Protecting youth : policy implications for youth organisations

Abstract

Child abuse is a phenomenon that may occur within any social or family context. Children may disclose child abuse in a myriad of manners and within a plethora of scenarios. Youth organisations are not excluded from this possibility. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it analyses the reality in youth organisations with regard to the practice and interventions when dealing with an alleged child abuse situation. Secondly, this study aims at presenting a draft policy and procedures regarding the handling of child abuse disclosures within the context of youth organisations. A qualitative research design was adopted by carrying out individual interviews with ten different youth organisations around Malta and Gozo. The choice of youth organisations was done randomly so as to widen as much as possible the spectrum of organisations working with different youth client groups. Due to ethical issues it was decided that the interviews will be conducted with the youth leaders of the chosen organisations and not with the young members themselves The analysis addresses the issue of child abuse in general. The study also focuses on child protection policy. It also identifies any experiences of tackling child abuse cases by those interviewed within the youth organisations. Training, confidentiality and acceptable and appropriate behaviour between adults and young people were other issues discussed in the analysis. The findings suggest that the leaders have an important duty to protect the vulnerable and it was clearly evident that such leaders found it particularly essential that a child protection policy is present in their organisation. Furthermore, the absence of training on child abuse matters was another challenging factor that the leaders found throughout their work with young people. Several recommendations were put forward to address the formulation of a child protection policy in youth organisation. Even though locally, the existence of child protection polices or procedures are not yet mandatory in youth organisations, it emerges clearly that such practice should be strongly recommended so as to help both youth organisation members and leaders work within an empowering and safe environment.