Mandatory training for bar bouncers in Halifax? Really?
Oh Come On!
Warning - I was feeling pretty whiny when I wrote this.
In the build up to Mother’s Day Weekend, I took a few big hits.
I got an email from my child’s school asking me to stop advocating for my child. They listed a handful of ways to collaborate (all of which I have engaged with), but they draw the line at me speaking to my child’s teachers about her unhappiness at school. According to the email, my child’s unhappiness is not relevant to her progress and isn’t an appropriate topic of conversation.
NS Power sent a wood chipping company to destroy an acre of trees growing on my land, under their power line. I’ve been waiting 7 years to harvest the re-growth for yurt poles, but they didn’t check in with me before they cleared the land and now I am mourning the loss of what I was planning to harvest this winter. It will be another 7 years before the re-growth will be yurt-pole-ready.
ANDOne of the organizations Priority Kids has been trying to collaborate with for the past 3 years has confirmed that, once again, they just can’t afford to include prevention training right now.
None of these events made me feel particularly good, but then on Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after my most recent rejection, I picked up the Chronicle Herald.
Check out these headlines,
Page A5 – Cumberland to have bail review
Remember the former Kentville youth tennis instructor? He’s charged with 4 counts of luring a person under the age of 18, making child pornography, 3 counts of possessing and distributing child pornography… etc. etc. the list goes on.
Page A6 – Man convicted of molesting girls
A former common-law spouse of a day care operator sexually abused multiple kids while working at the day care.
Page A6 – Trial on sex-related charges set for May 2024
A 34 year old man faces two counts each of sexual assault, sexual exploitation, invitation to sexual touching and luring a child under the age of 16.
Page A7 – Bouncers will need record checks, training
In order to prevent violence at these premises that serve alcohol, new rules have been put in place to provide training so that bar staff can handle these “very, very sensitive situations”.
3 back to back stories about children being sexually abused and it’s bar bouncers who are getting mandatory training?
Oh, Come On!
We can see the value of mandatory training for bar bouncers but we still can’t find it in our budgets to prevent child sexual abuse.
Do you know who those bouncers are dealing with? Do you know who drinks a lot and is more likely to commit or experience violence?
You’re here reading this, so I know you know,
And we know that people who have had exposure to Adverse Childhood Experiences are more likely to perpetrate violence, and more likely to experience violence.
This is such a glaring example of how we continue to prioritize our response to the fall out of child sexual abuse and overlook the opportunity to prevent abuse from happening in the first place.
At Priority Kids we commit 40+ hours per week advocating for prevention.
We reach out to youth-0serving organizations. We set up meetings with people who are responsible for policies and procedures. We offer a free service to help organizations spot the gaps in their programming and help plan steps to better protect kids. We look for groups who will allow us to deliver our World Betterfication Strategy to make the world a better place by protecting children. We look for networking events where we can be a presence, letting people know that prevention is possible.
40 hours per week. Minimum.
For every 250 hours of advocacy work, we train 20 adults.
Our goal is to train 10% of the population because that is the ‘tipping point’. Nova Scotia’s population is about 1 million people.
In order for us to train 100 000 adults at this pace, it will take us 1,250,000, hours. (That’s 1.25 million hours)
That’s 50 000 days.
137 years.
To reach the tipping point. 10% of the population.
Do you really want to wait 137 years to see our community adopt sexual abuse prevention practices?
I don’t.
This is why mandatory training is critical.
The contact person I spoke with last week who said, ‘we just don’t have the budget this year,’ meant it.
They want the training. They know it is important.
But they do not have the authority or the power or the ability to compel their superiors to invest in training.
And so we are moving along at a snails pace. And children are suffering because of it.
We work for 250 hours to get one training scheduled.
Those advocacy hours have taught us that the problem lies with the budget holders.
Front-line workers want the training. Caregivers want the training. Teachers want the training. Educational Assistants want the training. Early Childhood Educators want the training. Summer Camp Staff want the training.
Our 500+ evaluations and feedback have proven that participants want their friends, family and colleagues to take the training.
But prevention training is not mandatory.
And front-line workers tell us that they don’t have the budget or the influence to make use of the training.
If you want to help speed up our success ratio of 250 hours: 1 training, please help us advocate for prevention training.
We, the people, the parents, the caregivers, and the front-line workers can use our voices to advocate for prevention training.
Tell the people that you know that you think it’s ridiculous that bouncers at bars have mandatory training, but adults who work with kids are not required to receive any child sexual abuse prevention or response training.
The Executive Director of N.S. Alcohol acknowledged that bouncers need training ‘to handle these very, very sensitive situations.”
If drunken behaviour is a ‘very, very sensitive situation’ that requires training, why can’t we acknowledge that child sexual abuse is also a very, very sensitive situation that requires training?
If you happen to be one of those budget holders who have the power, please do us all a solid, and get in touch with us today.
We’d love to reduce our advocacy efforts and increase the number of adults we train.
Training is what keeps kids safe.
If you don’t have a budget, then please use your voice. Talk to the Executive Directors, the Board of Directors, and our Political Leaders. Talk to your HR Department, talk to your charitable philanthropists and community groups.
Talk to your places of faith and worship.
Everyone who has the power to spend money has the power to protect children.
It boils down to the will to invest in prevention.
The will is lacking.
It shouldn’t take us 250 hours to find one person or organization who is willing to invest in prevention.
If you can’t help us connect with a champion who is ready to invest, then help us raise awareness of how urgently children need us to be trained to respond to these very very sensitive situations.