HARWICH – Children’s Cove is recruiting sophomore Monomoy Regional High School Students to be part of its second Teen Taking a Stand for Kids Force.
The mission of the Teen TASK Force is to engage with teens about child sexual abuse issues, educate them about helpful services and empower them to raise awareness to their peers on abuse issues.
Fourteen Dennis-Yarmouth students participated in the first year of the program.
“They are really ambassadors not only for child abuse issues but for their peers as well,” said Jacob Stapledon, the community education & outreach coordinator for Children’s Cove. “They are able to continue throughout the remainder of their high school time to be able to be supports for their peers.”
Children’s Cove staff and the Monomoy high school Guidance Department are in the process of explaining the program to students to build interest and recruit volunteers.
The program will run from December through the end of the school year.
“Once they go through they’ll be able to continue to educate their peers and be supports in getting them help if needed,” Stapledon said.
Stapledon said the program was a success last year including their work with social media awareness campaigns.
“They made over 9,000 contacts and directly interacted with 500 people,” he said.
Teen TASK Force volunteers from D-Y will also come to Monomoy to discuss how valuable their experience has been.
Stapledon said when it comes to issues of abuse teens are more likely to talk with their peers instead of adults.
“For children who have experienced abuse and who have experience sexual abuse only one out of every ten children will ever disclose that abuse,” he said. “But we are finding, and this was actually with help from the Teen TASK Force last year, that almost 50 percent of teens identified that if something was going on they would tell a peer instead of telling an adult who can get them help.”
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
