Discovery Camp Impact 2023

Counselors, we are tasked with something extremely precious and yet very vulnerable - the lives and souls of students. I want to always lay before you that we are given this task by parents, families, churches, mentors, teachers, and ultimately, the Lord. So we want to take the highest form of care and precaution when it comes to dealing with the physical and emotional safety of students. We must ALL be responsible and accountable to/for each other.

This newsletter will contain the following:

• Know the Facts
• 4-Part Video Training
• The Grooming Process
• Assumption of Risk
• Profile of a Sexual Abuser
• Background Check Form
• Reporting
• Agreement Form

What is grooming? Grooming is a manipulative behavior that is used to gain access to the potential victim, coercing them to agree to the abuse and reducing the risk of being caught. Grooming a child can look like a close relationship between the offending adult and the targeted child.

Counselors, we want to be aware and diligent when it comes to this type of behavior for ourselves and for one another. This process can happen before, during, or after camp. If there is suspicion that grooming is occurring between counselor/staff and youth or youth and youth, please inform one of the camp board.

There are 6 stages of grooming:

1. Targeting the child - perpetrators often target the child's perceived vulnerabilities: emotional neediness, isolation, neglect, a chaotic home life, etc.
2. Gaining the child's & caregiver's trust - perpetrators work to gain the trust of parents/caregivers to lower suspicion and gain access to the child. They gain the child's trust by gathering information about the child, knowing their needs and how to fill them.
3. Filling a need - once the perpetrator begins to fill the child's need, they become noticeably more important in the child's life. They use tactics like gift-giving, flattery, gifting money, and meeting other basic needs.
4. Isolating the child - the perpetrator uses isolation tactics to reinforce their relationship with the child by creating situations where they are alone together: babysitting, one-on-one coaching, "special" trips). They reinforce the relationship with the child by cultivating a sense of love and understanding in a way that others, even the parents, cannot.
5. Sexualizing the relationship - once emotional dependence and trust have been built, the perpetrator will progressively sexualize the relationship.
6. Maintaining control - once sexual abuse is occurring, perpetrators commonly use blame, secrecy, and threats to maintain the child's participation and continued silence. To maintain control, they use emotional manipulation, making the child believe they are the only person who can meet their emotional and material needs. The child may feel the loss of the relationship, or the consequences of exposing it, will be more damaging and humiliating than continuing the relationship.

While many of these are extremely hard to identify the motive, if you notice a pattern of these together, duration, or suspicion...while we want to maintain the integrity of the individuals, we also want to let things go unnoticed.

This video from ministry safe has other key points of why it's important to screen volunteers and how to possibly notice a child groomer (or risk indicators)

Sexual abusers can be preferential, situational or psychopathic.

1. A preferential abuser has an exclusive and longstanding sexual and social preference for children, and actually prefers a child for a sexual partner. This abuser generally has an age and sex of choice.
   
   
2. A situational abuser molests a child due to emotional and psychological stress, but prefers an adult of the opposite sex as a sexual partner. Because none are ‘available’, he or she accepts a child as a sexual tool or partner.
   
   
3. A psychopathic sexual offender exploits any available victim, without regard for the age or sex of the victim. Unfortunately, child molesters have no uniform ‘profile’ that might allow us to identify them. But we do know some of the common characteristics among convicted male and female sexual offenders.

Summary: If at any moment at camp, a student reveals that they are/have been a victim of abuse (sexual, emotional, physical), the counselor/staff must report the incident to a given pastor at the camp. The reporter will then be asked to report the incident as dictated to the counselor/staff and the camp board will take the appropriate measures along with documenting the incident.

Texas Family Code Section 261.101(b-1) provides: A person must make a report to the authorities when a person has cause to believe that an adult was a victim of abuse or neglect as a child and the person believes that disclosure of the abuse is necessary to protect another child.

Like most legislation designed to protect children, this code section is extremely broad. Two events seem to trigger a required report under this Texas code section:

1. Adult One comes to believe that Adult Two was a victim of abuse or neglect; and
   
   
2. Adult One believes that another child is at risk, and reporting is necessary to protect that child.

Though §261.101(b-1) creates the basis of a mandatory report, the construction of the new code is unclear concerning penalties associated with failure to report in this context. Texas Family Code Section 261.109 contains the penalty provisions related to abuse reporting requirements in the state of Texas. Under Section 261.101(a), criminal penalties exist for failure to report, including criminal penalties for ‘professionals’ who fail to report suspected abuse or neglect, including teachers, nurses, day care employees and others under Section 261.101(b). The new law articulates no specific criminal penalties for failure to report adults abused as children, when another child is at risk, under Section 261.101(b-1).