What we do
Awareness workshops in educational institutions
Awareness is the first step towards prevention of child sexual abuse. To this end, HEAL conducts awareness workshops across educational institutions through its ‘Helping to Heal’ program. Helping to Heal is specifically focused on targeting middle and low-income schools in Maharashtra to make CSA awareness workshops accessible to a larger population. Through Helping to Heal, HEAL hopes to spread our reach to more and more communities and educational institutions all over Maharashtra.
The program aims to create a safe environment for children, empower them to protect themselves, and educate adults to create, foster and nurture a safe environment for children.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, HEAL conducts online training for children and adults, parents, teachers and non-teaching staff.
Our in-person workshops have been adapted to be effective and engaging in a virtual environment. HEAL is well equipped to conduct awareness sessions on video conferencing platforms for schools and communities. HEAL is very well-positioned to conduct a mix of virtual and in-person workshops as the COVID-19 situation in India changes.
The workshops for children in grades one to 12 are designed with the primary goal of providing education to children about body safety and body protection. Our workshops aim to:
● Educate children on what safe and unsafe environments, situations and behaviour are.
● Teach body safety.
● Develop a sense of bodily and personal autonomy in children and introduce a sense of agency in them.
● Teach children how to respond to situations or to people who make them feel unsafe.
● Generate a trusted adults sheet for the children made by the children.
The workshops for adults are designed to make adults aware of CSA and educate them on how to provide safety to children around them. Our workshops aim to:
● Generate awareness of what CSA is, how it affects children, its alarming presence, how it tends to occur, break stereotypes and false notions associated with it.
● Equip adults with appropriate responses in case of a disclosure made by a child.
● Train adults on how they can provide safety and emotional support to children who have experienced sexual abuse.
● Reiterate the idea of agency in children. Children must be empowered to say “no”.
To organise a workshop, click here.
Training of Trainers
We train carefully selected professionals to become trainers. As trainers, they conduct CSA awareness workshops for other adult groups, with close monitoring by HEAL. Once convinced of the quality of facilitation, trainers are certified and can conduct awareness workshops independently. HEAL has successfully conducted annual training of trainers since 2016, thus creating many CSA warriors.
HEAL conducts training for individuals, as well as for organizations that would like their employees to be trained.
To be a trainer with HEAL, get in touch with us here.
Training for mental health professionals
We organise training sessions for mental health professionals. As a part of this training, mental health professionals are sensitised about the underpinnings of trauma due to CSA, handling disclosures, and effectively providing aid to survivors.
HEAL conducts training for individuals, as well as for organizations that would like their employees to be trained.
To register to be trained by HEAL, click here.
Community-level workshops
We have also trained stakeholders in community settings like hospitals, clubs, housing societies and other NGOs to learn preventive methods and how to respond to child sexual abuse.
To organise a training session click here.
Focus group workshops
HEAL organises capacity-building workshops for community workers, counselling students, and paraprofessionals several times a year. These workshops are conducted for a minimum of four hours each and provide hands-on training on different and important aspects of CSA, using several methods like role plays, case studies and practise sessions.
To organise a training session click here.
Corporate workshops
HEAL works to help improve the overall mental health within corporations, as well as help instil a culture of positive and healthy sexuality. With a growing social conscience, many corporate houses are willing to open up space for discussions that impact the holistic wellbeing of employees. Prevention of child sexual abuse is a crucial conversation that engages and encourages employees to assume a stake in learning the facts and signs of CSA in order to keep children around them safe. In addition, many adults attending may have unresolved trauma of child sexual abuse. HEAL is equipped to deal with disclosures of this kind with referrals and other suggestions.
To organise a workshop click here.
Annual Stakeholders’ Conference on Child Sexual Abuse (ASCCSA)
HEAL organized ASCCSA in 2014, 2015, and 2017. ASCCSA is a platform for professionals, organisations and civil society groups working against CSA to come together to share, learn, work, and build on the earlier work of experts. You can find more information about the conference, recordings, and detailed reports here: click here.