This is the Only Way to Make Your Organization Sustainable

Youth-serving organizations are (usually) run by people who care about children and want to contribute to their development and success.

Whether your organization is providing important afterschool care for children, leadership development for young people, or access to sports, arts or drama, you want to be able to fulfill your mission.

At its core, that is what sustainability means. It means being able to fulfill your organization’s mission.

We want young people to have all the opportunities to be happy, to grow, to learn, and to be healthy.

Youth-serving organizations are an important part of keeping children safe and contributing to their development.

But many organizations are struggling.

Organizations don’t have enough money. They don’t have enough volunteers. They don’t have a strong board.

People are coming and going and despite the challenges that organizers face, children are always there needing them to be consistent and reliable.

Sometimes, when we are the ones struggling to get grant funding, struggling to recruit more volunteers, struggling to get all the board members into a meeting for an important vote, we can forget the WHY for sustainability.

It can feel like we need sustainability so that our jobs can be easier. Haven’t we all imagined how much better our programs and services could be if we had guaranteed funding? If we had reliable staff and volunteers who always showed up, wouldn’t things be so much better? If our board members were engaged and active, wouldn’t that be enjoyable?

It’s easy, probably natural, to think about how much nicer it would be for us (the adults) if our organizations were truly sustainable. If our organizations had all the things they needed, it would be so nice for the organizers.

I want that for everyone who is involved in youth-serving organizations. I want you to enjoy your work without unnecessary stress or concern. I want you to know and trust that you have everything you need to fulfill your mission successfully.

Because children need to be cared for by adults who are happy and healthy and feel safe. If we are stressed about how things are going to work out, kids will feel it. If we are worried, kids will feel it. If our organizations are providing services that are not sustainable, kids will feel it. And it is dangerous.

There are lots of things that you might want to try to make your organization more sustainable.

This post isn’t about those other things that a google search will show you.

This post is about the one thing that must be in place if your organization is going to reach the lofty goal of being sustainable.

Child sexual abuse prevention.

I described sustainability as the ability to fulfill your organization’s mission.

Child sexual abuse results in the opposite of your goal. Whatever your mission or vision is, the presence of child sexual abuse in your organization will undo and prevent your success. Guaranteed.

Child sexual abuse is the opposite of healthy.

✔️ It impairs learning.

✔️ It interferes with development.

✔️ It creates lifelong challenges.

Every youth-serving organization must take an active stance against child sexual abuse. There is no getting away from this problem, especially for youth-serving organizations.

This is the single most overlooked issue that is preventing sustainability for youth-serving organizations.

Whatever you *think* your #1 struggle is, it is rooted in child sexual abuse.

Not enough funding? Did you know that Canada spends over $15 billion dollars a year reacting to child abuse? You may not be able to find the money to rent a bus for your activity, but did you know that there is $15 billion dollars a year going to doctors, lawyers, judges, social workers, therapists and other specialists? Child sexual abuse costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per child. The money is out there, but we’re choosing to spend it on RESPONSE and ignoring our responsibility to PREVENT.

Not enough volunteers? Did you know that children who are sexually abused are more likely to drop out of school, more likely to have mental health problems including PTSD, and more likely to have long term health problems like diabetes and heart disease? We’re talking about 34% of the population here… plus many of these children will be sexually assaulted later in their lives. Once we factor in adults who are sexually assaulted, we are talking about 50% of the population… wish you had more reliable volunteers to draw on? Then we need to work harder at protecting children from sexual abuse.

Not a strong enough board? Leadership in youth-serving organizations is essential for sustainability, but like I said in the previous paragraph, people are struggling. We are ignoring a major life struggle that children face. We don’t teach them about what they experienced, we don’t offer them help, and we don’t support healing. Do you think it’s tough to find a group of adults who have good healthy boundaries and are able to interact with each other respectfully? That’s because we haven’t been raised with good healthy boundaries. When you consider the prevalence of sexual violence, and recognize the fallout, you should start to realize that its tough to work through recovery AND be a reliable board member. We simply need more adults who have not been harmed by sexual abuse in their childhood.

Despite the constant reminders that child sexual abuse scandals affect huge numbers of children, and have been going on for decades, and are continuing to this very moment, prevention is still widely overlooked.

If you think that doing police record checks and child abuse registry checks is prevention, think again. These are only a small piece of prevention.

Ironically, the very steps that you will inevitably take if you are going to protect children from sexual abuse, are the exact same steps that you would take if you want your organization to be sustainable.

You can’t have a sustainable organization that puts children at risk of sexual abuse.

The only way that your organization can become sustainable, is to make protecting children from sexual abuse your top priority.

Once you have put the best practices in place that keep kids safe from sexual abuse, then you will have the structure and foundation that is needed for sustainability.

Without child sexual abuse prevention practices, you are putting children in danger. And that will never be a sustainable model.

At Priority Kids we work with youth-serving organizations to help you become sustainable. Connect with us today to find out how we can help you achieve sustainability in your organization.