, schools, and mentoring organizations. She has volunteered with and defended youth-serving organizations throughout the United States in matters as diverse as personal injury cases, intrusive government regulations, libel and slander issues, and claims of sexual abuse. She blogs about legal topics at youthserviceslaw.com, and parenting issues at otherpeopleschildren.org.

Tom Rawlings is an attorney board-certified in child welfare and juvenile justice law. He has served as a juvenile court judge, as the child protection ombudsman for the State of Georgia, as the Director of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, and as leader of a child abuse prosecution and treatment team in Guatemala. Tom currently practices at Taylor English Duma in Atlanta, where he advises and defends youth-serving organizations. An honors graduate of Duke University and the University of Georgia School of Law, Tom earned a Masters’ degree in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University (UK), and is certified by the National Association of Counsel for Children as a Child Welfare Law Specialist.