Shedding Light on Child Sexual Abuse

     UWG hosted its monthly Darkness To Light: Stewards of Children training in the Murphy Building on Oct. 26. 

     Darkness To Light is an initiative aimed at preventing child sexual abuse by empowering adults through awareness and educational purposes. It is a two hour training led by an authorized facilitator in a group setting.   

     “We want to see our instructors and other instructors in the community be aware and knowledgeable about child sexual abuse and how to prevent this abuse,” said Tiffany Powers, Program Coordinator with Continuing Education. 

      The program provides its participants with various information to help them not only recognize child sexual abuse, but also how to put a stop to it. It is for anyone 18 years of age or older and open to the entire community. 

     “We really encourage any student that plans to work with minors to go through with this training,” said Powers. “That includes but is not limited to summer camp counselors, early childhood education majors, speech language pathology majors and anyone who plans on working with children.” 

      The Darkness To Light training is a certification program and the certificate is good for two years. This is also a certification that would go great on anyone’s resume who plans to work with minors.  

      “The importance of coming back after two years is to reemphasize the importance of this training, and also the program does update their information to keep it fresh and current,” said Powers. 

       The training is held twice a month, with one taking place at the UWG Carrollton Campus and the other takes place at the UWG Newnan Campus.  

       “We do try to provide one training session every month on our Carrollton campus and then one training session every month in our Newnan campus,” said Powers. “It is important to know that if an organization had a specific need for it, and wanted its staff members to get trained we can come to them as well.”  

       The Darkness To Light training is not only informative but also convenient. They can arrange  how they can travel to employer’s facilities to train individuals in a more personal setting.  

      “We would be happy to go to their sight and train their participants individually so you don’t have to wait until we host a workshop on campus,” Powers said. 

      The Darkness To Light training program costs $20 but Powers explained how this is a small monetary investment for something that will have a life impact. 

      “$20 includes the training itself and also the packet that comes with it,” said Powers. “The packet has areas for you to take good notes, and it is also a Carroll County Resource Packet that has a list of organizations that you can call if you ever needed answers to any questions.”