The NWG team have written a series of articles to support National Child Exploitation Awareness day 2022 (#CEADay22) – 18th March. Today we hear from Maria Cassidy NWG Parental Engagement Lead

The saying “it takes a village to raise a child“ fully embraces the notion of we are all in it together and when we talk about safeguarding being everybody’s business the same premise applies. How do we make safeguarding everybody’s business when we are talking about child exploitation; whether that be spotting the signs or knowing where and how to refer your concerns. When I was a youth worker, we talked about reaching into communities and through detached youth work we walked with young people in their spaces rather than expecting them to come to ours. To do this meant developing trusted ongoing relationships, listening, actively engaging and with authenticity. The same applies to communities and families. We seek to work alongside them as safeguarding allies but are we truly reaching into communities to make these connections meaningful?

Since the Covid pandemic began our digital world has changed and has broken down some of the physical barriers between services, practitioners and families. Post pandemic there is a move towards a more blended space of the physical and digital and this creates opportunities to continue some of the more positive aspects of online with face-to-face interactions. The question remains as to whether we will see areas regress back to territorial spaces – where we expect families to come to our meetings in our buildings or for communities to come to us for funding and support. Of course, communities are much more than geographical spaces, they can be online, sports focussed, shared common interests or faith-based. It is where people connect and build relationships.

An example would be to consider meetings where we actively work alongside families to empower them and recognise them as safeguarding partners with lived experience or to recruit practitioners representing difference and diversity valuing their experience of living in or belonging to a particular community. There are examples from around the country where areas are actively working hard to reach into communities to work with them to identify their needs, strengths, and tailor funding around them, encouraging local services to collaborate rather than compete for funding. Other areas are walking their neighbourhoods to build and rebuild those connexions with people and to listen and engage with the people that form it.

Collaboration and connection enable us to not only find shared areas of concern but also identify common solutions and strengths. By strengthening these relationships with our communities, we will find the spaces our communities feel need to be safer, the shared worries, concerns and hopes to make communities better and safer for our children. By amplifying this and translating this into coproduced services, as the proverb says, our villages can work together to raise our children and through that tackle exploitation.

Some key points for consideration to support the work you are doing or would like to be developing in communities.

1) How well do you know your community, local groups, grassroots sports clubs etc?

2) How visible are you and your service in your community?

3) How do you work alongside the community to raise awareness around child exploitation?

4) Does the community know where and how to report safeguarding concerns?

5) How does the community actively feed into service planning, funding, and priorities?

Maria Cassidy

[email protected]