Illuminate Colorado is excited to announce this week that Kiowa County is the first county in the state of Colorado to reach the tipping point to create a new standard of child safety in the community. In June of last year, llluminate launched the Tip Colorado Initiative aimed at training more than 200,000 Coloradans to protect children from sexual abuse.
Calculating the number of people who need to receive training in every county in Colorado and understanding what is necessary to create REAL social change in a community, Illuminate identified the tipping point for our state, as well as each county, where children grow up happy, healthy and safe in communities that prevent children from being sexually abused.
Visit TipColorado.org
People all over Colorado can visit an interactive map on the initiative’s website to find out the number of people trained in their county today and learn how many more community members need to get trained to reach the tipping point in their county.
Local authorized facilitators Amber Settles and Lisa Thomas were instrumental in training the population of Kiowa County to reach this milestone. “We all need this training as a starting point, so we know where to go for help and support to grow our skills and advocate for the kids in our daily lives,” Settles said. “We as adults need to advocate and speak for the voiceless.”
As the state intermediary and authorized facilitator of the Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children® Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program, Illuminate is strengthening families, organizations and communities by supporting more than 80 local authorized facilitators in delivering, to their communities, the only evidence-informed, adult-focused child sexual abuse prevention training in the United States proven to increase knowledge and change behavior. Together, we have trained 8,130 Coloradans to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse. This is no small feat, but it is a far cry from reaching the necessary critical milestone in child protection that we need to effectively prevent child sexual abuse in Colorado. This pivotal achievement will come when 284,149 Coloradans have taken this FREE two-hour training offered online and in-person in some communities.
Tipping the Scales in Favor of Kids in Kiowa
The people of Kiowa County, in southeastern Colorado, have shown a strong commitment to the prevention of child sexual abuse by passing the tipping point where a large enough percentage of the population has been trained to prevent, recognize and responsibly react to child sexual abuse to create real social change. The county needed to train 69 adults in order to reach the tipping point; it has already trained 110 adults and isn’t stopping there. “As the first county in Colorado to reach the tipping point, Kiowa County is proof that our communities care about our children and that adults are willing to take this first step forward to strengthen their communities,” said Sadie Rose Pace, Illuminate Colorado training specialist. “The dedicated people of Kiowa County and the local authorized facilitators who supported them in their effort deserve to be recognized and celebrated.”
Help Colorado Reach the Tipping Point
Thanks in large part to support from the Colorado Children’s Trust Fund from the Office of Early Childhood at the Colorado Department of Human Services, all Coloradans can take Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children® training for FREE. One of several trainings aimed at preventing child sexual abuse promoted by Illuminate, Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children® training provides a strong foundation that any adult can use to grow awareness and build skills to protect the children in their community. Illuminate looks forward to more and more counties joining Kiowa County in the continuing effort to prevent child sexual abuse. For more information about the training and to learn what your community tipping point is, visit TipColorado.org.
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