Review of City Youth Programs Finds Strengths and Identifies Areas for Improvement
October 16, 2019 9:00 AM
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – At last night’s City Council meeting, Praesidium, Inc., a firm with 25 years of experience evaluating, designing, and implementing best practices to prevent and detect sexual abuse of minors, provided a presentation to Council. President and CEO Aaron Lundberg shared background on child sexual abuse, findings from a comprehensive review of City youth programs and protocols, as well as opportunities to strengthen best practices across the City.
“Unlike tornados and earthquakes, abuse is preventable, but there is no silver bullet. There are best practices that organizations like the City of Santa Monica can implement that encourage a healthy culture that effectively keeps our youth safe,” said Praesidium CEO Aaron Lundberg. “The City has already begun the work to implement our recommendations to create an even stronger system to prevent child abuse.”
Praesidium’s audit included program site visits; over 105 interviews; and a system-wide review of program procedures and policies, training curriculum, and screening and hiring documents. The findings highlight strengths, including:
- Dedicated city staff committed to protecting youths
- Strong screening practices
- City requires and provides mandatory reporter training
- Many City programs have strong policies and procedures to protect youth
The areas for improvement focus on standardizing policies and procedures across programs to ensure every program is leveraging the same best practices. Praesidium found that staff are sometimes uncertain of appropriate staff to youth ratios as well as all anonymous reporting mechanisms.
The overarching recommendations, include:
- Ensure that everyone, no matter their role, understands that safety and the protection of children is part of their job
- Build on existing youth protection policies with a focus towards prevention
- Establish a Youth Protection Committee to oversee citywide standardization of:
- Youth protection policies and best practices
- Reporting protocols
- Response procedures for incidents of abuse, red flag behaviors, and youth to youth abuse
- Training for all staff and volunteers focused on prevention
“There is no greater priority than the safety of our youth,” said Assistant City Manager and Chief Operating Officer Katie Lichtig. “We will expeditiously implement these recommendations to ensure every program and every staff member has clarity and confidence in their role to prevent and detect child abuse of any kind.”
The recommendations presented will be affirmed through a resolution brought back to Council in the coming months.
“As much as we might wish to, we cannot change any events from 20 years ago,” said City Attorney Lane Dilg. “But we can take the opportunity to be the best we can be – now and in the future. And we are committed to doing so.”
Praesidium was retained in October 2018 after the heartbreaking allegations that a former City employee abused children in connection with a City youth program in the 1980s and 1990s. Though allegations do not relate to current City program, over the past year, the City has worked with Praesidium to proactively review and strengthen all City youth programs and policies.
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Media Contact
Constance Farrell
Communications & Public Information Manager
Constance.Farrell@santamonica.gov