The point I try to make at my presentations is that any adults might find himself or herself in a position to do something about a possible risk to a child. All of us need to develop and maintain a preventive mindset.
What does a ‘preventive’ mindset really mean? It means keeping an eye open at all times for any possible red flags. It means being very careful about each and every person a child comes in contact with over the course of his or her childhood. It does not mean isolating the children from all contacts – it simply means to keep their personal safety in mind whenever they are in contact with others.
I found myself in a situation where I saw some possible risks to children and therefore I decided to act on it. That is the story I describe in my book “Father Figure – my mission to prevent child sexual abuse”. I was a friend to a single mother and her two young daughters. The girls looked at me as a father figure. My single mother friend started dating a new person. I noticed a couple of red flags and decided to do a background check on her dating partner and found some extremely disturbing information. That prompted me to try to take some actions because I thought the children could be at risk.
It was not an easy task – there were numerous obstacles I had to overcome to make it safer for the kids. Many people who have read my book have told me that they were surprised to see that I stuck to my goals in spite of having to deal with a lot of non-cooperation from various parties. But that is what a preventive mindset is all about.